Anyone Live on Tomohawk Trail West?

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http

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"So it is a matter of personal sacrifice for the benefit of my kids and also keeping the drive time down to work for my hubby. I would have loved the one in St. Leonard, big piece of land, needed more work but no HOA, so overall my belief is still the same, but the situation I have been dealt requires having to sacrifice some of it to get what I want for the rest of my family."

Sacrifice? I don't think you get it, but that's ok. The sum total is that you'll be forced to buy inside one and you'll come around anyway and realize how HOAs are beneficial, why everyone loves them, and why they are strategically built around your great schools and short driving distances to work and play; all of this unless you really miss your day glo purple siding, then you just sh!t out of luck.

Welcome to the dark side.
 
Dymphna

Dymphna

Loyalty, Friendship, Love
Originally posted by Kirsten
My dad and I had a long discussion about the similarities in HOA charters to the bylaws and zoning laws that towns enforce or don't up here.
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This could explain why you have no HOA's up there, you actually have towns. There are very, very few incorporated towns here. I think there are 2 in Charles Co, and one in St. M's. I don't know about Calvert, I'd guess one, maybe 2. In lieu of having towns with their zoning laws, we have HOA's.
 
H

http

New Member
Originally posted by cmcdanal
This could explain why you have no HOA's up there, you actually have towns. There are very, very few incorporated towns here. I think there are 2 in Charles Co, and one in St. M's. I don't know about Calvert, I'd guess one, maybe 2. In lieu of having towns with their zoning laws, we have HOA's.
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Huh? So you're saying HOAs don't exist in Washington DC, Annapolis or Old Town?
 
Dymphna

Dymphna

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Originally posted by http
Huh? So you're saying HOAs don't exist in Washington DC, Annapolis or Old Town?
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I was referring to So. MD.

DC only has one level of government zoning regulation, not a state, then county, then town level, so HOA's can and do exist to pick up the slack and give areas their own identity. I can't speak to the other two areas mentioned, but my guess is that in some cases, it's more a matter of "historic districts" and areas that are not actually within the incorporated area of the town.

As Kirsten pointed out, most of the "covenents" would be zoning laws in areas subject to a town government.

My in-laws live in an HOA and an incorporated town at the same time, but the HOA has few rules, it mostly maintains the common grounds, the town tells them how they can build their fences and sheds, the HOA doesn't need to.
 
Kirsten

Kirsten

New Member
cmcdanal I think you have hit the problem here. For me your HOA's are equivalent to town governments up here. Now most of them up here are very relaxed. But it sounds like a lot of the HOA's are like the town governments of East Longmeadow and Hamden up here which unless you are independently wealthy and like to have someone knowing ALL your business you don't move there because they crawl into your life with a microscope.

Now the problem is that is the only type of HOA that has ever been described to me, very rarely have I heard of an HOA that isn't like that.

Heck one of the Realtors I was talking to told me that her HOA had the right to tell her she had one too many dogs, 2 young labs and an older beagle mix, and that if she didn't do something soon they would have to fine her. Now to me that is too much. The dogs weren't a nuisance problem, weren't getting into neighbors yards since hers was fenced or tearing up trash, barking at all hours of the night, or anything of that nature. However, their covenant laws dictated 2 dogs maximum and she was over her limit. Now I say that is a little extreme, and a little too in my personal business.

So you can imagine the image I am now getting of HOA's with these types of stories.
 
Dymphna

Dymphna

Loyalty, Friendship, Love
HOA's vary as widely as people do and probably more than towns do. Some are so relaxed, they disappear after a few years and some are extremely strict.

Where I lived in Frederick (North Central Maryland) I lived in a pretty strict one. They dictated how early in the evening you could put your trash out, whether you could install a storm door and what color it could be and routinely sent out letters telling you to paint the trim on your house. But, in exchange for that, we had 4 pools, several tennis courts, more playgrounds than you could count, soccer fields, basketball courts and they were governing more than a thousand homes ranging from condos to $750K single family homes. The covenants were 300 pages long.

Here, most of the HOA's are pretty laid back. The covenants in my neighborhood are about 50 pages long, mostly it includes really basic stuff. Mow your lawn, no cars up on blocks, no pig farms. The only reason the covenants are as long as they are is because they go into great detail about how to set up the Board of Directors, how often and how much the dues can be raised (not often and not much) and other administrative stuff like that.
 
Frank

Frank

Chairman of the Board
I think if someone were to challenge some HOA's on legla grounds, they'd duck for cover.

A few years back, the Ranch Club made it illegal to ride your motorcycle inside the gates. You had to park your hog outside the gates or find some other means to move it within the area to go ride it. As it turned out, there were only about a dozen or so motorcycle owners anyway.

Then someone noticed that HOA's across the country were getting SUED over this ruling - and every one of them LOST. Seems like it's illegal to make that kind of rule.

I'd say the woman with the dog probably has a decent case, although suing your HOA and continuing to live there probably isn't smart.
 
Kirsten

Kirsten

New Member
Well it would appear that I won't be needing to worry about CRE we are making an offer on a house in Bushwood. Not sure how strict the HOA is there but the payments are reasonable and we would be living outside the gate so I don't know how enforcable(SP?, somehow even being raised by an English major I am not sure if the spelling is right) their rules would be for us. It is surrounded by farm land, and it seems really nice. I am going to look at it in a couple of days when I can set up someone to watch the kids and stock up the food in the house. So I guess I won't be infesting CRE so no need to worry anymore.
 
Sharon

Sharon

* * * * * * * * *
Staff member
PREMO Member
Originally posted by Frank

A few years back, the Ranch Club made it illegal to ride your motorcycle inside the gates. You had to park your hog outside the gates or find some other means to move it within the area to go ride it. As it turned out, there were only about a dozen or so motorcycle owners anyway.
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It used to be illegal to ride from the parking lot at the gates of CRE to your house. You had to park your bike at one of the parking lots inside the gates and find another way back to your house. Then about 5 years ago they made it okay for you to ride anywhere in CRE on motorcycles.

It was a dumb rule. :rolleyes: The gates were a PITA too, but some people thought we'd be overrun by outsiders w/o them; which hasn't been the case either, since they were taken down. The entrances are much nicer now without those ugly shacks.
 
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Dymphna

Dymphna

Loyalty, Friendship, Love
Originally posted by http
You people are STILL talking about this?? Why?? Really, WHO CARES?!?!?!?
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Obviously YOU do, because no one has brought this thread up for 3 days, at least until you did.
 
H

http

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Originally posted by cmcdanal
Obviously YOU do, because no one has brought this thread up for 3 days, at least until you did.
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No I don't. I have a life, and wasn't posting on the 4th of JULY!!!!! I had better things to do, obviously you nerds didn't. What I do care about is making you idiots realize how idiotic you are for continuing to debate a worthless topic, especially during a holiday weekend.
 
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migtig

migtig

aka Mrs. Giant
Originally posted by http
I have a life, and wasn't posting on the 3rd and 4th of JULY!!!!! I had better things to do, obviously you nerds didn't. What I do care about is making you idiots realize how idiotic you are for continuing to debate a worthless topic, especially during a holiday weekend.
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You are being extremely antagonistic and hostile there http. Was it really necessary to call people nerds, and idoits?! BTW I have a life and I was posting this weekend too. :shrug: I don't see anywhere on here anybody attacking you, so why are you being so rude? :confused:
 
H

http

New Member
Originally posted by migtig
You are being extremely antagonistic and hostile there http. Was it really necessary to call people nerds, and idoits?! BTW I have a life and I was posting this weekend too. :shrug: I don't see anywhere on here anybody attacking you, so why are you being so rude? :confused:
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Sorry, the erroneous assumption framed in BOLD ALLCAPS irked me. I take "nerds" and "idiots" back. I still think the topic has gotten completely retarded though.
 
migtig

migtig

aka Mrs. Giant
Originally posted by http
Sorry, the erroneous assumption framed in BOLD ALLCAPS irked me. I take "nerds" and "idiots" back. I still think the topic has gotten completely retarded though.
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The majority of the topics/threads get off subject. No big deal and no reason to take it personal.
 
H

http

New Member
Originally posted by migtig
The majority of the topics/threads get off subject. No big deal and no reason to take it personal.
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I didn't say it was off topic, I said it was retarded. And I know, I shouldn't take it personally. Now please stop, and let me go (sniff, sniff). Youyrve mackinmg mee feeill hoarrribal!!!!!!!!! :cry:
 
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