The PCA Explained
Dear Fellow Owners:
We will be responding to the Coastland “Open Letter” dated October, 21 and sent to all owners, in due course. The following message was planned for this week, as it is important that you understand the components of our strategy to achieve self-governance, regardless of the Coastland mailing.
When we speak with our fellow owners, it is very clear that they, too, want to remove Coastland Corp’s absolute control over Ocean Sands Property Owners Association (OSPOA), and allow owners to manage our own community.
Coastland wrote the OSPOA ByLaws more than 40 years ago to give themselves absolute control until every last lot has been sold. This provision cannot be amended by the owners, only by Coastland itself. Our attorney tells us this is the most one-sided set of ByLaws he has ever seen, and they would not be legal if written today.
We have found a way to fix this problem! We know it works, because Crown Point implemented the strategy in the third quarter of this year. As shared earlier this week, Crown Point was able to remove Coastland as the management entity on 10/22/16. Regardless of Coastland’s contention, their removal was against their will, utilizing available legislation.
The 1999 North Carolina Planned Community Act (PCA) defines how POAs are to be governed. But it doesn’t automatically apply to OSPOA because we were founded in 1974. The PCA does provide a way for us to change the ByLaws that Coastland wrote to maintain their domination. To accomplish this change requires the approval of at least 67% of property owners, either in person at a meeting (unlikely) or by written, notarized, consent.
The Governance Committee will eventually be asking you to approve this change by providing the required signed document. The document will stipulate that this is your wish (vote) and will contain just three provisions:
- The OSPOA Board will be owners only.
- The new Board will be able to amend any section of the ByLaws.
- The Declarations may only be amended after that by a 67% vote (so that Coastland cannot change them back to the old style).
We may also ask that you adopt all provisions of the PCA to apply to OSPOA, but will leave that discussion to a future email.
Crown Point has elected a new board and is currently in the process of early housekeeping matters such as opening a new POA bank account and transitioning service providers. They are excited to be able to run their organization in a manner that will enhance the livability and value of their development.
The Governance Committee is taking steps to increase our communication reach to virtually all Ocean Sands North homeowners (currently, we have e-mail addresses representing approximately 80% of the properties in the POA). We are hoping that, when the time comes, all owners will become engaged enough to send their written consent. We are currently several months away from sending out that solicitation.
If you have any questions, please respond to this email, at admin@oshoa.org. We will respond to them individually, unless many are the same, in which case we will do a follow up Q & A email to all owners. Further emails will follow as detailed in our email communication dated 10/23, entitled “Crown Point Successful in Deposing Coastland” .
With deep appreciation for your enthusiastic support,
The Governance Committee
Al, Chris, Dennis, Greg, Jeanne, Jim, Rick, and Robert