To our friends, neighbors and owners of the White Horse Park Subdivision;

A number of your fellow owners have identified the need to significantly amend the 39 year old Covenants and Restrictions for White Horse Park. We see a couple of very significant issues that only an overhaul of the deed restrictions will address.

If you have read the current restrictions you are already aware of the many problems they pose for us as a community. (If you haven’t read them please do so) We’ll recap a few of the problems for you here.

1. Building and Use Restrictions. The restrictions are a horrible mix of both overly detailed and overly vague requirements on where and how you can build and how you can utilize your property. Remember these are in addition to any County restrictions. As individual owners you are responsible for conforming to the deed restrictions even if there is no committee to guide you. If any other owner has a different understanding of the deed restrictions they have the right to challenge you in court. The judge will decide which interpretation of the restrictions is correct, what damages are appropriate and ultimately how we can use our land!
2. The Roadway. In the White Horse Park Plat map, it is clear there is a road right of way that is approximately 50 feet wide and includes the current Freedline Drive. This right of way was designated as a “public roadway” by the developer. They tried to donate it to the County but the County said no thanks. So our roadway is in the murky legal status of a “public roadway” without public support to maintain it. Our responsibility to maintain the roadway and our liability if we do not is unclear.
3. The Roadway continued. And yet the deed restrictions REQUIRE that we collectively maintain the roadway. In paragraph 4 of the restrictions you will read we are all required to be members of a road organization that may or may not be formed and may be formal or informal. It is unclear if we don’t meet this obligation if we are more or less liable for accidents on the “Public Road”. It is also unclear how we should pay for whatever improvements or maintenance we should make. If, God forbid, there is an accident on Freedline Drive you can rest assured almost everyone will be suing almost everyone else. (Hope your personal liability policy is current and sufficient)
4. Clean and Orderly. There is even a requirement in the restrictions that all properties be clean and orderly. Since this is obviously subject to interpretation any owner can sue any other owner for damages if they don’t meet their idea of clean and orderly.

Do we really think all these legal actions are possible? Well consider the fact that if someone sells their property and gets a lower price than they want…and they determine its because their neighbors didn’t follow the deed restrictions…well that certainly sounds like damages to us. Or what if there is a fire and some folks feel their neighbors didn’t keep their properties clean and orderly and that contributed to their loss. You guessed it, damages. If McDonalds can lose a lawsuit on hot coffee you can’t really rule out anything.

Not only do these problems potentially effect the current enjoyment of our land, consider there effect on resale values. Can you imagine trying to sell a property that is being sued, or in a community that is involved in multiple lawsuits? Can you also see the benefit of having a well maintained private road with less dust, and better access? How about the value of reduced road liability? Have you ever tried to sell property with really onerous restrictions on how it can be used?

Although changes to the deed restrictions normally require a 2/3 majority there is a provision that once every ten years a simple majority of owners may change the document. It so happens that the ten year window is here. A simple majority of owners only needs to approve required changes by 8/1/2010. (Of course if we get 2/3 of the owners we can make the changes at any time.)

The attached Restrictions have been drafted to meet two objectives. First of all we will eliminate all restrictive covenants on building and use. We find that the current County restrictions and enforcement are more than sufficient. Second of all we will establish a structure to manage our roadway in a fashion that limits liability, promotes enjoyment of the property and greatly enhances the resale value of individual properties.

That’s it! Please read the draft restrictions attached and give us your comments. We are certainly open to changes that a majority of owners support. Please get your comments back in 60 days. We want to have a final draft out for vote by late summer or early fall. We have tried to write the covenants in a very straight forward fashion. However, we will have a review by council prior to the final vote.

Best Regards.

Please return all comments to PBCROMS@AOL.com, Feel free to copy all of your neighbors or any subset as you see fit. We want a good debate of all aspects of this document prior to seeing if we have majority concurrence.