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Broadlands to remain under developer control
The Broadlands Homeowners Association will remain under developer control for at least another year, according to Roy Barnett, a senior vice president for developer Van Metre and member of the Broadlands board of directors.
"We're in discussions about that now, but I don't see [turning over to residents] in 2008," he said. "Hopefully, next year at this time we'll have an answer."
Barnett spoke to about 60 homeowners who turned out for the community's annual meeting May 13 at Mill Run Elementary School in Ashburn.
Homeowners in Broadlands have long been anticipating the day when the HOA would come under resident control. At the annual meeting this year, they were expecting at least to hear a timeline for when Van Metre would give up control.
When Van Metre passes on control, the four developer representatives on the nine-member board of directors will be replaced with residents, and residents will have control over what happens in their community.
Until then, developers retain control over Broadlands.
Barnett told residents that Broadlands, a community of 2,700 homes, still has not met the criteria to be turned over to resident control.
Broadlands HOA President Cliff Keirce said the community is now about 93 percent built out. The original HOA documents were written for turnover to residents to occur when the community was 75 percent built out, like most HOAs, Keirce said, but a series of events has changed the original plan.
When the community was originally approved, plans called for 3,883 housing units, Keirce said. The 75 percent turnover numbers would have been based on this total.
But in the end, plans for the community included only about 3,450 units, he said. That leaves more than 400 units that will never be built, but the votes for those units remain with developer Van Metre.
Also, about eight years ago, the developer changed the way multifamily dwellings (apartment votes) were counted.
Instead of one vote per unit as originally written, the multifamily votes were changed to one vote for every 10 units.
Broadlands has 532 apartments, so instead of having 532 votes, the owners have 53 votes. The remaining vote count remains with Van Metre.
This means Van Metre will retain developer control over the Broadlands HOA until every single house and townhouse is occupied, giving homeowners enough votes to outweigh the developer, Keirce said.
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com
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