This eEditorial presents a historical criticism of planned communities, dating from 1992 through 2000, by two political scientists, Evan McKenzie, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Robert Jay Dilger, formerly Professor of Political Science, University of West Virginia. The last material comes from a book by Donald Stabile, which was funded by both CAI and ULI, the two prominent organizations that promoted and mass marketed the legal scheme for HOAs. This commentary presents a homeowner advocates view of history that is not publicly known to state legislators or public officials.
Excerpt from Dilger (1992):
[HOA promoters assume that HOAs] incorporate all the rights and privileges embodied in the U.S. Constitution, including all the rights of free speech . . . and the rights to due process and equal protection of under the law found in the Fourteenth Amendment.
Excerpt from McKenzie (1994):
[T]he balance of power between the individual and the private government is reversed in HOAs. . . . [T]he property rights of the developer, and later the board of directors, swallow up the rights of the people, and public government is left as a bystander.
Excerpt from Stabile (2000):
[HOAs are] a consumer product sold by profit-seeking firm, a legal device, a corporation reliant on both coercive powers and voluntary cooperation, a democracy, and a lifestyle.
With this plan, TB50 [The Holmes Association Handbook] set out the plan that would be taken in forming the CAI.
Read the complete eEditorial at History.
HOA Constitutional Government 