Supervisors voted to approve the final subdivision map for the Blackstone Ranch North development, which is located on the north side of Robinson Street within the Lompa Ranch North specific plan area.
The project includes multifamily duplexes and apartments, and previously approved conditions also included the creation of a school site and a 10-acre park.
The first phase of the project includes 64 parcels and open space, and the second phase will complete the development with an additional 73 parcels.
Discussions took on map changes, a new sewer line, park access to the public and more but one topic was a sticking point for supervisors: the Home Owners Association (HOA).
Because the Blackstone Ranch North development is part of the larger Lompa Ranch North specific plan area (SPA), once it is completed, it can be annexed into the “master HOA” for the entire SPA.
Typically, HOAs function as a community’s management organization, and can be responsible for a number of things such as creating and enforcing neighborhood rules, maintaining landscape and shared buildings, organizing community events, and might even offer amenities such as pools, security guards, or snow removal.
HOA’s are traditionally run by a board of homeowners elected by the neighborhood, and homeowners may vote on items such as budgets, project priorities, rules for the neighborhood, and more.
As a part of the city approving any of the developments, a Landscape Maintenance District (LMD) had to be created which would provide funding for storm water facilities and drainage channels throughout the entire development, whether its Lompa Ranch or Blackstone Ranch.
However, the Blackstone Ranch North development is an entirely new concept for the capital city: it is a development that consists entirely of rentals.
American Homes 4 Rent (AMH) plans to retain ownership of all 137 parcels within the development, while the rest of Lompa Ranch is a more traditional development: A developer purchases the land, buildings the homesites, and sells them to homeowners.
The bigger difference between the two developments, when it comes to an HOA? Renters do not have voting power within an HOA.
Supervisor Lisa Schuette asked how the HOA would work given all of Blackstone Ranch will contain renters.
“I’m assuming [the HOA fees] will be covered by the renters, but will those renting have a voice?” she asked.
“We retain our voting rights so the renters do not vote with HOA, it’s AMH who retains that right,” said Michael Mistriel, Director of Land Development from AMH.
I’ve got one vote and now I’ve got 137 people to the east of me who have no votes, and one company that may or may not even be based in Nevada that can now influence my HOA
What this means is that, if the development is annexed into the larger Lompa Ranch HOA, AMH will have the voting power equivalent to 137 homeowners.
“I have a problem with that,” said Supervisor Stacey Giomi. “Because if these eventual 137 votes that [AMH] has can impact the land that we have publicly stated is available for the public … because they have 137 votes and can impact the entirety of the HOA and affect the public’s ability to attend the land that we’ve legally granted them public access to. They could literally shut it down.”
While the larger Lompa Ranch site includes a 10 acre public park, there are also smaller open space parcels within the Blackstone Ranch Development that, while AMH said will have no fencing and no way to or any intention to prohibit the public from using those areas, there is no condition in place requiring that those areas be public parks or public open space.
Until the annexation, AMH would maintain and be responsible for common areas, front and rear yards on the homesites, and open spaces. All of those areas would then be turned over into the HOA’s ownership once the annexation occurs.
“At our amenity area we will have a tot lot and playground area that we’re gonna be developing, but there’s no fencing or restricted access,” Mistriel said. “So anybody that’s walking by can go on the property.”
Giomi’s concern, however, is that if AMH changes their mind and has such a high number of votes within the HOA, they can fully privatize the neighborhood as a whole regardless of what their residents actually want. They could also vote to raise the HOA fees, but pass them onto their renters, or vote to change rules on noise restrictions, or street parking, or how many pets a resident can own — all of which could be enforced in the single-family neighborhoods within the greater Lompa Ranch development.
“My concern is how one HOA is going to affect another HOA that we’ve already talked about and accepted in an LMD, and now we have one company with 137 votes that can impact and override — like if I’m a homeowner in there, I’ve got one vote and now I’ve got 137 people to the east of me who have no votes, and one company that may or may not even be based in Nevada … that can now influence my HOA,” Giomi said.
This is not a nefarious plot on the part of the developer to lord over the master HOA, however. According to Mistriel, they would rather not be a part of the larger HOA, but would rather retain management over Blackstone Ranch and its open spaces themselves.
“We originally tried [to own the property in perpetuity] first and [the state] denied us,” Mistriel said. “Ideally we would just like to be part of our own HOA and save some money instead of paying the little bit more money to be a part of the master HOA.”
After questioning staff and the city attorney, it was determined that, while the plan was for the master HOA to annex the new subdivision, there isn’t anything specifically requiring them to do so, so it would be up to the master HOA on whether or not they want Blackstone Ranch to be a part of their organization.
However, if AMH ever wanted to sell the properties, there is a condition stating that there has to be an HOA and CC&Rs in place to do so.
“The only issue that comes into play then is [Blackstone] properties will not be depositing dollars towards the other common open space requirements,” said Mayor Lori Bagwell. “You’re still stuck with the LMD, so I guess it’s really up to the other HOA whether they’re letting them in or not, and we shouldn’t interfere with that discussion.”
The HOA will have to choose between allowing Blackstone in as a way to collect fees from its renters for maintenance of the 10-acre park and other amenities, but doing so at the risk that AMH could potentially control the rest of the HOA due to its voting power.
Changes to the map
As the second owner of the development property, AMH also made adjustments to the lot layout since the project was approved. The original project included much narrower home lots, allowing for houses that were only 20 feet wide.
In refiguring the lots, they increased the common open space by 0.06 acres and relocated a “problematic” sewer line.
The previous owners believed that relocating the existing sewer line would be financially infeasible, and so the original tentative map was approved with the sewer line extending diagonally through the development.
AMH was able to relocate and reconstruct a new sewer line that will end up either being under the right-of-way, or one of the open space parcels.
“So they were able to reconfigure it to make a more logical subdivision,” Heather Manzo, Associate Planner for Community Development said.
Phase one is currently under construction, with secondary emergency access planned through the planned Robinson roundabout and Monroe Street. Primary access to the development will come from Saliman and E. Robinson.
The secondary access was another sticking point for Giomi, who was concerned by the fact that primary and secondary access routes are separated by a single family parcel and a flood channel.
“There were talks about the alternative being Monroe, which goes down on the other side of the school parcel … but staff realized there was still one little section of Robinson Street which, if something happened there, if there was an accident or it got wiped out for whatever reason, there wasn’t a redundancy,” Mistriel said.
Supervisor Maurice White said that, even though the dedication of the developments roads to the city will be deferred, “I must stay with my long-standing objection of accepting the deduction of roads from developers.”
The final subdivision map was approved by supervisors, with White voting against.
