Agenda - 11-21-2016 - D-2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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225 Patrick Mallett: That's right. I see it as kicking the can to some extent. I've come to Orange County from a private sector world and having dealt with developments of all shapes and sizes for 15 years. All over. In high-density areas like Cary and rural areas of the County. If there's a market for 10 houses then 10 houses are going to get built in that area because they're honing in on a school or an address or something that's driving the price point in that market. And it's a matter of do you put all of those together or do you spread them out and kick the can physically further down the road. That probably has a tinge of bias to it... Larger over lots lead to moving development further and further towards the County. Kim Piracci: If there's a big development it requires more homeowners associations. Patrick Mallet: Well it's pretty rare unless you're doing the other variation of subdivisions that we get being that are typically the 2 lot subdivisions and it's The Leda's Egg Ranch and Grandma Leda is subdividing to give the grandson a 2 acre lot. The vast majority of them are going to be the 5 lot subdivisions or the 4 lot subdivisions and because they have to maintain a private road they'll reform a HOA to enforce the road maintenance agreement. Kim Piracci: But that slide that you had that you showed that everybody has their own lot and the lots go to the creek and all of this is open land.Who owns that open land? Patrick Mallet: It can come in different shapes but basically the property owners association would own it or at least control it and they would maintain it and if it's a natural area it's a wooded area there is no real maintenance. If there's a pastural area they... Craig Benedict:They would have a 1/12th interest in that land. Tony Blake: Or shares in a corporation or... Patrick Mallett: Interesting nuance is that they could theoretically be smart about it and possibly explore a conservation easement or they could take a rolling pasture land and work out an agreement with a farmer and then they can raise grass or hay and then they get some income from that and the farmer benefits from that. Kim Piracci: So that County or the State has oversight over what HOA's can and can't do? Patrick Mallett: Well part of it is the regulatory aspects of the subdivision section about ordinance. Part of it has to do with zoning and that part of the development and when they come in to be able to get a building permit there are different rules that apply. We do record in conjunction with subdivisions things that are called declarations of restrictions. They cannot neglect restrictive covenants but they don't speak to things like you can't have a purple door or polka dots on the mailbox. Declarations have to deal with what their setbacks are specifically. Tony Blake: But this does bring to mind one question that I had. A lot of times subdivisions are owned by the developer until a sufficient amount of the houses are sold. I guess they would just be transferred? Patrick Mallett: Yes. Your typically subdivision has some magic number. It's quite often 20-30% of the homes get built. Tony Blake: So that leads to the second half of my question which is when we worked with the second fire station we had had a water garden and we had to deed and access to the County so that if we went bankrupt or something like that you guys had access and could come in and clean it and charge us for it or charge whatever. Is that same sort of regulation? Patrick Mallett: Sort of. This is kind of a better scenario because that easement that would go to those deeded septic systems. It has a requirement for all weather assistance and all weather access. So someone could get out there, through the field to get to the actual site and you could point to, if a system fails, it is definitively locked under the owner lot 1.The fines are directly attributed to that owner versus having the HOA responsible. 4