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For several years, I’ve been on the board of my neighborhood’s association. While some of the faces have changed, those of us elected have served with a spirit of community and cooperation. As a result, life has been as peaceful as possible in the place we call home.
Unfortunately, things aren’t nearly as peaceful in some other areas of Cherokee County. And much of the blame has been placed on an HOA (Home Owners Association) or a POA (Property Owners Association).
Over the last several months, I met with David Grimes of the Wells Lake subdivision in Bellview several times; there are three interviews still on my phone with more than four hours of conversation. I met with several of his neighbors. And I met with the gravel road expert who was hired to fix his street.
I also looked through dozens of documents and photos. I checked out state statutes, chatted with a lawyer and talked with people at different levels of government.
What I discovered is it can be incredibly difficult to contest decisions made by your HOA/POA that you don’t think are in your best interests. That’s a big reason why I assigned a staff correspondent to write a front-page report on the subject, which was published in the March 8 edition of the Cherokee Scout. But there’s still much more to say about an issue that affects thousands.
After visiting Wells Lake firsthand, I can confidently say the condition of Grimes’ road would not be acceptable in my neighborhood. And the culverts were a mess.
His situation isn’t particularly unusual across the county. From time to time, someone calls the Scout to complain about what the leaders in their neighborhood association are doing. We try to help, but most of the time it’s simply one person’s word against another’s, making it difficult to ascertain the truth. Answer this week’s poll question to let us know about your experience.
There are dozens of HOA/POAs big and small spread across Cherokee County, largely because the county doesn’t have any land-use restrictions whatsoever. Some of us don’t want to make the biggest financial investment of our life – our home – and then take a chance that a pig lagoon, rooster coop, asphalt plant, toxic chemical storage facility or crypto mine will move in next door, destroying our property values along with our quality of life.
That means if our county had even a very modest land-use plan – one that just limits high-impact industries, as defined by us – we could both protect our individual property rights as well as keep out elements that would not be good neighbors. As a result, there wouldn’t be a need for many new HOA/POAs in the future.
After months of consideration and debate, the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners finally approved a resolution to create such a planning board on March 6. One commissioner – Dr. Dan Eichenbaum, a fierce opponent of zoning – said in a statement, “My goal is to create a shield that will prevent the loss of individual liberties and protect our way of life.”
That makes way too much sense to ignore any longer. Residents who live near the ANKR unenclosed crypto mine on Harshaw Road in Murphy have lost too much already. And residents like Grimes, who feel underserved by their HOA/POA, to put it lightly, could feel more confident that their home investments would be protected if they decided to relocate to another area outside of an association.
Life in general can be difficult enough without having sharp disputes with neighbors, and what’s happened in Wells Lake has made some residents understandably angry, bitter and frustrated. My hope is that all neighbors in turmoil will find a way to come together on common ground; but since that can’t always happen, changes to state laws are needed to give every resident of a HOA/POA a fair shot at being heard.
David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. You can reach him by phone, 837-5122; email, dbrown@cherokeescout.com; or on Twitter @daviddBstroh.