Condo Association Seeks Change to Homeowners Association

June 13, 2013

By Ann Wishart
Middlefield Village won’t stand in the way of the condominium association on Woodsong Drive converting to a home-owners association, but that doesn’t mean the process will be easy.
Diane Keenan, who lives on Wood-song Drive and is a member of the Wildwood Condominium Association, told council last Thursday the 10 condo owners are concerned that the rezoning of neighboring Phase Two on Wildwood Drive may be a problem.
The condo owners in Phase One originally understood the construction in Phase Two would also be condos and they have been counting on more members so they can negotiate better contracts for services, she said.
Phase Two would have brought the number of condos to 46, she said.
In May, developer Joe Svete spoke to council about changing the category of some of the not-yet-built 35 condo lots on Woodsong into single family dwelling lots.
Banks will no longer provide mort-gages for condos if the buyer is not buying the land as well, he said.
Council, the zoning inspector and legal council created legislation to make the change and allow Svete and builder Johnson and Johnson Brothers to sell two lots for which they had buyers.
Keenan said the association’s attor-ney has said the single family homes’ quality may not conform to the quality of the condos, which will lower the condos’ real estate value.
“I can’t address the bargaining power (issue), but I can assure you the quality of the homes (in Phase Two) will be comparable,” said Mayor Ben Garlich, adding he and council want to see the village grow.
“I want it to be a place where people and I want to live,”?he said. “If people don’t live here, they won’t shop here.”
When Phase Two was designed nearly a decade ago, people could get a mortgage to buy a condo without buying the land, which continued to be owned by the association.
But that has changed and it has put a roadblock in the development of Phase Two, the mayor said.
“It has sat there vacant for seven years and it will be vacant another seven years unless we do something,” Garlich said.
Andrew Mag-lionico, a member of the condo association, said Phase One is partly completed and the 10 owners have the right, under the association’s decl-aration, to con-vert into a home-owners associ-ation and most want to do so.
Village legal counsel Tom Lee said that will involve splitting up the property under the condos, which is currently owned by the association.
There will be some legal compli-cations unwinding what land goes with which condo, but that shouldn’t be a problem for the village.
“If you create single family owner-ship, why would the village object?” he asked.
Carving the association land up, including the common areas, shouldn’t be a problem if everyone cooperates. Surveys and legal descriptions would be needed, Lee said.
“I see no zoning or legal imped-iment,”?he said.
Maglionico said the declaration explains the provisions in case Knez Builders are unable to develop Phase Two as condos.
Svete said all members of the condo association have to agree to change over to a homeowners association and on how to split the lots up.
“Phase One has zero interest in what was to be Phase Two,” he said.
Zoning Inspector Steve Roessner said the lots have no minimum size in Phase One, where four units were allowed per acre, but they need to hire a surveyor to create a subdivision.
Garlich said the village will do what it can to help the process along.
“I don’t want anyone to suffer for anything we’ve done,” he said.
In other business, council voted unanimously to accept the planning and zoning commission’s recommendations regarding the variances and contin-gencies which then allowed the village to accept Wildwood Drive as a dedicated road.
The road is only 22 feet wide, opposed to 28 feet generally required, but council determined if Wildwood becomes a one-way road, the narrower dimension would be acceptable.
The right of way will only be 26 feet, while the norm is 28 feet wide. Council also required the developer to run 5-foot-wide sidewalks on both sides of the street for safety and convenience of the residents.