The Case for Approving the Proposed Declarations Changes for the Cherrywood Homeowners Association

Submitted Dec. 6, 2019

THE CASE FOR APPROVING THE PROPOSED DECLARATIONS CHANGES

The Amended Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions for the Association are a very modest update to our existing covenants. Please see the Cherrywood Attorney’s letter to homeowners at tinyurl.com/cherrywoodhoa for the notice sent last year.
The proposed Amended Declaration addresses the following issues affecting the community:

1. Creates a prohibition on the installation of telecommunication towers within the Association
   
2. Prohibits short-term rentals such as Airbnb and accessory apartments
   
3. Incorporates other restrictions on leasing to protect the interests of all homeowners
   
4. Improves the operations of the Association by enabling the Association to recoup all expenses associated with the collection of delinquent assessments. Without this change, homeowners who pay their assessments on time will continue to subsidize the expenses for the collection of delinquent assessments.
   

If these changes are made, the HOA will still have no architecture review or other restrictions that most HOAs have. These changes were prepared by our legal counsel (who specialize in HOA law) based on previous discussions and votes among Association members at our annual meetings.

The driving force for making these changes now is the County’s refusal in 2018 to acknowledge a unanimous position taken at a HOA general membership meeting to oppose Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) as well as any other zoning change that increases the density of Cherrywood. The County told our HOA attorney that the HOA could only oppose an ADU if it was so stated in the Declaration for the HOA. Hence, the initiative began in 2018 to update our Declaration.

The move to update the Declaration took on even greater urgency this past Summer when the County passed Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 19-01. This new County law removes the requirement that ADUs be at least 500 feet apart and allows second houses in the back yards of every single family detached home in Cherrywood. These second houses could be two stories or trailers up to 32 feet in length. Every single family detached home in Cherrywood could become a two family residence with a second house in the back yard starting on January 1, 2020 unless our Declaration is updated to prohibit these units. This amounts to rezoning your community after you have already invested over a half million dollars in your property in Cherrywood.

ZTA 19-01 will essentially allow the density in Cherrywood to double. These are not the conditions under which most people purchased their homes in Cherrywood. There will be increased strain on existing resources (schools, police, fire). Additionally, Cherrywood streets are narrow and without curb and gutter and doubling the density will mean more traffic and cars parked on the streets and courts further impeding traffic flow. While the County will consider the parking pad sufficient parking for another residence on the same lot, the reality is that the ADU cars will end up on the street when the primary residence owner chooses to have open access to their garage. More cars on our narrow streets will impede traffic flow and result in delayed response time and more blockages of large vehicles such as fire engines, trash trucks, and snowplows. During the public testimony period, parking issues were the main complaint related to the County’s legal and illegal ADUs.

Other negative points about doubling the density in our community that have been made include:

Environmental – More impervious surface to further tax our storm water system built for half the density. This will result in more flooding issues. Less oxygen- exchanging foliage and more cars locally will also cause more local air pollution.

Privacy/Visual – Your backyard deck or pool could now be adjacent to a new

residence where you formerly had more privacy while looking at greenery.

Noise - more people per square mile means more cars, more heat pumps and air- conditioning units running

Crime - likely won’t decrease. For example, currently if a stranger is behind your house at night, you might inform the police. With houses in the back yard, strangers in the backyard could be commonplace.

Declining Property Values - Most people moving to Cherrywood did so under the current zoning to have a little more space and less congestion than urban living. With overcrowding, these amenities will be diminished.

Accelerating Growth of ADUs - There is a risk that people will begin to buy homes in Cherrywood with the plan to build an ADU.

It is relevant to note that County Executive Elrich testified against ZTA 19-01 and even went around the County trying to alert residents to the details of this zoning change such as the ability to convert an ADU to an Airbnb after a year (https://montgomerycountymd.gov/exec/newsletter/2019/5-30.html). The Greater Olney Civic Association (GOCA) also unanimously opposed ZTA 19-01 as did the Montgomery County Civic Federation. ZTA 19-01 allows for drastic changes in the density and character of the neighborhood AFTER people have purchased their homes. Most communities with architectural restrictions will be able to prohibit ADUs by exercising their restrictions. Cherrywood does not have any architectural restrictions so our only option to preserve the current density of our community as voted at the 2013 annual meeting is to update our Declaration.

Some people have expressed concern that the updated declaration would preclude allowing relatives to move in. This is not the case. The only restriction involves setting up an ADU. A few have suggested to take a wait and see approach before passing the update. The problem with this later approach is that the Declaration update will not affect anyone

who already has an ADU so we cannot wait for a problem to develop and take action. ADUs are permanent changes to your house (especially second houses in the backyard) and are likely to remain part of the property in perpetuity.

All of the proposed Declaration changes benefit the HOA. A prohibition against accessory apartments is now vital to our community. Collecting signatures is an extremely tedious process. For example, the Pond transfer is like giving free money to every person in the HOA and there are only positives, yet after a year only a little over half the HOA has voted. At the current time, over 97% have voted for the pond transfer and over 80% have voted for the Declaration update. The Board strongly urges approval of the pond transfer (Parcel E) and the Declaration update (especially before ZTA 19-01 takes effect on 12-31- 2019).

(Lee Kidd, President
Cherrywood HOA Board of Directors)