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HOA Question Do not double park in front of your garage!!!

Discussion in 'Broadlands Community Issues' started by MyCrosswind26, Jun 25, 2010.

  1. boomertsfx

    boomertsfx Booyakasha!

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    humm, that kinda sounds like a bum deal to me... the HOA should get some of the money, for steering one company all this business... was there any competition for the contract?

    btw I'm not complaining about the towing itself, I just think this should be a chance for the HOA to subsidize fees :)

    Are there stats/reports being kept on how many cars have been towed, etc?
     
  2. Mr. Linux

    Mr. Linux Senior Member & Moderator Forum Staff

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    If the HOA would get money out of this, can you imagine the number of complaints we would have from residents claiming they were towed just to increase HOA revenue? We didn't decide to implement this to make money. We did it to keep our community safe and to stop a problem that was getting way out of hand here in Broadlands. MANY residents would call the HOA to complain about illegally parked vehicles on HOA owned streets. As much as some people think it wasn't an issue, our security company, HOA staff and other affected residents would tell you otherwise. Our security company would routinely note quite a few vehicles in violation throughout our community everyday. Residents knew there was no policy in place so they thumbed their nose when they were told they were in violation. Now that we allow towing, violations have gone down tremendously.
     
  3. hornerjo

    hornerjo Senior Member

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    Whats lame is having to walk your stroller into the street to get around some concerted jerk who double parked in his driveway blocking the sidewalk when there is parking literally 20 feet away in the center lot. That happened more times than I ever care to count on my street. And lamer still, 6 years later, that they have to ride their bikes into the street to get around cars still parking on the sidewalk. We had a neighbor a few weeks ago that parked 4 cars, 2 double parked over the sidewalk, when I swear to you there 3 spots open in the center parking lot as close to his house as you can get 20 feet away. They haven't cared for years, maybe they will now.

    I applaud the HOA for taking this on. Kudos to you, wish it was done long ago.

    :signsrockon:
     
  4. Capricorn1964

    Capricorn1964 Well-Known Member

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    Im with you on this. This approach frees the HOA from any conflict of interests with the "revenue" stream if there was one. I like the way the HOA handled this big time. They handled this in a very professional matter and very fairly. Unfortunately, the world is never fair.
     
  5. Capricorn1964

    Capricorn1964 Well-Known Member

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    I agree with you. It really annoys me if my wife and I are walking in the early evening after dinner to get some exercise in and find cars blocking the sidewalk. We would have to go into the street to avoid the cars but that hasn't happened here in Broadlands so far. In our old neighborhood, sure, we had to do that and finally the HOA in that neighborhood instituted parking enforcement because kids ended up having to go into the street only to be narrowly hit by cars speeding in the street. This is dangerous so if you park your car blocking the sidewalk at ANY time, you are in violation, period. END OF STORY.

    Folks, can't we let this entire thing die and move on? The board has made their decision and I am comfortable with it and it makes clear logical and legal sense here. If the guy doesn't care about his $150 bucks and considers it "a donation" to the community, that's his perogative.
     
  6. MyCrosswind26

    MyCrosswind26 New Member

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    I agree.
     
  7. mfhoss

    mfhoss New Member

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    To,
    Mr. Linux - Eric Bazerghi
    Your comments are harsh always in this forum - Mr. perfectooo!!
    I wish I never vote for this HOA election...
     
  8. MyCrosswind26

    MyCrosswind26 New Member

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    Do you know in Manassas, VA they tow your car if you fail to update your car registration on time or fail to display current states inspection sticker!!!
     
  9. MyCrosswind26

    MyCrosswind26 New Member

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    I guess I am not aware that blocking side walk is a big problem here in Broadlands. I am not denying that I am in violation but I think HOA should think of better way to penalize offenders rather than towing their cars. But if they want to keep this policy I will support them and I will make sure everybody in my neighborhood are aware of this towing policy.
     
  10. msflynn

    msflynn New Member

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    I am sorry you feel that stating facts and information is harsh. Can you please tell me exactly what was stated that was "harsh" as I think Eric handled this very professionally. I am not sure how else you think the board should handle and upset homeowner but by stating the rules and offering to look into if an error occurred by one of our contractors.
    At this time the upset homeowner understands the rule though he still does not like it.

    Staci
     
  11. Sunny

    Sunny Chief Advisor

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    i think it is important to obey the law. registration and current inspections should be displayed at all times.
    i don't like the idea of a contract with a towing company to troll our streets in the wee hours of the night.
    i also see by this post that perhaps you think that you might be above the law... so i am not supporting you neccessarily- just don't like the contract.
    i also don't like pulling my wagon around a car into the street. perhaps it truly is the people who think the rules don't apply to them who get towed. so there you go.
    for the most part my neighbors are considerate and i would hate for someone to get towed on the off chance they made a mistake- but clearly there are repeat offenders who are messing it up for everyone and i guess we need this in place...
    sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo this last post by crosswind has swayed my opinion....TOWING JUSTIFIED!
     
  12. Capricorn1964

    Capricorn1964 Well-Known Member

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    I'm with you Staci- I didn't think that Eric ever was harsh in his statements at all. Far from it. He was very professional with his comments...
     
  13. latka

    latka Active Member

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    How do you know how much time this poster spends on the forums?
     
  14. Mr. Linux

    Mr. Linux Senior Member & Moderator Forum Staff

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    It's quite easy:


    • Look at the number of times he/she has posted over the last 48-72 hours.
    • Look on the bottom of the main forum index page and it will show you who is currently logged into the site.
    • Additionally, we monitor site usage to keep unwanted users, such as spammers and other 'bad' entities from running amok.
    That's how we know.
     
  15. Capricorn1964

    Capricorn1964 Well-Known Member

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    I noticed that this site allows people who are NOT members of Broadlands HOA to be able to post/reply/etc...I thought that this website which is paid for by residents and should remain strictly for residents only. Why are we allowing all others to be a member of this website? Brambleton HOA does not allow outsiders to sign into their website at all.

    In a way, I don't like the idea of outsiders having to read what we type, etc. Its hard to keep the HOA and resident's affairs private when you allow anyone to be members of this website. To be honest with you all, I've had some people say that we residents are subsidizing other non-residents since the other residents aren't paying for the use of this website.

    As someone new to this neighborhood, can someone enlighten me as to why we are opening this website to anyone outside of Broadlands HOA membership? I used to belong to another HOA and they banned anyone OUTSIDE the hoa from accessing their website because others didn't pay HOA fees to be a member.

    Hope someonce can enlighten me.

    Thanks!!!
     
  16. Mr. Linux

    Mr. Linux Senior Member & Moderator Forum Staff

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    It's rather simple. This site is run by volunteers, and as such, the amount of effort needed to do a full check on each and every person wanting to access this site through a list of residents is excessive. Additionally, we would have to be able to determine when someone were to move out and remove them. Furthermore, what do you do about other people who live in the house but are not listed as the homeowner? Do we now tell all the kids in the community who want to use our site that they need to go to the Nature Center and prove they live here? What about spouses not listed on the mortgage? There's a lot of work to accomplish something like this and frankly, if we were forced to do this, the Tech Committee would probably not be able to maintain the site. This would also affect the HOA staff who would now as part of their daily duties, run checks for folks who come to the Nature Center to request a website registration. Honestly, that's a bit overboard if you ask me...

    Additionally, there is a lot of value for future and past residents who want to get information about our community, etc. We have had MANY current users who were folks looking for a community to live in and came here to ask questions, get a feel for what the community is like, etc. Also, when some folks move away, they use our site to maintain contact with the friends they made here, and many still feel 'attached' to this community even if they now reside hundreds or thousands of miles away. I know this might sound far-fetched, but letting outsiders access our site and get information 'could' positively impact home values in Broadlands if you ask me.

    Finally, our site has gotten a LOT of compliments from many other associations, including many surrounding ours. While our site is geared towards Broadlands, it has become a sort of central area of discussion on many topics for residents of Loudoun County. The statistics we gather support this.

    Restricting the site to only Broadlands residents would go against the sense of 'openness' many in our community feel about Broadlands.

    So that's why we run it the way we are. And since it's run by volunteers, the cost to run this site is extremely low, especially when you include the revenue from our advertisers (look on our front page, on the right). Restricting the site would most probably increase costs since it would require the time of at least one resource paid for by the HOA to maintain all the user records, etc.

    Personally, I've stated this before: if we were forced to restrict the site to only Broadlands residents, I would step down as a maintainer of the website, as would at least another member of the Technology Committee, if not more. Our time is too valuable to us and our families and cross-referencing user accounts with resident lists is the last thing we want to spend our time doing.

    I hope this addresses your questions and concerns. If you would like to discuss this further, please start a new thread since this is far from having anything to do about parking in our community.

    Thanks!
     
  17. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    And you'll find other sites started up because residents weren't happy with their own main site.

    No matter how 'private' you think a site is - never post anything you aren't willing to say in public or to someone's face. Once you put it out there - it's out there for all to see - no matter what your expectations of privacy are. Just don't think that way.

    And what things would we need to air anyways? Unless we were to switch to everyone posting by their real names, real locations, etc.. then there is little to gain from that. And as Eric said - no one wants to go through the hassle of verification and the loss of good 'entropy' in the system if you kept all outsiders out.

    Do you charge guests when they walk in your front door? I think said people are being petty. In general, we as a community gain and the site's value grows from good members - regardless of where they actually live.

    If we didn't gain from outside people.. maybe someone would have an argument. But generally you gain from an active, healthy online community.
     
  18. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    If Ashburn Village had a message board with as much useful information as this one provides I'd join it. Unfortunately it does not. In fact, it does not have a message board at all. So I am grateful for the opportunity to be a "member" of this one.

    This particular thread, however... I'll have to see what the Village HOA rules are. I read the newsletter every month but I don't know what all the parking restrictions might be. I will say, however, that I hope we don't patrol and tow cars blocking the sidewalk. That seems a bit excessive. It's too bad the issue got to that point, as I'm sure towing was not the first or second resort the HOA found and the board would have preferred to not have to deal with the issue in the first place.
     
  19. diana5869

    diana5869 Member

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    Actually the Brambleton HOA forum is open to people not residents of Brambleton. I for one am a member of Brambletonian.net. My family and I use a lot of the stores and shops in Brambleton, and I use the forum to stay up on that area of Ashburn since I spend significant time there.

    Before we moved to Broadlands I found the website and joined the forums. It was a great way for me to get information about Broadlands, and after reading many post, it was a factor in my family and I coming here as opposed to another area of Ashburn.

    Also, we are tenants in one of the townhouses, not owners, so I would not want the site to be restricted to just owners!! :p
     
  20. redon1

    redon1 aka Aphioni

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    brambletonian is NOT HOA affiliated- it's privately run. it's precisely what flynnibus brought up- an alternative to the HOA run message board.
    (not sure if you were implying that brambletonian WAS HOA run- I'm just clarifying... :) )
     

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