Neighborhood Notes

This post is to answer questions from an anonymous reader about the Hoyt Street Yards Community Association (HSYCA). It took a little bit of research on my part to answer these questions because I often get lost in legal language. You can read my original post here.

The original comment: "I would like to attend. I wasn't even sure what this "neighborhood association" is all about. You mean as a condo-owner in a Hoyt building I am paying into this association? Isn't that taxation without representation if no one can show up to the meeting?? Who controls this association? How large is their annual budget? Can we give input in another way if we are not welcome at the annual meeting? Thanks!"

Its not a neighborhood association in the traditional sense. The HSYCA was created by Hoyt Street Properties (HSP) LLC on December 7th, 1998. Its purpose is to maintain and manage the common area of Hoyt Street Yards (owned by the Association), street clean up, supplemental maintenance of Jamison and Tanner Springs parks, neighborhood holiday decorations, hanging flower baskets, security patrols, neighborhood promotions and architectural control of the member buildings (including signage as well as other services). Hoyt Street Yards is basically the blocks owned and developed by HSP and the HSYCA manages the common areas surrounding those properties.

When HSP develops a property the building it is automatically registered as a member. So if you own in an HSP building part of your HOA fees goes to the HSYCA.

All owners who wish to may attend the annual meeting. My original comments about attending came from uncertainty about how representation was defined. So yes, as an owner you can attend the annual meeting. Since you can attend it is not taxation without representation. Also, your building can choose to cancel its membership. At the end of this post I will include date, time, and contact info for the annual meeting.

The HSYCA is controlled by the board which is appointed by HSP. As described in section 5.2 of the bylaws, "The Directors are not required to be members", so HSP can appoint whomever they wish as directors. I'm not certain who the 3 board members are but I believe that Tiffany Sweitzer and Sue Miller are on the board. This is different from your HOA which requires that board members be owners.

Votes are assigned based on net usable square feet within a building. The formula is for each net usable square foot the building is entitled to one ten-thousandth (0.0001) of a vote, or 10,000 sq ft = 1 vote or 100,000 sq ft = 10 votes. Its up to each building as to who actually gets to cast the vote.

However, voting is kind of a moot point because, according to the bylaws section 3.3.2 "The Class B Member shall consist of Declarant (my addition: declarant is HSP) and shall be entitled to voting rights equal to the sum of: (i) the number of votes held by Class A Members (my addition: condo owners) plus (ii) one". So as long as HSP stays in control of the HSYCA they will always have more votes than the members. I would still encourage anyone who is interested to attend the annual meeting and voice your opinions or concerns.

I'm not comfortable releasing the budget for the HSYCA since this blog is not exclusive to members. All members can request and receive a copy of the budget.

I hope this helped answer your questions. Please feel free to ask more and be sure to attend the annual meeting.

HSYCA Annual Meeting
The annual meeting is Wednesday December 12th at 3PM in the Hoyt Street Properties conference room, 1022 NW Marshall. That's the Metropolitan entrance on Marshall. All who plan on attending should rsvp to Ajohnson@msipm.com.