Snow removal

hello:
I am on the Board of a newly opened development in Northern VA. We are still under the ownership of the Developer. That will soon change in 2008. We are re-budigiting and are trying to save money in some areas. One of which is the snow removal. In the past the Assoc. has, in addition to cleaning the streets also cleaned the residents aprons and the sidewalks. We are thinking og discontinuing the aprons and sidewalks. Our problem is that 1/2 of the community has sidewalks and 1/2/do not. Our dillima is, if we decide to stop the above, do we require the individual residents (which according to our County we can) to clean the sidewalks adjacent to them or leave it as a voluntary thing?
Thanks

Ray A

We face a similar issue (also in No. Va.). We are a gated "55 or better" community. The streets are not maintained by the State. Up until now the HOA has taken care of snow removal from streets, sidewalks and driveway aprons. Now the Board is proposing to delete snow removal from the driveway aprons and sidewalks. The driveway aprons are common property (not owned by the individual homeowners). I'm unsure about the status of the sidewalks. The Board attorney has cited our declarations which state under Owner's Responsibility:

"If required under County ordinance, or if the County does not assume responsibility, each Owner shall also be responsible for maintaining the sidewalk located in the public right of way adjacent to his or her Dwelling Unit..."

My first question is: in a gated community with private roads what constitutes "the public right of way"? Does that statement in the declaration even apply?

If the attorney is correct, and homeowners are responsible for snow removal from sidewalks, why and how has the HOA been paying for this service out of our dues? Is it legal to continue?

Can the HOA require homeowners to perform maintenance of common area (e.g. driveway apron snow removal)? In a community with older folks it seems unreasonable to push this work onto the homeowners. Will they next ask us to climb up and replace the shingles on the clubhouse roof?

Is there a liability issue for the HOA if a homeowner is injured while maintaining common areas?

The HOA is still under developer control with homeowner elections to the board likely in mid - 2008.

Any advice and suggestions appreciated.

Dave