Tot Lot

Should be legal, the board is allowed to make reasonable rules for common area, those rules seem reasonable to me.

While I totally agree that it is within the rights to enforce rules and protect the children there; why are these kids hanging out there? Is there nothing more age appropriate for them to do in the community or is it all little kids or adults, nothing in between? Are they there because bigger kids or adults bullying them away from where they should be?

I am the HOA President here. This has been an ongoing problem with the teenagers. There is nothing else in the community for them because I have over $11,000 in back dues that I am pursuing payment on. With financials in the red each month, it is virtually impossible to provide the teenagers with a basketball court or some other means of constructive recreation.

I have provided parents and teens information on our recreation department, a free skate park, directions to local parks, YMCA, etc. The response from a majority of these parents is on whether or not the HOA will provide transportation.

A majority of the problem is that these teenagers are bored and need an outlet, the parens do not supervise them, and they do not want their kids to be involved in anything. I have two children and they have organized activities and free time, but I know who they are with and what they are doing. I know they are not angels, I don't know of any kids who are but these parents are truly clueless.

One of the teens actually burned the playground down previously and now we are having complaints of him throwing rocks at homeowners cats. Had the HOA been in effect with homeowners at that time, I would have held his parents responsible for the damages as well as barring him from the playground - especially since it was his second arson at age 13. Most of the problems we have here are common sense related, I don't think there is anyway to get through to the parents that unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated, playing in vacant homes is inappropriate, and property damage is a crime.

We do have a Neighborhood Watch in effect and I have the local police patroling the area on a more regular basis. I am hoping that the sign will be a deterrant on future vandalism, etc.

If anyone has any other ideas, please forward them along.

how about setting up some volunteers to hang out at the play area. usually, nothing bums teens out more than parents/adults hanging around watching them. Even better, parents with craft projects, paint brushes, polka music, etc..

remember, you don't have to make your tot area totally immune to teens, you only need to make it more immune than some other place.

Silly question: why aren't the tot's parents out there with them? I'm the last one to say that kids shouldn't be able to play in their own neighborhood without supervision, but this sounds like a situation where those parents should be dealing with the situation. Not every issue is an HOA issue.

Check your documents carefully it will probably take 100% affirmative vote by the homeowners to sell off a common area unless you're still under Declarant control.

Tony,

On your list of "impacts", add that the Tots will now have to play in the streets. Removing a safe place for them to play is giving in to other problems. If it is that the older kids are bothering the younger ones, then the parents of the young ones should take a turn at sitting for an hour to keep control of the older ones.

My developement had no areas for any kids to play so they used the streets and forget trying to use the cul-du-sacs because they were full of kids, little and littler. So consider other factors other than what the Board can use this lot for other than what it was designated for.

Tony,
GOTTCHA!! One of the impacts of course will be cost. Will it be effective. Just another thought.

I hear ya, but-

1) This tract is a large grassy area (maybe an acre) that's always been there and beside the occasional vagrant camping out behind a bush it's never had any appeal. And I don't believe some tot swings will make it more appealing to teens.

2) Possibly because there's really no close parking. Teens like to hang in and around their cars/trucks.

3) It's close to a well lit main road paroled heavily by city police.

4) There's a large city park across the way with many amenities.

I like the idea but we'll see what the committee comes up with and then maybe it'll eventually get to a membership vote. The way the market is now it's probably not the greatest time to sell the lot and not the best time for a builder either. Most likely we'll be sitting on the idea for a few more years.

I've never seen unsupervised tots playing there. Outside of watching their own kids I can't imagine anyone wanting to play tot lot cop. Then again ya never know. This is a good sized city with all the inherent dangers that comes with the territory. I only get one vote but if I had my way we'd do away with the totlot completely.

I am outside almost all day with my young children. There are 3 and 5 year olds walking in the middle of the street and all of the community with no supervision. I am the only parent out there stopping fights, etc. and when the parents are confronted, it is like talking to a rock. I hate to be the neighborhood NARC, so to speak, but a lot of the parents here just do not care what their kids are doing as long as they are out of their hair. We've ended up calling the police several times and now the older kidds are throwing rocks from the park up to the homes boardering it. We do have two town police officers coming through quite a bit now and they are cracking down on the kids. Hopefully if the parents are hit in the pocket with fines and the police are paying visits to their homes, perhaps they will pay more attention to where their children are and what they are doing. President of the HOA, or not, I always know where my children are, who they are with, and what they are doing. My children are not angels, but I do my best to make sure they stay on the right path and pal around with kids whose parents know where their children are.

we in our Tot-Lot have it posted in writing ALL MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY an Adult at all times, no parents no kids should be in that area. You must realize that if anyone is injured by an older child and no one is supervising them then you know your HOA or Condo now has a law suit and pray its not a serious injury.

As an FYI - we asked our local law enforcement if they would help enforce the rules and they said they would aid us as much as they could.

The idea of the police is to keep the teenagers and older kids from hanging out there after dark and disturbing the neighbors. This is also a hotbead for where gangs like others to meet them, so having asign staing it is closed after acertain time gives the police some help as well when it comes to securing an area.