What We Are Doing
Legal Action
The CWC has taken legal steps against the Club West HOA Board because our attorneys believe that the Board has taken a number of actions that violate Arizona state law. These include, but are not limited to:
The HOA Board accepted the Golf Course “CC&Rs” (ie. legal rules for land usage) from the original home developer (UDC Homes and their successor JF Shea Homes) for land that the HOA neither owns nor manages.
The HOA Board amended the Golf CC&Rs in October 2018 in a secret meeting to make it much easier to get the new housing plan approved by a small minority in our community. Specifically, the Board passed an amendment that says only 400 affirmative votes would be required from our community of 2,600 to change the CC&Rs to allow new housing to be built on the golf course. This voting threshold is far less than the 1,735 votes required (2/3rd of homeowners) to take much less consequential actions such as an increase in annual dues above 10%/$50 per year or a capital expense above $10,000.
The new housing proposal that was presented at the January 2020 HOA Board meeting called for amending the Golf CC&Rs to allow new housing on a third of the course acreage, while keeping the “golf course”-only restriction in place for the rest of the land. Per Arizona law, amendments to any land CC&Rs must apply to ALL of the land, not just part of it, unless ALL of the residents affected have voted in favor of such change. In this situation, following the law essentially forces the home builder to seek approval to allow new housing on the ENTIRE golf course. Basically, this Arizona law is designed to forbid a subset of neighbors from voting to change CC&Rs that hurt their fellow neighbors.
The HOA Board is required to serve the benefit of ALL Club West homeowners. Their actions to “grease the skids” of a new housing plan that would harm the property values of many residents is a clear breach of their responsibilities to our community.
Future Land Use Options
The CWC has set up sub-committees to develop options and costs to re-open the full-length golf course or create a walkable open space parkland. Some of the factors that are being evaluated include:
Golf Course: Options could range from spending the minimum amount to re-open the course to a more extensive work to restore the course to the premier conditions it had when first opened in the 1990s. Options must also be considered and costs estimated to bring lower-cost canal water to the course, and/or reduce the amount of turf that is watered.
Open Space: Options here could include planting new desert trees/bushes, elimination of old sand bunkers & putting greens, re-purposing of the Clubhouse, keeping the driving range open, adding a dog park, etc.
The CWC plans to share all of these options and costs with the entire community and survey them for their preferences. Once the Club West community has decided on a course of action, the community could then work with the City of Phoenix to address any land use or taxation issues.
Fundraising
The CWC plans to organize fundraising both inside (and outside) our community to fund the land use option preferred by the community.