At-Home Businesses Banned In Lansdowne

" They say they're not "anti-family", but how about some more home businesses that would be affected by this policy: the music teacher who gives piano or guitar lessons to kids in his/her basement; the math tutor who helps students after school in their home; the list could go on. And while they complain about the traffic and noise caused by the 6 parents dropping off and picking up their children at day care, no mention is made of the incessant noise and traffic caused 7 days a week in Lansdowne by the numerous private landscaping firms hired by residents to mow their lawns. OK, Mr. Florence, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Amin, keep pushing your xenophobic, misogynistic approach towards the daycare providers and the gestapo-like tactics you'll need to employ to "catch" them - I'm sure people will really want to move into a community where big brother is constantly watching you over your shoulder. But I'm sure your lackeys Lair and Fallick and the rest of their child-hating group will do the job for you. "

" MaryJane, you have no idea how much more there is to this story. All the while that the board was supposedly considering all positions and performing due diligence, wives of two of the board members were telling their friends and neighbors, "Don't worry. Our husbands are going to shut down these daycares." And have you seen the e-mail on the Living in LoCo blog that Jim Lair sent to the providers in early January 2007, promising to work out this issue? By the end of January Jim Lair was standing up with the daycare opponents, making all sorts of bizarre accusations. I guess I would be a little miffed too if the board kicked me off a committee without any explanation. So much for Eric Florence's assurance in his letter to the community that he believes "the board and our covenants committee has acted in an open and honest manner and in good faith." "

" Well, it's obvious from reading all of this news and comments that there is more to the story than what is showing on the surface. HOA's are way out of control in Loudoun County. That is why I don't live anywhere near one. HOA's are not government, they are supposed to represent the citizens who live in the communities, not cut their throats, and ruin their lives. Now the power and greed has even reached the community associations. UNREAL ! "

" What is not being mentioned in the Leesburg Today, Loudoun Times-Mirror, or Washington Post's Living in LoCo blog is that on February 1, 2006, at the Covenants Committee meeting for Lansdowne, the committee "moved and approved that we require all daycare and other home businesses to register with Covenants" (page 2 of the archived minutes). Mr Lair (of the home-based business Certica Solutions) was a member of that committee. Why the sudden about-face? The committee all but acknowledged that there were daycare businesses in Lansdowne and took the position that running these businesses was not a problem, covenants-wise. Either that, or they failed to enforce the covenants. Now all of a sudden, they want to reverse the approvals given by a previous board in order to further their own agenda. As John Paul Jones famously said when asked to surrender, "I have not yet begun to fight". "

" Change the rules. Get together, and change the covenants. Is that impossible or something? HOA's are NOT the government. They people of Landsdoene ARE the HOA. "Ordinary Citizen" is not and should never be allowed to be a derogatory term. Read the rules, get a petition going, and change the rules. "

" So Landsdowne becomes the poster child for the new reality series, "When HOA's Go Bad". Tune in next week to see them raid basement classrooms and cleanse the area of home schooled children, and two weeks from tonight, watch them nab seamstresses who dare create prom dresses from their homes. Don't forget to watch Sweeps Week when homeowners can get tips on how to tell if their neighbor has a secret home business! "

" Full Disclosure is dead on. "I can't handle all of them at once, but I'm going after the biggies," Lair said. So daycares are the "biggies" LOL!!! But it's not about daycares, right, Jim? It's about the covenants. "We believe and will try and substantiate that having unlimited daycares sites in a community will adversely affect all the property values in the community." Some of the signatories went door to door with the letter in April." Went door-to-door sticking it in people's mailboxes. That's against some covenants isn't it? Good luck telling Real Estate Agents and Software Companies that they can't run a home-based business in Lansdowne. "

" It appears that the address for the Washington DC area office of a company called Certica Solutions matches the home address of someone named James Lair in Lansdowne. You can verify the information on the company's web site and the Loudoun County Real Estate Tax & Assessment web site. This couldn't possibly be the same Jim Lair who has declared that he will close down all home businesses in Lansdowne? I guess I have one more question for the Lansdowne Board. When can Mr. James Lair of Certica Solutions in Lansdowne expect a letter ordering him to close his business? "

" Residents of the opposing side and the HOA BOD have agreed and stated that home based businesses in Lansdowne would bring in non-residential traffic in through the community and impact their property values, but little do they know that the majority of the traffic coming through the neighborhood streets in Lansdowne are also due to 3 Loudoun County Public Parks located in the community, 2 public schools onsite, and a new Town Center which will surely generate more traffic coming from the outside. If the BOD believes property values will depreciate due to increased traffic caused by home based businesses that meet state and county residential zoning guidelines and enforcement, then they should also consider enforcing the following to reduce traffic and improve property values: Close all the Loudoun county Parks located throughout the community and privatize to prevent all public traffic from coming through the community. Install Gate & Guard access at all entrances into the community. Legally define who is authorized to buy a home in Lansdowne based on number of family (children) per household to prevent and reduce child nuisance in backyards and streets, and ensure that it does not impact property values if over a certain limit. Enforce and limit the total number of hours of outside play. Good possibility, limit it to 30 minutes a day, let's say 12:30PM to 1:00PM! Add a traffic and child curfew to 7PM; this will reduce the number of vehicles coming and going and stop all outside child play by 7PM. And the list goes on, get my point! The opposing party and the BOD in Lansdowne believe that if a family of 9 or more children, or a state licensed day care provider with up to 9 children moves next door to them, it will depreciate property values and interrupt their quality of life between the hours of 7AM to 7PM. I believe the same can be said about dogs, birds, or someone that likes to play loud music in their backyard all day, but this is not the issue and one can look at both sides of the argument and concerns made by the very few that live in the community are also unrealistic and don't believe that the covenants should be changed to better our community and provide a valuable and needed service for many families that live in the community and neighboring communities. They also believe that 2190 or so homes will convert their homes to day care centers. Wow, that would be a first in any community that I have ever heard of! As it stands, the BOD has decided to take the lazy approach and not change the vague covenants to address the needs of community. In addition, they have also decided to mismanage this whole issue and violated their own rules in how they approached and made their decision, especially when many of us know that they never took a neutral stance on the issue to begin with, and not even bring it up to the community to vote on. Furthermore, to this day, Lansdowne Development still holds 3 seats on the BOD, and they had given their approval to these home based businesses on a case-by-case basis as long as they followed residential county zoning guidelines and regulations and were licensed. So how do 3 of the 6 seats decide on the fate of 11 stay at home moms? Where is the Developer, Hobie Mitchell, who still counts as 3 seats on the Board who had approved this? It's also disturbing to see that this whole home based business issue is involved around Day Care, not the Pediatrician, not the CPA, or the Architect, or the Engineer or the Real Estate Agent, the Southern Living Rep, and the list goes on. Looks like 7 ladies may have a discriminatory lawsuit on their hands. Hopefully, our local and state political leaders can take the same legislation that was passed by the state of California and now in MD, to mandate and allow all residential based home day cares to continue to operate, especially since this is one business that is also classified as a residential purposeful use of a home. Think of the amplifications if nothing gets done about it, especially in No.VA. All we know at this point is that 40 home based businesses that operate inside of their own home will be given a grace period to shutdown or move out. In my opinion, the BOD has taken authority into their own hands and not allow the community to vote on this and many other issues that need to be changed in the covenants handed over to them by the developer. Furthermore, I see grounds for a class action lawsuit taken against each member of the BOD and Lansdowne Development for not adhering to policies and procedures set forth by the Bylaws and this in itself is grounds for dismissal. Home based Day Care providers are also professionals, just ask any provider for their resume, licensing credentials, and references. Yes, they are taking care of very precious children and providing a safe and wonderful learning environment of a home based day care, and today, their livelihoods are at stake, and as we see it, the HOA covenants no longer looks at the external facade of one's domain, they also look in it and now they have control of what one does in their domain. Let's put things into perspective: First major problem, there are very few options available for good quality and affordable child care in Loudoun County. Second major problem, most HOA's in the near future may, if not already, take the same approach and take matters into their own hands to enforce and regulate what Lansdowne has acted upon doing, limit a parent's option to choose a home based specialized day care environment for their children. In my opinion, families need to think twice before buying in Lansdowne since family based licensed day cares no longer have the ability to provide an affordable quality of child care service for a few families in the surrounding area. If families all over the country are thinking about purchasing a home in Loudoun County and they have a need for specialized childcare, they may need to reconsider their option and look elsewhere, possible fairfax since these day care providers are being forced to shutdown in Lansdowne. In Lansdowne alone, give or take a few, approximately 99 children and their working parents will now have limited or no other option within Eastern Loudoun to leave their children in a specialized and affordable home based day care. How do you think this will impact families that live in the neighborhood? Some will be forced to sell, some will be forced to spend more and spend more $$$ if they can find availability, which is limited. This will also congest our streets around the county and furthermore, Lansdowne will be known as a non family friendly community and it's now circulating to the blogs and eventually the Post. Many of these families who can't afford aupairs or stay at home nanny's will have no other choice but move out of Loudoun to find affordable and specialized day care. Now think what the BOD and Lansdowne Development has already done to property values in this community? At least this will take care of the communities traffic concerns, well, don't forget to add the gate guard, close and privatize the county parks, move the local schools out of the community, and the other silly covenant rules that were given to the community by the developer, which as we know, is a template that many communities receive during development and is subject to modification as dictated by the residents who live in the community. In conclusion, who would want to live in such a community where the developer and the existing BOD have mismanaged the HOA and mislead the residents in this community on so many occasions? Now they have the right to step over their authority, lie to the public, and make their own decisions that will impact the livelihoods of 40 + residents who had received approval from Lansdowne Developement? I guess it's no longer true that "What I do inside of my own home is my own business." "

" The reporter stated that most of the opposing group went door-to-door, well, that isn't the whole story. The 9 members who are lobbying against these day care providers also went through peoples mailboxes inserting there letters against day care providers. Something to note and keep in mind, Jon Falick, Jim Liar and others decided to break the covenents that they wanted enforced by going through community mailboxes and inserting misleading and insulting information about these day care providers, which is a Federal Violation and Solicitation, which is clearly not allowed in Lansdowne. So the fate of 40 + businesses or so reside in the hands of these 9 individuals who believe they have a right to break federal law and mislead the community by manipulating the facts about home based day care providers. Let's face it, if you are intimitaded by little children at your age, don't move into a community that has children, Leisure World and Del Webb are up the street and I guarentee you won't find any kids there and you can maintain your quiet and peaceful life in a gated and secured environment where no school bus is permitted in. "

" If people had taken the time to read the HOA documents prior to buying they would not be in this situaiton. HOA's can not pick and chose which rules to enforce. If there is a problem change the rule don't ignore rule. "

" What are they thinking? ARE they even thinking? So the HOA wants to increase traffic by having everyone who runs a business out of their home start commuting to work? Many businesses in Lansdowne operate without a single car coming and going. What about Ashburn Farm and Village? Will they start banning home-based businesses as well? Forget moving on Route 7 in the morning! And I guess this means Lansdowne isn't family friendly, since now all the kids who currently have mom/dad work from home will be heading out to daycare centers. Of course, the crime rate will go up without people at home during the day to keep an eye on the neighborhood. Do they have any clue how many people this will impact? A lot more than they even know, since all the business owners are hoping nobody notices them at this point. Let's admit it. The problem is too many cars coming and going at the home daycares and kids running through people yards. Address the real issues. Work together, people! Hmmm... I better tell the kids they can't do a lemonade stand this summer, since it sounds like that is against the covenants. "

" The HOA should be sued by the home daycare businesses. Don't let the HOA have the final word. Take them to court. "

" Using the logic that the HOA is using. In effect if "john doe" tax accountant does someones taxes while at home he is violating the law. If it's not written that way you can't be selective. You either say NO home businesses at all or yes they are allowed. It's clear that these homes are being signaled out because a neighbor is unhappy with the car traffic or kids playing the backyard. It's all understandable. A lot of people don't want these things next to them. It should have been written that way by the Covenants to begin with. Who is to say the guy down the street selling all kinds of stuff on EBay on his home CPU is not running a home business? This is all about someone not being happy about what is going on in the house next to them. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. "

" Mr. Florence states that no approvals were ever granted by the HOA Board of Directors. Mr. Florence's statement directly contradicts public statements made by Ms. Shultz, a former board member, concerning approvals granted to home businesses. Mr. Florence and Ms. Shultz actually served on the board at the same time. Has he forgotten her already? What strange bedfellows Mr. Lair and Mr. Fallick make. On January 4, 2006, Mr. Fallick "addressed the Board about neighborhood daycare businesses. Inquired how the Board polices these actions." (Mr. Florence was in attendance as a Board member.) I gather that the issue was turned over to the Covenants Committee because on February 1, 2006, the Covenants Committee "moved and approved that we require all daycare and other home businesses to register with Covenants." What really makes this story interesting is that Jim Lair and a few other current opponents of home businesses were members of the Covenants Committee at that time. When Mr. Lair was serving on the Covenants Committee and in the strongest possible position to enforce the home office covenant, he decided -- home daycare and other home busineses did not violate the covenants! And now, a few questions for the Lansdowne Board. How do you intend to enforce this covenant? Will you be combing through tax rolls looking for home businesses? Will you implement Gestapo-like tactics and ask neighbors to turn in offenders? How much time and money will you allocate to the effort? What will you do if a homeowner refuses to comply? According to section 55-513 of the Property Owners Association Act you can assess a charge of ten dollars per day for up to 90 days. That's $900 total, plus some attorney's fees if you impose a lien for unpaid assessments. Then what? Will you use my homeowner's dues to sue each and every one of these homeowners? 40 plus businesses x legal fees = a lot of money that would be better spent on maintaining the community. "