Service Animals, Revisited Again

A recent edition of the New York Times Magazine included a rather lenghty, but interesting and (I thought) balanced article on the controversy surrounding companion animals.

The article addresses a number of service and companion species, including miniature horses, monkeys, goats, parrots, iguanas and ducks. The article addresses the Justice Department's proposed rulemaking respecting the Americans With Disabilities Act. As regular readers know, the ADA does not apply to most community associations. The applicable act in the community association realm is the Fair Housing Act, and it has many similarities, but also significant differences.

Because many courts and most owners don't draw a distinction between the ADA and the FHA, however, and because the issues in the article apply to both Acts, I recommend it to those who are interested in the issues. Please remember, however, that the article deals with the ADA, and the rights and responsibilities of associations and residents under the FHA differ greatly from the rights and responsibilities of providers and customers under the ADA.

Urbane Urban Turbines

The Blue Sea Development Company is building affordable housing in the Bronx which will receive a portion of its electricity from wind-powered, rooftop turbines. Ten one-kilowatt turbines, which apparently cost about $10,000 each, according to the New York Times article, will provide about half of the building's power, which should reduce the building's common area electricity usage from $18,000 per year to $9,000 per year.

This installation is one of many wind-powered installations underway in New York City, following Mayor Michael Bloomberg's stated support for rooftop wind projects in Manhattan.

Photo Credit: Rob Bennett for The New York Times

USGBC's Great Green Home Guide

The United States Green Building Council has a great web site, full of suggestions for homeowners seeking to save energy, money and to help to save the Earth. Clicking on the logo above should take you there; if not, the site is at www.greenhomeguide.org.

General Growth (Or the Lack Thereof)

Saturday's online Salt Lake Tribune included a reprint of an article from the Wall Street Journal from several weeks ago, regarding the developer [?] of the site that used to be the Cottonwood Mall. It appears that the developer will be giving us more progress in the form of another vacant lot. Perhaps that's better than a vacant mall.

Yet another condominium project being put on hold for a while.

Not exactly cutting edge, but since the Tribune's running this old story, and because I missed it, you may have as well.

We're Number One!

The new Census reports are out, and Utah leads the nation in growth.

That's good and bad news, of course. Good news in that it indicates that there will be a continued need for housing; bad news in that there will be a continued need for housing.

Most of the growth, not surprisingly, comes in small packages. 64 percent of the state's growth in the last year comes from "natural increase" -- births minus deaths.

The Governor's Office of Planning and Development has predicted that at current growth rates, there will be no farmland in Davis County be 2020. And more residents mean more roads, more traffic, more pollution, and more consumers of our state's limited water resources.

Needless to say, it's time to support wise land use decisions.

Upcoming Seminars

On February 19, I'll be teaching a seminar for NBI, Legal Aspects of Condominium Development and Homeowners' Associations. My topics will include:

SMOOTH OPERATION, MANAGEMENT AND CONVERSIONS
1:00 - 2:00, Lincoln W. Hobbs

Understanding the Concept of Initial Consent of Homeowners' Associations
Resolving Conflicts Between Governmental Rules and Association Rules
Maintenance and Improvements
Rights and Obligations of Unit Owners
Meeting Procedures, Voting and Elections
Operation of Association
Management and Control
Setting Up Budgets, Reserves and Special Assessments
Fulfilling Insurance Obligations
Managing Conversions
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
2:00 - 3:00, Lincoln W. Hobbs

Understanding Who Your Client Is
What if Provision of the Governing Documents Conflicts With the Law?
Avoiding Conflicts of Interest
Determining and Collecting Attorneys' Fees

Karin Hobbs will be presenting with me; her subjects will include:

CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND CLAIMS AGAINST DEVELOPERS
3:15 - 4:15, Karin S. Hobbs

Construction Defect Litigation
Association Methods of Enforcing Governing Documents
Enforcement of HOA Rules and Regulations
Owners' vs. Association Conflicts
(collection disputes, use restriction violations, major community association renovations and repairs)
Association and Board of Director's Liability Issues
(business judgment defense, statutory and contractual protections, insurance issues)
Disputes Between Individual Owners
ADR and Other Effective Dispute Resolution Strategies
Litigation Process Overview

And, if you're looking to attend a seminar in a warmer climate, I'll be presenting at CAI's Thirtieth Annual Community Law Seminar. That presentation will deal with the greening of communities; the presentation description is:

Earth, Wind & Fire:
The Environmental Debate & its
Impact on Community Associations
Lincoln W. Hobbs, esq., Amy H. Bray, esq., Loura
Sanchez, esq. and Marvin J. Nodiff, esq.
Higher energy costs, regulation of greenhouse
gases, water usage and changing values
will all start to create conflict with existing
association rules and deed restrictions. As the
most local form of governance, community
associations are uniquely positioned to adapt
to this changing environment; the challenge,
however, is to turn obstacles into opportunities.
This interactive panel discussion will kick
off an ongoing dialogue, tackle hypothetical
situations and engage attendees in seeking
solutions to these emerging challenges.

More Risks Associated With Smoking

In case you missed it, there was a rather spectacular and very unfortunate fire at the Incline Terrace Condominiums last Friday night; as a result of the fire, 80 residents were displaced, and 39 units were destroyed. Here are some links to stories on the fire: KSL, The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News.

Fortunately, no one was killed or seriously injured in the fire. Unfortunately, a few pets were apparently not rescued, and a number of unit owners (and renters) were without insurance for the contents of their units.

Please, regularly remind your owners and tenants that the contents of their units are not insured by the association's policy. And if you prohibit smoking in the units, you probably ought to prohibit it on the decks, as well. (There is a conflict, in the various news stories, as to whether the association tried to stop the on-deck smoking.)

The photo was taken by Jason Denney, and posted on ksl.com.

The Collapse of Communism?

A community in Eagle Mountain is suffering from the business failure of Sundance Homes; according to KSL, the developer abandoned the partially-completed community, leaving the association in a mess.

KSL reported on the story yesterday; the story was not very informative, but the comments certainly were. I learned, for example that community associations are communist.

By this morning, for whatever reason, most of the communism references were gone. (A communist plot? KSL protecting its readership?) Anyway, the comment page still has some rather amusing and enlightening comments.

As Gas Prices Fall, Trash Prices Fall

Not that there's a direct correlation between those two. Rather it's the tanking economy that leads to less expensive (used) gas tanks and their contents.

Recycling, it appears, may be yet another victim of the economic downturn. As demand for new goods drops, so does the demand for the recycled products that those new goods are replacing, as well as the packaging that they came in.

This New York Times Article details the problem; the bottom line is that municipalities are back to paying for their recycling programs.

Don't let this bad news discourage you and your association from actively recycling, however. Low gas and trash prices should not distract anyone from the need to reduce consumption and increase conservation.

Please, Comment...

In response to this new layout feature.

The goal of the new embedded comment box (below) is to make it more inviting for you, my readers, to comment.

So, let me know if it works...

Will Litigate for Food (Again)...

Once again, Hobbs & Olson will be providing credits on bills to our clients who bring in donations for the Utah Food Bank; each non-perishable item will earn a ten dollar credit on existing bills. And this year, in light of the increased need for contributions, we'll credit up to $200.00 (twenty cans).

So, bring in the cans. Bring more than twenty. And if you're not a client, or you're a client without an outstanding balance, bring them in anyway! We'll be accepting contributions in our bin for the remainder of the year...

The Argument...

before the Utah Supreme Court on the continued vitality of the Economic Loss Doctrine (which regular readers know that I "love to hate"), will be heard on Tuesday, December 2, at 9 a.m.

Arguments will be at the Utah Supreme Court, 450 South Main, 5th Floor, Salt Lake City, Utah.

The appeal arises from a dispute between the Davencourt at Pilgrim's Landing Townhome Owners Association and the entities involved in the development of the project. The lawsuit involves allegations of serious construction defects; the development entities successfully argued in the trial court that the economic loss doctrine precluded most of the plaintiff's claims.

I won't get to argue to the court, but I'll be in the audience cheering the plaintiffs on. I was allowed to file an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on behalf of the Community Associations Institute. A copy of my brief is available here.

I hope to see you there. And remember, although the public is allowed, literal cheering from the courtroom is strongly discouraged.

Upcoming Posts

Regular visitors and subscribers to this blog may have noticed my uncharacteristic silence for the last while; I was more than slightly obsessed with the election, and then had to spend some time trying to catch up.

One of the matters that I have been working on is the Best Practices Manual on Environmental Issues and Sustainability; I also created and co-presented a seminar on "The Art of Creating a Green Mixed Use Project". I promised the attendees that I'd post the Power Point which contains a number of links to great sites; here it is.

Over the next few weeks, as I work on the project, I'll post some of the better ideas and links that I find.

Probably Not Coming to a Condo Near You...

One of the new amenities being used to sell condos in the New York Metropolitan area are wine cellars, located both within the Units themselves, and in what appears to be a limited common storage area.

This article in the New York Times describes the limited common areas:

Designed by Cellarworks, a local company, the $500,000 U-shaped space will provide a mahogany cabinet free of charge to nearly every resident, though larger apartments will get larger cabinets, Mr. Manton said.

Whether you use it to store wine or not, that mahogany cabinet sure puts the classic cubicle with a plywood door and a master lock to shame.

Then again, these condos start at 1.5 million.

Yes You Can!....

turn your sprinklers off for the year, that is.

According to the Utah State Division of Water Resources, Northern Utah residents can stop watering in October.

You may want to keep an eye on the temperature, because it has been unseasonably hot this Summer, but I think it's still safe to cut your time and frequency way, way back.

Mistakes Boards Make...

Is the topic for the Utah Chapter's Managers' Munch this Friday. Two other lawyers (John Morris and Peter Harrison) will be joining me on a panel to discuss what we see as the nine most common mistakes made by association boards.

I'll follow up my comments with postings on this blog, but if you don't want to wait, and/or if you want to see what John and Peter think, you ought to join us. The meetings are at the Cottonwood Club, and the food is usually pretty good. Register here, if you're interested.

Garage Condos -- Coming Soon?

A company called Garage Town USA, which has developed garage condominiums in several western states, including Idaho, is reporting that their franchises have been approved in Utah.


I'm going to try to get my hands on a declaration, since I'd be interested to see a declaration that presumably prohibits residential uses, encourages the parking of cars, and encourages business uses. Those conditions obviously exist in commercial condominiums, but they aren't typically marketed to individuals and families.

Deal, or No Deal?

Probably better to take the deal, according to a study summarized here in the New York Times.

According to the article, "most of the plaintiffs who decided to pass up a settlement offer and went to trial ended up getting less money than if they had taken that offer."

One of the more interesting statements in the article was the assertion that lawyers may be inclined to discourage settlement, in light of the potential loss of revenue.

(What?!?!? Who said that!)

"Playing With Fire"...

An article that I just wrote with that title, dealing with avoiding lawsuits, has just been published in the September/October issue of Common Ground magazine. Members of CAI can read the article here. Nonmembers of CAI can join here. Or, you can get a subscription to Common Ground here.

Then again, if you'd rather hear about how to avoid lawsuits, you can keep an eye out for courses at our Community Learning Center, where we'll cover this material, and more, over the next several months.

Mark Your Calendar...

for the Utah Chapter of CAI's 2008 Trade Show.

Hobbs & Olson and utahcondolaw.com are both proud sponsors, and I will be discussing environmental issues, and participating on the legal panel.

Admission is free for chapter members, and there will be prizes!

For more details, visit the
Utah Chapter website.