As many are aware we have witnessed an increase in property crimes over the last several years. As a result we have installed security cameras at the entrance and have researched Neighborhood Watch numerous times with little or no interest from the association at large. Over the last couple of days I’ve responded to text, emails, and phone calls concerning Stablewood security and the possibilities of having a gated community.
Issues:
For a gate or security to be installed and control the entrance, the SPOA would become responsible for the maintenance and up keep of the roads, drainage, infrastructure and easements. We’d become a private community with private roads, not public and not maintained by the County.
The Oaks HOA dues are $100 per month, with roughly 400 properties, they generate $40,000 a month for maintenance of common property, roads, security, etc The Oaks is semi-private because of the public golf course, but they are private after dark for all intents and purposes.
Section 4.18 The Oaks Covenants:
Section 6.11 Emergency and Service Easement:
Stablewood has almost 3 miles of paved streets with an estimated lifespan of 15 years. Based on the age of our subdivision, we’d be looking at a large capital expenditure in the next 5 years to repave all the streets.
Average cost of asphalt is $4.00 per sq/ft.
Estimate based on 22 ft wide and 15,000 ft of street is 330,000 sq/ft or $1,320,000.00
Gulfport awarded a $5.4 million dollar contract to repair/pave Courthouse Rd. The project included drainage and lighting infrastructure and was 4 lanes instead of 2 but the total length is 1.1 miles. (60 ft wide x 6000 ft = 360,000 sq/ft)
Security:
Swetman Security entered into an agreement with the city of Biloxi to provide uniform security for $15.50 per hours. If we secured the entrance, the recurring labor cost would be roughly 2 FTEs (Full Time Equivalents), 10 or 12 hours per day, 7 days per week or 4160 hours per year = $64,480.
Building a 10×10 guard shack, with power, water and sewage will be difficult Power and water is available but it would require septic.
A onetime cost of a security gate install would be estimated at $15,000-$25,000 with some recurring maintenance cost. This could probably be achieved with a special assessment and a minimal annual dues increase.
First step would be a change SPOA Covenants
Covenant changes require 67% to approval. It took five years to obtain this percentage just to change the verbiage on driveways since 85% of the homeowners were in noncompliance.
Based on current road conditions, I’d not consider entertaining this course of action until after the county resurfaces our streets in the next 5 to 7 years.
A dues increase would have to occur almost immediately to bank the cost of building the guard house and repaving the roads. Roughly dues would increase from $400 a year to $100 a month/$1200 a year or a special assessment of $20,000 per lot.
It is really premature to talk about any of this until the fact that Oakenshield is a public road is addressed. Gates to private roads don’t work when a parallel road is public.
Oakenshield Issues
The first property the developers acquired that would become Stablewood was John Dane’s horse ranch. The address for that property was 8040 Oakenshield Lane because Oakenshield was the public access road to the ranch. The acquisition of that property was the basis of the Stablewood Subdivision, and it included all of the properties in or bordering Stablewood Circle. The second land acquisition was from Royce Hill. That land went from Menge Ave to Oakenshield Lane. The parcel included the entrance, Stablewood Drive, Woodland Drive and all of the lots in the creation of that phase of the Stablewood Subdivision. There are at least 12 property owners who are not part of Stablewood Subdivision who have legal rights and access to Oakenshield as the dedicated public access to their properties. Before any homes were built in our subdivision, the developers of Stablewood LLC negotiated as a single entity with the principal owners of Oakenshield Lane to remove it as the public assess and instead utilize Stablewood Drive. Those negotiations failed. As a result, there are 11 Stablewood properties on Stablewood Dr and Woodland Drive that have legal easements across their property that guarantee the existence of Oakenshield Lane and provide public access to all Oakenshield properties. Until there is agreement between the 20+ property owners on Oakenshield Lane, it is pointless for the SPOA to make attempts to secure the entrance and make Stablewood a gated community. Stated another way, unless all those owners agree to give up public access and pay to legally document this change, SPOA can do nothing. While this issue is certainly of great interest to the SPOA, until the access issue is agreed upon and legally changed, the SPOA has no leverage, no authority and no right in any matter regarding Oakenshield.
Stablewood Property Owners Association 