§ 406.080. Property Owners' Associations And Homeowners' Associations., Chapter 406. Subdivision Design and Improvements, Unified Development Code, Code of Ordinances, Blue Springs

Owners shall form or cause to have formed a Property Owners' Association or Homeowners' Association ("association") in accordance with the following standards:

Recordation And Registration. The association shall be established in recorded subdivision restrictions and duly incorporated before any lot within the subdivision is sold. The association corporation shall at all times be in good standing registered with the Office of the Missouri Secretary of State.

Membership. Membership in the association shall be mandatory for each owner of real property within the subdivision.

Responsibilities. Common open space, subdivision entrance structures, or recreational ground must be owned and maintained by the association in perpetuity. The association shall be responsible for payment of property taxes on and maintenance of all common open space areas and facilities, maintenance of liability insurance, and other related duties of ownership. Upon completion of relevant phase, designated stormwater conveyance, retention, or detention facilities to be located on common open space shall be maintained by the association. In the event of failure to maintain such facilities to the standards required by the City or set forth in the planned development final plan, or final plat if no development plan is required, abatement by the City shall be authorized. Upon completion of the abatement and certification by the Director of Community Development and/or the Director of Public Works that the deficiency has been abated, the Director of Community Development and/or the Director of Public Works shall certify all costs of such abatement, including enforcement costs and expenses of staff time incurred in the remediation of the deficiency, to the City's Director of Finance. The Director of Finance shall cause a special tax bill therefor or add the costs thereof to the annual real estate tax bill, at the Finance Director's option, to be assessed proportionally against all lots and lot owners within the development in an equal amount per individual lot or lot owner. The amount caused by the Finance Director to be assessed shall be a lien against all lots in the development.

Establishment Of Property Owners' Association Or Homeowners' Association.

The owner shall file a declaration of restrictions and a declaration of association with the preliminary and final plats when approval is sought, setting forth the above conditions and other features of the association which has been approved by the City Attorney. The owner shall supply to the City Council and the Planning Commission a copy of the articles of incorporation and a complete set of the bylaws of the association. Said declaration of restrictions and declaration of association shall be recorded along with the final plat.

The City Council may require that, in addition to insertion of covenants or provisions creating easements and provisions for mandatory membership in the association in all deeds to home buyers, the owner grant an easement over all common open space to the City to insure that the area will remain open in perpetuity. Such an easement is intended to preclude development and preserve common open space; it may, however, provide (at the option of the association) for public access to, or use of, common open space.

If a development plan includes construction of a landscaped decorative entryway, islands, statuary or other aesthetically oriented theme or identity amenities which are to be located within an easement, the association shall be specifically charged with the responsibility for perpetual maintenance of such areas. This shall not apply to landscaping within the median strip of arterial or major collector streets where City maintenance is provided.

In the event that an association established to own or maintain common open space, or any successor association, shall at any time after development of a residential subdivision fail to maintain the common open space in reasonable order and condition, the Director of Community Development and/or the Director of Public Works or their designee may serve written notice upon such association setting forth the manner in which the association has failed to maintain the common open space, and said notice shall include a demand that such deficiencies of maintenance be corrected within thirty (30) days thereof, and shall state the date and place of a public hearing thereon which shall be held within fourteen (14) days of said notice. At such public hearing, the hearing officer may modify the terms of the original notice as to the deficiencies and may give an extension of time within which they shall be corrected. If the deficiencies set forth in the original notice or in the modification thereof are not corrected within said thirty (30) days, or any extension thereof, the Director of Community Development and/or the Director of Public Works, in order to preserve the taxable values of properties within the residential subdivision and to prevent the common open space from becoming a public nuisance, may authorize appropriate City employees or their agents to enter upon said common open space and maintain the same for a period of one (1) year at the cost of the owner's property served by the improvement so maintained. Said entry and maintenance shall not vest in the public any rights to use the common open space.

Before expiration of said year, the Director of Community Development and/or the Director of Public Works shall, upon its own initiative or upon request of the association theretofore responsible for maintenance of the common open space, call a public hearing upon notice to such association or to residents of the residential subdivision, at which public hearing the hearing officer shall decide whether or not such maintenance by the City should continue for a succeeding year. If the hearing officer shall determine that the association is ready and able to maintain the common open space in reasonable condition and order, the City shall cease to maintain the common open space at the end of said year. If the hearing officer shall determine that such association is not ready and able to maintain the common open space in reasonable condition and order, the hearing officer may, in the hearing officer's discretion, determine that the City shall continue to maintain the common open space during the succeeding year and, subject to a similar public hearing and determination, in each year thereafter. The cost of such maintenance by the City shall be assessed proportionally against all properties within the residential subdivision that have a right of use and enjoyment of the common open space, and shall become a tax lien on said properties upon certification of the costs thereof to the City Clerk by the Director of Community Development and/or the Director of Public Works.