Most residents of Canyon Creek have a general understanding of what it means to live in a deed restricted community. That is, there are certain obligations and restraints on resident conduct that are designed to preserve, protect and maintain property values and the overall desirability of Canyon Creek as a residential community.
The Association’s governing documents, particularly the Master Declaration are not presented in a way that makes the community rules and restrictions easy to understand or reference. Additionally, the Board is empowered under the Master Declaration (Article 5, §4(A)) and the Bylaws (Article 5, §4(b)) to make, interpret, enforce, amend and repeal such rules as it may deem necessary or advisable in furtherance of the Association’s purpose. Over the years, the Board has passed new rules or provided interpretations and guidance on existing rules in a manner that would benefit from more structure. One longer term goal has been to organize the key restrictions and rules applicable to Members into a single, easily referenced and understandable document that is simpler to manage and maintain going forward than multiple standalone rules, policies, blog posts, or other ad hoc publications. The Association recently followed a similar path in streamlining the Architecture Review Committee’s Design Guidelines by documenting current processes and standards and consolidating many pre-existing standalone policies.
The Board is seeking input from Members on the current draft of a new “Rules” document. Rules in this document are grouped logically by content area. The vast majority of these rules restate existing restrictions from the Master Declaration and may include additional interpretive guidance. Additional rulemakings and guidance incorporated into this document include:
Limits on non-familial use of Lots to prevent homes in Canyon Creek from being repurposed as half-way houses, transitional homes or similar;
Extends the prohibition on commercial uses of Lots to include AirBnB style short-term rentals;
Prohibits entry into amenities outside of posted operating hours or closures and prohibits circumvention of any lock or badge reader;
Explicitly states that residents are financially liable for any damage they cause to any of the Common Property;
Consolidates all of the various landscaping maintenance standards published by the Board and the ARC over the years under their authority to set landscape maintenance standards per the Bylaws and Declaration;
Prohibits smoking, or any type of fire, camping or motorized vehicle on any of the canyonland greenbelts;
Provides a lists holidays during which decorations, displays, lights are permitted;
Restricts visible overnight parking of commercial trucks and vans; Garage parking is, of course, permitted;
Restricts nuisance barking, aggressive animals, and limits the total number of dogs and cats allowed in a single residence to six (6) which is two less than permitted under City ordnance; Allows for the eventual removal of nuisance or aggressive pets;
Addresses a handful of minor nuisance issues that have come before the Board previously such as vehicles obstructing sidewalks,
Requires that landlords provide the community manager or Association the contact details for tenants pursuant to new HOA rights under the Texas Property Code;
The draft is available for viewing here.
Please provide input in writing to board@canyoncreek.net or you may attend the next Board meeting in September and comment during the Homeowner comment period. Once Member input has been considered, the next steps would be to finalize the draft for review by the Association’s attorney and eventual filing with the county registrar sometime prior to the end of the year.