Homeowner's Association? Say what?

I don't get this:

/invalid_link.html

Kim Manilow writes: "I was wondering - is there a building code in blumfield like the one in brown and boardman?"

Lauren Linden responds: "No building code in Blumfield -- There is no building code in Blumfield. It is acceptable for the homeowners to take down their house and build another one, or a business. If the people of Blumfield want to begin a homeowners association, they are welcome and encouraged."


What can a homeowners association do that has NO power? I mean, if I have a 512 plot in the middle of blumfield and decide NOT to be in the homeowner's association, then I can still put 117 giant spinny Impeach Bush cubes stacked to the moon on my plot now can't I?

The homeowner's association won't be able to do anything about it because I "own" my land right? (Well, I suppose they can do one thing about it... they can talktalktalk until they are blue in the face, but that's about it.)

Doesn't sound like an effective proposal to me.

If I'm missing something here, please let me know.

Well, you're missing the point of encouraging residents to work together. And really, the point that you should get over to Blumfield and put up Impeach Bush signs as soon as land becomes available. Or signs like "Go LUFC" or whatever you can think of that would be annoying as all hell. I'm annoyed by clowns and deviled eggs.

A few progressive land holders could try to buy up all the plots as they come available until they own all of Blumfield, group the land, rent it out to prospective residents and make them abide by their view of Suburban Nirvana. Oh, wait....

how the hell could you possibly read my post and think that I actually want to put impeach bush, Go LUFC, or whatever other kinds of signs up?

encourage residents to work together? Yes, and all it takes is a few who don't want to work together to make the effort completely worthless and toothless.

Anyway, what I didn't make clear in my first post was that my primary response to Lauren's comment is is that LL shouldn't make meaningless, powerless suggestions to residents.

The only way to manage a sim in SL is to own the whole thing... that at least is an honest response.

It is true. Too bad the sim size is hard coded.

Yah, I read that and I laughed.

I'm suprised anyone bothers reading hotline these days.

The concept is nice, but I can definitely see SL-style entropy kicking in around two months into the experiment. There's already a three story "house" that's a front for a poorly constructed store, right in the middle of the sim, towering over everything.

It's only a matter of time before Blumfield looks like a bombed out version of Boardman. Kinda like how Boardman was before it was fixed up.

LF

It's not really about what you want, but what the right thing to do is.

I wasn't suggesting that putting signs up was something YOU wanted to do. I was suggesting this was the proper thing for any enterprising resident to do. Especially prior to the "homeowner's association" deciding to buy all the land in the sim.

Why did LL even go through the trouble of making the sim look like a nice place to live? Wouldn't it had been easier to just auction the whole sim and let the land barons slice it up. Its going to end up looking like that anyways with no building code.

Without anyone enforcing a building code it is bound to look much worse than Boardman ever did.

Too bad.

Yep, I would be pretty disillusioned if I were a noob with a home there and I had to watch the sim go to hell. I would feel as if LL had deceived me.

I can understand why LL doesn't want to police sims. They simply don't have the resources or inclination. I think Blumfield was a big test to see if given an opportunity, people would work together to keep it the way it is. But it's all random people who have different ideas. So it'll probably end up looking like a mish-mash. Which is too bad... because it is sort of unique.

Take your pictures now.

Well, I think the question is less will people keep it in that shape, but more rather do new users want a place that looks good when they move in or do they want a bare place like a sim off the auction block?

What would happen if we bought a sim off the auction block and dropped a bunch of frefabs on it? Would it look OK?

Well, I think the question is less will people keep it in that shape, but more rather do new users want a place that looks good when they move in or do they want a bare place like a sim off the auction block?

What would happen if we bought a sim off the auction block and dropped a bunch of frefabs on it? Would it look OK? Would new users buy it up faster than a regular sim

Could we sell the land at a premium to include the prefabs?

Interesting questions..

Actually you're probably right, it had more to do about the bottom dollar than any kind of sl social experiment.

If so, they should've made the land only available to avs created before 1-1-05, limited the lots to one per credit card, and made the land abandonable only so that it reverted to Linden-owned.

THAT would be a test to see if older, experienced residents could work together with a framework, but no building restrictions, to maintain a nice residential sim. New residents don't know and don't care. They're still getting their toeless feet wet.

agreed

Forseti, we all know that the current tools for group management and their relationship to land management are ... eeehm ... "a little bit limited", to phrase it politely. Of course the repeated suggestions by LL "so, why don't you just get together, form a group and handle it yourself" whenever the issue of zoning (or local government) comes up is ridiculous.

But admitting this would not be proper corporate newspeak, wouldn't it?

On the other hand, somewhere on the forums (can' find the post right now) Robin has promised to rework the whole set of group and land management tools on 2006 ... so, at least the hope remains ...

I say we (remember to) come back to this in 2006 AD.

Blumfield... one year later!

It's not meaningless nor powerless. It's already been done.

Now, if you feel meaningless and powerless...

What power would does such a homeowner association have?

Besides the player town of Neualtenburg,
is anyone aware of a full sim
(other than a single-owner sim)
that does have effective control over land use (building style, height, set-back, etc.)
and in which the residents have a right to sell their parcels (subject to those controls)?

These properties are sometimes called "covenanted" properties.

What are some examples that can be found on map?

Frank

Boardman is Linden zoned, I believe.

lol I suppose I invited a sweet little comment like that


I am aware of lusk, boardman, anshe-owned zoning sims etc, but the first two were LL-sanctioned and the third is a single owner where people rent from anshe rather than renting from LL.

I am glad that LL is revamping the group tools -- needed desperately both for land management, community purposes, and for the better ability to form business organizations within SL.

I agree Torley... be interesting to come back to this next year sometime.

Slate is an example of a sim with a homeowners association which was well organized by a strong and fair leader with a vision of preserving a beautiful sim for it's residents.

The land was gradually bought up by all the like-minded residents and placed into a "Group" owned association.

They all agreed on the basic style of homes. Any land put up for sale, remained in the "Group" and could be sold with the proviso that, should the new owner ever want to sell it.... it must be resold back to the "Group".

Meetings were held and all issues voted on and passed by majority rule.

There was even a free apartment complex built there with an ocean view, by the Association for brand new SL residents while they explored all of SL. And a Community "Freebies" store for any and all. And another store where any resident of Slate could place items for sale without charge.

thanks for the post crissy. Perhaps I shouldn't be so cynical on this.