Is this legal? To answer this question, one needs to know the status of all involved.

There are three participants here. The first are the property owners of personal homes in the FireRock community which include single family, villas and condominiums. Basically, all owners who own title to their real estate. The second participant is FireRock Country Club, which is a privately owned business for profit. The third participant is the Home Owners Association (HOA) that serves the community. All three parties mentioned operate independently of each other.

Owners of this private country club campaigned together to petition the FireRock HOA to amend the CC&Rs to add a new Section 9 to Article 3. This petition is requiring the HOA must, “automatically grant a Community Membership for this private country club” and assess a permanent fee to individual properties that is subject to a 5% yearly increase. This fee is on top of the current assessment and will be transferred from the FireRock HOA to the privately owned country club, FireRock. The purpose of this fee transfer is to expand and modernize the club and build the owner’s business.

The proposed Community Membership benefits are not free and not included in the monthly assessment. These benefits are available for purchase in the summer months only which include fees for golf, food, etc. They are petitioning the Community Membership will be mandatory and will result in a lien on property if not paid.

This is controversial because many residents do not see any value in the so-called benefits offered and do not want to increase their cost of living. The real winners are the owners of the private club having all residents and property owners finance their business.

The question remains, is this mandate legal?