Our most important asset in SAEPOA is our common property, namely the roads we depend upon. Since our neighborhood is an airpark, we depend on them for more than just getting to and from our properties by car, rather the roads are also taxiways.
Last Thursday, SAEPOA held a vote on dissolution of the association, and yet we have no resolution as to what would have happened to the roads if the motion to dissolve had passed. This should be distressing as dissolution would have created great risk to the neighborhood.
Here are some issues with the roads:
- The roads need routine maintenance, this includes patching holes, cracks and soft spots. We also need occasional sweeping to reduce gravel and thus control propeller erosion on aircraft. No maintenance has been performed for a long time and the state of the roads, although suitable for cars, is not good for aircraft right now. Our current board refuses all productive work, unless done by “volunteers”, and thus routine maintenance is not addressed. If we dissolve, we should not expect the routine maintenance to be done by anyone.
- At some point, the roads will need repaving. There is controversy among the members as to how badly this is needed and how soon it must happen. Everyone will reasonably agree, however, that the roads will eventually require new pavement. We should expect that the roads will only be paved by an owner of them. Dissolution as proposed by the board was going to leave the roads in limbo, and you would have no knowledge of who might repave them — or if it could ever happen.
- The roads are taxiways. Should the roads transfer to town, county, or state ownership, the right to taxi could be revoked at will and this would effectively destroy the airpark. The board claims that our right to taxi would be covered as we are “grandfathered” in, but this is a high risk. Even in Albuquerque, local businesses were forced to close when a local airport, Coronado, was closed improperly by the Sandia Tribe who had secrety purchased the land and then used a public works argument. Similarly, a government could use the fact that airplanes are not generally permitted on public roads to end our right to taxi. There is a reason we collectively own our roads.
It’s important to realize that, if the association is dissolved, the current board will get to decide who they belong to. They could be transferred to a government or to any nonprofit (perhaps one in which the board is involved — but not you?). It appears increasingly unlikely that the town would accept the roads. Could our roads be “merged” into some entity that would then force our homeowners to pay for pavement elsewhere? Where is this going? Our board won’t say.
My belief is that this board must state the end goal for the roads. It’s entirely possible that we could agree on the desired end state. Based on that condition, we could decide whether the Association is the best path ahead or if something new needs to happen.
One thing is for sure, however. Many of us will not approve of a plan to let go of the roads with no idea of where they are going.
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