Why we need a homeowners association

Back when the Chesapeake Shores development was built, the developing corporation set aside a number of land parcels to be held in common. But when the corporation disbanded, the ownership of those parcels was never resolved. Right now nobody owns them.

Perhaps the most important of these parcels is the land between the tidelines. The owners of the beachside properties own the land down to the mean high tide line. The land below the mean low tide line, land that is usually underwater, cannot be owned by anyone according to Virginia law. But the beach between the high and low tide lines could be owned, but is not: it's part of the land that used to be owned by the developing corporation but now is owned by nobody.

(This is not the only common land. The roads leading into our community are similarly not owned by anyone.  There are other plots of land that are not owned as well.)

Some Mathews County officials would like to resolve the ownership of this land. If we had a homeowners' association, Mathews County could probably be persuaded to give ownership of that land to the association. But it's possible that in the absence of such an association, the county would give the land to someone such as the Nature Conservancy (as, in fact, happened with the inter-tide beach on the Bavon end of our shoreline). Any such organization might have its own agenda that would not match that of most of the property owners.

So the primary reason to have a home owners association is to have a legal entity that would allow all of the Chesapeake Shores property owners to own these lands in common, a legal entity that would represent our interests.

(Note that some of the possible approaches to deal with beach erosion could involve building on the inter-tide areas. To adopt any such solution, we would need to address the ownership issue.  That is why it is a concern of the beach preservation committee.)

Nobody wants a homeowners association that would impose architectural standards or any of those things that give homeowners associations a bad name. Nobody would be forced to join or pay dues to the association. But it could do some useful things: aside from owning the common lands, it could take responsibility for the common maintenance tasks that Peyton Carr has been kind enough to handle over the years.