About Three Springs
CC&Rs / Bylaws Update

February 25, 2025

 

Dear Fellow Three Springs Homeowners,

While we are obviously disappointed to no longer be the majority on the HOA board, Steve Kerman, Keith Honig, Craig Beatty, James Silverstein, Mark Teitelbaum and many others are still committed to continuing our work to benefit all Three Springs homeowners.

We continue to strongly urge a YES vote in favor of the CC&Rs
and a YES vote in favor of the bylaws that benefits you.

You should have just received the these documents and the ballot.

Please vote. Failing to get a majority of votes from households could cost the HOA (all of us as homeowners).

These documents are the result of over two years work. They have been prepared by expert legal counsel. They benefit homeowners in many ways. And they incorporate so much of the input given by homeowners.

These new documents benefit homeowners. They help mitigate a significant financial liability. They replace 40-year-old rules that are out-of-date, out of legal compliance and simply don’t benefit you. 

Summary of Key Changes

Here is a summary of key changes contained in the new documents (and why we recommend a YES vote on both the CC&Rs and the Bylaws!).

Vote Yes To Remove Our Financial Liability We have 11 drainage basins (Distillation and Debris Retention Facilities) which all Three Springs homeowners are jointly responsible for. The City of Westlake Village is preparing to legally relieve the Association of responsibility and $5 million of potential liabilities for the basins. The current CC&Rs explicitly burden the HOA (homeowners) with the financial liability.

Let’s be clear:
Transferring basin liability to the City
can only happen if we amend the CC&Rs to allow it.

You should vote YES if you want to avoid having to
write a $5,000-$10,000 check.

(Unless we transfer the liability to the City,
there’s a real possibility that every Three Springs
homeowner will have to write a check fund the liability.)

Vote YES So The Majority of Households Get To Decide HOA Board The new documents don’t keep a minority of households from having a say on the HOA. But they eliminate the yearly contentious election. It makes sure that when a majority of homeowners favor a change, it can happen.

Vote YES If You Favor Clear, Enforceable Restrictions for RV Parking Our current CC&Rs do not even mention RVs, and the rules for “other vehicles” are vague at best. The new CC&Rs have clear, strict, and enforceable RV parking restrictions – for the first time ever.  RVs will be allowed to park for up to 48 hours. City parking permits are still required. 

Vote YES If You Favor Restrictive Language Regarding ADUs We’ve added the maximum protections that are allowed by California law to protect the neighborhood’s aesthetics.

Vote YES To Simply Clean Up The Documents and Make Them Usable In rough estimates, here’s the breakdown of types of changes to the documents:

~ 30% of the c• Changes needed to be compliant with Federal and State laws;

~ 25% of the c• Changes that remove developer language that never or no longer applies;

~ 15% of the c• Changes that result in best practices as advised by the HOA’s attorneys;

~ 20% are c• Clarifications so that we can easily understand and follow the rules;

~ 10% are c• Changes that the majority of the homeowners have been asking for.

 

We encourage you to read the attached FAQ, review the documents, (you can also find a full redline and chart highlighting the changes on the Association website and portal (www.threesprings.org) and ultimately judge for yourselves. (Click here for specific steps on where to find the redline versions on the HOA web site.)

If you have any questions or would like further information, please feel free to contact us directly at markteitelbaum086@gmail.com. Help us continue to protect our community and enhance our home values.

Thank you.

Facts, Process and
Why you Should Vote YES!

Facts from those who actually know.

Because a lot of mis- and dis-information has been put out there, it is worth a brief recap from those responsible for this endeavor as to why the CC&Rs and Bylaws needed updating, and how that benefits YOU. And, yes, we know it’s long. But it is important you have the facts.

How we got here.

As one Three Springs resident put it, the existing CC&Rs are “older than I am. They are impossible to read, understand, are outdated, ambiguous and worse, conflicting.”

Over three years ago, a committee was convened that included two board presidents, an attorney, and a developer whose business involves creating CC&Rs. The committee work resulted in multiple drafts by Beaumont/Tashjian, experts in the field of CC&Rs, including necessary changes required by law and the City of Westlake Village, and reflecting changes the majority of the homeowners have been asking for.

These revisions are the result of countless thoughtful hours from the committee, community leaders, legal counsel, the Board itself as well as the invaluable feedback of 100+ neighbors from two Town Halls at a cost of just over $20,000.

Why do the CC&Rs and Bylaws need to be updated?
Because they’re broken.

Five main reasons:

Liabilities: The CC&Rs and Bylaws contain provisions that burden the HOA with financial liabilities that must be amended. Of particular importance is the responsibilities for the 11 drainage basins (“Distillation Facilities”) that the City has been maintaining since 1987 and just last year realized that they are OUR responsibility. Aside from the annual cost of keeping these free of debris, we could be liable for up to $5,000,000 ($10,000 per home) in infrastructure repairs that our Reserve Fund has never contemplated. While we have great confidence that the City is prepared to relieve us of this burden, they need to know our community supports the amendment by its YES vote.

Changes in the law:: The laws governing Homeowner Associations have changed significantly over the last 40 years and especially in the last 5 years. Our current CC&Rs and Bylaws are outdated and unreliable, especially as they relate to your rights as homeowners. The CC&Rs inaccurately refer to statutory citations that no longer exist, and this creates ambiguity, conflict, and liability.

Developer Language: Our existing governing documents were drafted by the developer, and their language served their interests, not yours. Once all the lots were sold, the language became unnecessary. The new documents remove the developer language and incorporate the subsequent supplemental statements and amendments.

Association Needs: Many of the original provisions of the CC&Rs never had any bearing on our community, such as rights of members and their guests to use a clubhouse or pool, restrictions on parking in your own driveway, and rules regarding the conduct of children.

Best Practices: Our board structure and elections process have become extremely out of date with best practices, again serving the interests of the developers, not homeowners. The cumulative (stacked) voting election process is not representative nor democratic. Further, an annual election of the entire board is inefficient and creates unnecessary conflict.

Homeowner input is reflected in these documents.

We held two Town Hall meetings attended by over 100 neighbors and received multiple thoughtful emails from many of you. We listened carefully and as a result, the additional changes that benefit you as a homeowner are reflected in the newer documents you will receive. For example:

  • We maintained the earth tone color palette for homes, only adding white as an additional option;
  • We maintained stringent view protections;
  • We shortened the amount of time RVs may park; and
  • We made board terms two years, staggering the terms, and removed cumulative voting, thus mitigating the annual contentious elections that have no place in our otherwise quiet community and making the entire process more democratic.

Let’s talk about cumulative (aka stacked) voting

Two of the board members against the CC&Rs/Bylaws have the distinction of having sat on the HOA Board despite neither receiving votes from a majority of Three Springs homes. This is why they often speak about representing “the minority,” as though Three Springs is a two-party system, which it is not. In fact, the first year Mr. Grossman ran, he was elected even though 58 more homes (10+% more of Three Springs) voted for another candidate — yet that candidate lost!

In other words, in that year alone, two people got votes from more Three Springs households, but because of cumulative (stacked) voting, they were not able to work for you even though the majority of homes wanted them to. This is the root cause of the terrible divineness you feel in the community.

This is neither fair nor democratic.

How do we propose to fix this particular problem?

The vast majority of HOA’s are moving away from cumulative/stacked voting. By giving one vote per home per candidate, extending board member terms to two years instead of one year, and staggering terms (three one year; two the next) in the same way as the Westlake Village City Council holds elections, we will create a calmer election process and a more harmonious atmosphere for Three Springs. It is time to put an end to the annual contentious elections and divisiveness.

Finally, do not be misled by distractions

We understand that there are those who didn’t like committee members, didn’t like committee process, think the cost was too high (even though it was spread across three fiscal years). There are those that accuse about favors, carve outs, “it’s a vanity project.” While we can categorically say that none of the accusations are true, the fact now is that the only thing that matters are the documents themselves. Any person campaigning for a “no” vote, whether a board president or the newest member of our community, must argue only against the merits of the documents. And even then, argue that there are enough egregious problems to warrant tossing the whole thing out.

We simply ask that you judge for yourself, which is why we have posted a complete “redline” copy of the amended CC&Rs and Bylaws as well as a chart of each change on the Association’s website www.threesprings.org (Click here for specific steps on where to find the redline versions on the HOA web site.).

If you believe as we do that the City should maintain flood basins, there should be clear restrictions on RV parking, that cumulative voting unfairly impacts the community, that CC&Rs should comply with current law, that homeowners should be protected against architectural committee overreach, then you must vote YES.

Thank you. We ask for your YES vote.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Thank you for taking the time to participate in this very important endeavor. As always, if you have any questions or need further information, please feel free to contact Mark Teitelbaum directly at markteitelbaum086@gmail.com.

Let’s keep Three Springs a neighborly place to live. Let’s protect our community and home values. One final time, when you receive the updated CC&Rs and Bylaws, we ask you to vote YES to approve the CC&Rs, and YES to approve the Bylaws.

Thank you for reading this letter, and for your YES vote.

Note: These letters, web site and emails are NOT paid for using any HOA funds. We have paid for them ourselves.