Overview and Summary of Updates Covenants

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As announced at the 2013 Annual Membership Meeting and updated in 2014, the Board of Directors commissioned a sub-committee to review and make suggestions for updating the Little Swan Lake Subdivision’s Declaration of Restrictions and the Little Swan Lake Club’s By-Laws and Rules and Regulations.

 

The main reasons for the review are that there are currently two (2) inconsistent versions of the Declaration of Restrictions written in 1968 and 1977 that are both still active and the need to conform to state law, the Illinois Common Interest Association Act.

 

This overview concerns only the Covenants, that part of the LSL subdivision and club documents that is recorded with, and impacts the deed of each lot. The changes to each part of the subdivision and club documents must be approved separately since they currently require very different voting methods and have different requirements.

 

This document gives an overview and a summary of the updates to the covenants which you, as owners of lots in the Little Swan Lake subdivision are being asked to approve at this time.

 

Summary of changes

NO changes to fees or dues are proposed. The name is changed from “Restrictions” to “Covenants” to better match what it actually is. Corresponding clauses from the 1968 and 1977 versions are merged, removing inconsistencies. Normal practice (what has traditionally been done) is used to choose between inconsistent versions. The language is updated to modern English. Obsolete clauses or parts of clauses have been eliminated as detailed below. And the requirements of the state law have been included.

 

The 1968 Clause 9 (Sale, Transfer or Lease) is removed in its entirety. This clause gave the Association/Club veto power over all sales, transfers and leases and otherwise restricted who could own or lease property at the lake.

 

Voting requirements to sell Club property and to amend the covenants are modified to be 2/3 of all lot owners voting at a duly called membership meeting (voting in person, by proxy, or by absentee ballot) with one vote per lot owned. This is currently 2/3 of all lots with no restrictions on how the vote is done.

The way that the dues and fees are determined and approved is clarified.

 

·         They are determined by the Board and approved by the lot owners as set forth in the By-Laws.

·         The vote required to change the membership fees and the amount ($150/year/family) has been removed from the covenants. It is already, properly, in the Club By-Laws, which has more restrictive requirements than is currently listed here.

·         The current requirement to change the Maintenance and Community Fund Fees ($35/lot) is a 2/3 majority vote of all the lots with no restrictions on how or when the vote is done. This update moves the voting requirements to the By-Laws where they properly belong. The result is that the requirement will be relaxed to require a 2/3 majority vote of the lot owners voting at a duly called Membership Meeting, voting in person, by absentee ballot, or by proxy. This will be the same for both types of fees.

·         In addition the By-Laws are being changed to require a quorum of 20% of the members voting before any changes to the fees or dues can be made. This conforms to state law whereas the current requirements don’t.

 

 

These procedures are more restrictive to change the membership dues, but less restrictive to change the maintenance fee. This update removed the actual dollar amounts from the Covenants since they are also listed in the By-Laws. Having them in two places, especially when they are different in the two can only cause problems.

 

When and how membership is terminated and suspended and how to appeal is clarified.

 

In the Local Improvements and Roads sections improvements that have already been done (water is supplied by LSL Water District not the Club) or hypothetical improvements (sewer etc.) that will never be done by the Club are removed. These may someday be supplied but it is assumed that that will be done in the same way that water is supplied, by a separate district, not the Club.

Further Documentation available:

 

·         The original covenants

·         The updated covenants

·         A clause-by-clause summary of the updates

·         A very detailed markup (word-by-word) difference of the changes (only for the intrepid)

 

These documents can be obtained at http://tinyurl.com/LSLMembers or as either hard copy or electronically via email, contact:

 

LSL Clerk                              309-465-6734   LSLClerk@hotmail.com

Alan Jonckheere              630-263-0283   amjonckheere@gmail.com  chair (unavailable in Feb)

Barbara Dunlap                 630-740-6459   boscobarb@gmail.com

Kristen Lail                          937-433-5089   kadee@kadeesplace.com

 

 

Overview and Summary Covenants November 20, 2014