r/SuddenValley

Later this month I have to attend 6 Zoom sessions for training, so requiring attention and participation. Because I have dogs in the house, and can’t afford to kennel them each day, working from home is not ideal. Is there any space here in SV with power supply where I could set up? The public library cannot help.

Are there any good maps of the trails here in Sudden Valley? I know the HOA has one online and in the office but I'd like something better. I have the All trails app but that is still lacking.

I was trying to follow the Beaver Creek trail and it seems to end in someone's backyard. Same thing with Little Strawberry Falls trail.

Thanks!

Dave

I'm going to start with a TL;DR on the presumption that this may be much too weedy for most folks. And then I will add my reasoning in replies.

1. The process of the major revision of our bylaws was rushed through in less than 4 months and while the four volunteer committee members spent quite a bit of time working on it, it was clear that the knowledge base for making such complex changes was not there. And some changes were made that were not required by law, with a few still remaining in the final proposals.
2. I am not confident that our attorney is actually providing the most accurate advice nor that he is interested in protecting the rights of the members as much as possible under the law.
3. We are subject to WA state statutes and any court rulings that proceed from them, regardless of whether we change our bylaws to align with them. There is no rush to make these bylaw changes, especially since many changes do not even apply to us until January 1, 2028. We can still abide by WUCIOA while working on changing the bylaws - we've already been doing that all throughout 2026. Doing the revision process right and in a way that protects owners and our future SVCA rights is more important than doing it fast.

Once the bylaws revision draft was provided to the members for review, I spent many hours making actual line by line comparisons of the original bylaws and the revised bylaws, and then researched what was truly required by WUCIOA (Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, RCW 64.90) and what was being changed by choice. It was a nightmare due to the absolutely horrendous redlining and many errors included by the Document Review Committee (DRC). I also listened to the DRC meetings in order to hear the discussion about how and why changes were made. On top of that, I spent quite a bit of time reviewing all the sections of WUCIOA and related statutes to see how the new laws compared to what we currently have in our bylaws.

A little info - Some parts of WUCIOA became applicable to SVCA governance in July 2018. (RCWs 64.90.525 and 64.90.545) 64.90.525 caused the loss of our right to vote to approve or reject a proposed dues level separately from the impossibly high bar to reject a budget, removing one of the few levers that members can pull to rein in out-of-control board spending.

Other parts became applicable to SVCA governance on January 1, 2026 so we have already been subject to these even though the bylaws have not yet been revised, and the GM has taken steps to ensure that we have been acting in compliance with the law. These sections of WUCIOA laid out requirements for annual and special meetings and board meetings, including proper notice periods, mandatory owner comment periods at board meetings, and limitations on executive (closed) sessions; what powers a board has to act in an emergency, including imposing a special assessment linked directly to that emergency and without a vote of the owners; and a few other miscellaneous topics.

The rest of WUCIOA will be applicable to SVCA governance on January 1, 2028.  There are a slew of changes that we will need to make as a result, but some are procedural or administrative in nature and will require changes to policies, rules and regulations, rather than bylaws.

Okay, replies to follow.

Calling your attention to the postcard mailing, addressed to “SV resident”, from a team at the U of Oregon: they will be here next week to interview SV and Chuckanut residents as to what sort of advance measures we are taking to guard against wildfires.
(Mod: please consider allowing images for this site)

Aside from mitigating the downsides of our HOA (the phrase “community association” is misleading and undeserved), and the wily ways of the lobbyist, I believe that an HOA is wholly inappropriate for a land mass this extensive and disparate, for a part of the county this vulnerable, valuable and potentially hazardous to its ecosystem, and for a resident population with such opposing interests/needs. I can understand how it came to be, but it has not and maybe cannot live up to its inevitably public responsibilities (charter and bylaws be damned).

And failure to attend the fire chief’s recent information session does not mitigate either the macro or the micro problem.