Cedar Ridge Ranch, Sonora CA

It has been brought to my attention that some of our neighbors have been erecting structures that do not conform to the Uniform Building Codes. After contacting the County we were told that 'Sheds' less than 120 sq ft do not require building permits and there is nothing the County can do.

This is a situation where a strong and enforced set of CC&Rs come into play. Unfortunately, our original CC&Rs have been neglected. The CRRPOA made several attempts to find who, if anyone is the enforcing agency. No one was uncovered.

WE NEED NEW CC&R’s along with a group to enforce them.

I’m opening this subject to begin the discussion on this matter.

Does anyone know the legal process for setting up CC&Rs? It's my understanding that we would need a majority vote of the property owners involved before we could put a new set of CC&Rs in place.

See you at today's CCRPOA annual meeting. (See website for details)

When I purchased my home a little over a year ago on Hitching Post Rd. I was told by the title company that by state law, home owner associations had to be reratified every ten years, and this was not done at Cedar Ridge.

So it would seem that the association has no legal power to bully anyone into anything. It might even be possible that if someone did try to excercise any kind of "group" authority, they my be inviting themselfs into legal troubles.

First: An update to my original post.

After speaking with the County, it is indeed against building codes to build sheds or garages on property without a standard home. The county further said that they would investigate the situation I mentioned.

Second: A response to Danny’s post.

While I believe the CRRPOA is not the governing authority over the CC&R’s, I do believe that they are still in force.

Section 19 of the CC&R’s reads:

“DURATION OF RESTRICTIONS: The foregoing restrictions and covenants run with the land and shall be binding on all parties and all persons claiming under them until at which time said covenants and restrictions shall be automatically extended for successive periods of 10 years each, unless by a vote of the majority of the then owners of lots in said Cedar Ridge Ranch Subdivision it is agreed to change the said covenants and restrictions in whole or in part.”

Reading this I can only assume that the CC&R’s could be still binding. Although the CRRPOA has been unable to find the person or agency that was appointed to govern the CC&Rs.

I’m not aware of any State law that would require that they be ratified every 10 years. But I will look into this further.

The CRRPOA is comprised of concerned home owners in the Cedar Ridge Ranch area and, as Danny points out, has no legal power. But as concerned home owners, we do have the right to protect our properties and property values using whatever LEGAL means are at our disposal. We have the right to act as a group and address situations in our neighborhood that we believe are detrimental to our properties. That is the charter of the CRRPOA.

In response to Danny's message. As a member of the CRRPOA I would like to see our neighborhood remain a pleasant and up place to live. I am a full time resident and would like to take pride in the area that we live as well as keeping the property values up. I think that having CC&R's is one way of insuring that this happens. I don't think that the people want to "bully" anyone into doing anything, but would like to "guide" people so that they as well as the entire neighborhood can be proud of where they live.