July 12, 2007

A powerful lobby

A new voice will be heard in Madison County, one that has the potential for being loud and strong.

The Madison County Federation of Homeowners Associations held its first meeting Monday. The group already can speak for about 2,800 households throughout the county, and thousands more could become part of its fold.

To put this in perspective, the 2000 census recorded 27,219 households for the county, and we all know how much growth has occurred in the seven years since. The potential for this group as a lobby for homeowners and their issues is large indeed.

The group's focus will be on quality of life issues such as safety and local schools. Other issues that could be on the federation's radar screen include roads, traffic, crime, health care and parks and recreation.

While there is no one issue that sparked the formation of the federation, the organization could prove to be a force to be reckoned with during elections.

In many ways, rooftops have become a major industry in the county. Being a great place to live has become Madison County's role, which gives homeowners more say collectively than they may have realized prior to Monday.

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July 12, 2007

Lobbying group formed

By Lucy Weber
lweber@mcherald.com

Any associations interested in joining the Federation of Madison County Homeowners Association may go to the Web site, http://www.fmcha.org/ or call Melissa Dempsey at (601) 941-8391.

Neighborhood residents can find a ready source of experience or advice up the street - or across the county.

With the formation of the Federation of Madison County Homeowners Associations, members say the potential is unlimited for the organization that could wind up representing 30,000 or so residents as it works to improve quality of life before the Board of Supervisors or even the state Legislature.

"Working together is a strength that can only move us forward," said Melissa Dempsey, interim president of the group that so far has 19 community associations signed on.

In the works for about 18 months, the federation officially formed early this year to give an organized voice to issues that include family life, education, environment, safety, enhancement of services, increased property values and planned growth.

"It's needed," said Ray Butler, president of the Twin Cedars association. "It gives more eyes and ears" to issues that can have an impact not just on one neighborhood but on several.

The group met Monday at Deerfield to announce its formation and invite other associations to join by paying annual dues and sending delegates, based on the size of the local neighborhood groups.

The next meeting of the group is set for Aug. 28 at Chapel of the Cross.

The potential for the federation is unlimited in terms of how it can help local residents, members say.

"We can network and share," said Lynette Hegwood of Lake Caroline, who has helped organize the federation. "As homeowners associations we can share common covenants, issues and concerns."

Ray Lyle, a delegate to the federation from Lake Caroline, said the group has power by sharing information that can help one another. The federation can also present a unified voice for many in lobbying either the Board of Supervisors or Mississippi Legislature "through the sheer power of numbers," he said.

"Lifestyle issues, safety, education and the environment - I hope those like that can be brought before the federation," he said.

Dempsey, a resident of Annandale Estates, said the federation can help individual associations make contacts that help them out.

Several groups, for instance, could realize they have similar landscaping issues and band together to share a service for that or some groups could save money by sharing a contract on a property manager, she said.

"There's a tremendous amount of experience in the group on how to handle problems," said Woody Middleton, president of the Cherry Hill homeowners group. "There's a tremendous amount of information we can share."

Butler and Kirk Hughes said their experience with the Twin Cedars group proved that joining with other associations to bring one voice to an issue works.

Twin Cedars and residents of about six other Yandell Road subdivisions banded together to get an out-of-state developer to agree to meet area standards for a new residential neighborhood.

"It works," Hughes said, about the effort that got more than 600 homeowners in the area to sign a petition to convince the developer to plan a neighborhood that fit in with the surrounding area to keep property values up. "We all want the same thing, for Madison County to be great."

Associations that have joined include Annandale Estates, Audubon Woods, Bear Creek Crossing, Bridgewater, Cherry Hill Plantation, Countryside Plantation, Deerfield, Dinsmor, Harvey Crossing, Lake Caroline, Sheffield, Twin Cedars and Whisper Lake.

Supervisor Doug Jones, who helped organize the federation, said the group is open to any platted subdivision in the county.

"It's a good cross section of the county," he said.

Read more...

7/11/2007 3:52:00 PM
County homeowners form group

By ANDREW UJIFUSA
Assistant Managing Editor

Several county housing developments have come together to create a collective voice for residents regarding residential issues and concerns.

The Federation of Madison County Homeowners Associations (FMCHA), which began its preliminary meetings in February, is comprised of residents from 18 subdivisions. About 2,800 residences have registered membership with the group so far.

Homeowner associations that are part of FMCHA include: Lake Caroline, Deerfield, Bridgewater, Bear Creek Crossing, and Twin Cedars.

According to its members, FMCHA is designed to give homeowners a voice in government as the county grows and new residents and businesses move into the area.

The group is designed to give broad representation to homeowners on a variety of crucial issues, including education, the environment, safety, increased property values, and planned growth.

FMCHA officially announced its formation at a press conference at the Deerfield golf course clubhouse Monday evening.

"We are pro-homeowner not anti-government or anti-business," said Bridgewater resident Doug Wilson, an automobile dealer and a spokesman for the group. "We want to band together and give voice to the community."

FMCHA recently received its non-profit charter from the Secretary of State's office.

"When issues vital to our community are being considered, FMCHA will draw upon all its members because a collective voice is a strong and loud one and will surely be heard," read part of the group's statement prior to the press conference.

The group is not intended to focus on just one issue or advocate one point of view, but rather to educate homeowners and keep them involved.

"We're so busy and lots of times we don't even know our neighbors across the street. There was no single issue or reason for this being birthed...you choose what you want the issues to be," said Wilson.

"Someone brought up the subject of rental property in our first meeting and they were able to brainstorm together and get ideas," said group member Melissa Dempsey of Annandale, by way of example.

Lynette Hegwood, the acting secretary of the group, said that she moved to Lake Caroline in 2002 and had watched the commercial and residential boom in the county with a mixture of pleasure and concern.

While she said that the growth has been great for Madison County, she said that it was important for homeowners to come together to express their desires.

Hegwood said a good set of homeowner covenants and covenant enforcement are crucial, but don't address general issues that affect residents and their homes, such as law enforcement, fire protection, and smart growth.

"We just want to be at the table with the management and growth that's going on around us," said Hegwood.

FMCHA includes both large and small neighborhoods, in order to get as many different perspectives in the group as possible.

According to Hegwood, the smallest neighborhood association in the group has only 38 homes, while Lake Caroline has the largest membership at over 1,000 homes.

Each homeowner association can send up to five delegates to represent their neighborhood at FMCHA meetings.

District 1 Supervisor Doug Jones, who helped to organize the group, said that he envisions the group eventually representing anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 people who belong to homeowner associations.

He said that the group could join the Madison County Foundation, the local chambers of commerce, and the Madison County Economic Development Authority as another strong voice for county interests.

"If everyone will play good together, we've got four great pieces of the puzzle," said Jones. Read more...

July 10, 2007
Madison County homeowners group growing

Organization reports strong turnout for first official meeting

By Elizabeth Crisp
elizabeth.crisp@clarionledger.com

FAST FACTS Homeowners associations interested in joining the Federation of Madison County Homeowners Associations can find application instructions at www.fmcha. org. Dues will be based on the number of households. Each association will be granted one delegate for every 100 homes, up to five delegates.

Representatives of homeowners associations across Madison County - from Dinsmor in Ridgeland to Brisage in Madison to Lake Caroline in the county - came together Monday night.

It was the first official meeting of the Federation of Madison County Homeowners Associations, and organizers say the group's size nearly doubled.

"The turnout was great," said interim President Melissa Dempsey. "We had 15 to 20 new associations represented, and they were all here with the questions and concerns."

The recently formed group was created to take on quality-of-life issues such as education and growth, in a unified manner.

"This is an organization formed for the betterment of life in Madison County," said Doug Wilson, a resident of Ridgeland's Village Square.

Dempsey said she would like to see the group push issues such as infrastructure and schools, which are directly affected by the county's growth. "We need to get ahead of the growth," she said.

Madison County has seen steady growth over the last few years and reached about 87,419 residents in 2006, according to census estimates.

With that, the county's homeowners associations have been expanding beyond issues of covenants and landscaping and have become advocates in talks concerning issues such as annexation and new residential and commercial development.

Dempsey is one of several Annandale residents who went before county supervisors with concerns over the Wind Dance subdivision and drainage issues.

"We had another development going up beside ours, and we thought we did a really good job in representing ourselves in the discussions," she said. "Really, we did a bad job, and we are having to deal with that now."

Madison County officials issued a one-week moratorium last month on building permits in Wind Dance subdivision on Mississippi 463 in response to complaints from neighbors in Annandale. They lifted the moratorium after looking into several drainage issues in the development and announcing no problems existed.

Other neighborhood association members attending the meeting Monday said they hoped the unified group would help homeowners associations learn from one another.

"If someone's already had that problem and can share how to deal with the problem, it can be a tremendous benefit," said Cherry Hill resident Woody Middleton.

Middleton's subdivision spoke out against a proposed sports complex, and the development was not approved by supervisors. The complex would have been across from Madison Station Elementary, backing up to Cherry Hill.

Before the meeting, the federation already represented about 2,800 homes, said Lake Caroline resident Lynette Hegwood, who assisted in forming the group.

"If you think of it as two residents per property, then we are representing approximately 5,600 people already," she said.

The group scheduled its next meeting for Aug. 28, and organizers expect to elect a new board.

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To comment on this story, call Elizabeth Crisp at (601) 942-9019. Read more...

Madison County 07/09/07
Neighborhood Associations See Power in Numbers

By Roslyn Anderson
roslyn@wlbt.net

It is the fastest growing county in the state, and now Madison county homeowners associations are uniting to use their clout to address needs in the county.

The first meeting of the Federation of Madison County Homeowners Associations was held Monday.

Inside the Colonial Country Club at the Deerfield Course representatives from about 20 homeowners associations gathered to register and learn more about the organization.

The Federation of Madison County Homeowners Associations is aimed at building a base of residents in the southern portion of the county.

Federation member Doug Wilson of Ridgeland said, "One of the things that we seek to do is provide connectivity to people so that we can address issues. To my knowledge there's not any issue right now."

The organization was the idea of District One Supervisor Doug Jones, who two years ago saw the need to identify the various homeowners associations that were facing similar concerns like annexation and rural development.

"I see the role of the federation in a lot of ways, lobbying our legislature for the concerns of Madison county. If there's any concerns with the schools or a way they can help the schools, make sure that we keep quality development in Madison county and assist the municipalities," said Jones.

Jones said because he is a supervisor he will not be a member of the federation in the event that the organization comes before the board in the future.

The non profit organization has bylaws and a charter. It represents an estimated 30,000-35,000 residents.

Melissa Dempsey lives in the Madison Station area and is acting president. She has concerns about infrastructure.

"When that school was built there was no road to it. They had to make an access road through someone else's property. We are not up to par with the developments that we have much less the ones that are currently being approved," said Dempsey.

There will be a maximum of five delegates per association, and each city will be represented. Board members and officers will be elected at the next meeting.

Organizers say there is strength in numbers which will give the federation power to address quality of life issues.

The next federation meeting will be held August 28, but no time or location has been announced.

To obtain a federation application or for more information click http://www.fmcha.org/.

Read more...

July 9, 2007

Residents hope for strength in numbers

Homeowners group to be unified voice of Madison County residents

By Elizabeth Crisp
elizabeth.crisp@clarionledger.com

WHEN, WHERE Who: Madison County Federation of Homeowners Associations. When: 5 p.m. today. Where: Deerfield clubhouse. More information: District 1 Supervisor Doug Jones, (601) 259-9285.

An alliance is being formed to pool resources and represent all those who live in Madison County subdivisions.

The Madison County Federation of Homeowners Associations will hold its first meeting at 5 p.m. today at the Deerfield clubhouse.

Lynette Hegwood, a Lake Caroline resident who has been active in forming the group, said the organization will focus on quality of life issues such as education and safety.

"When issues that are vital to our members come up, we will be able to provide a collective voice for them," she said.

The county's homeowners associations over the years have been expanding beyond issues of covenants and landscaping and have become advocates in talks concerning issues such as annexation and new residential and commercial developments.

After a month of getting homeowners associations involved on a grass-roots level, the newly formed federation already represents about 2,800 homes, Hegwood said.

"If you think of it as two residents per property, then we are representing approximately 5,600 people already at this early stage," she said.

Madison County has seen steady growth over the last few years and reached about 87,419 residents in 2006, according to census estimates.

"This group is going to represent a very large group of people," District 1 Supervisor Doug Jones said.

Jones said he considers the group to be similar to such groups as the Madison County Foundation and the Madison County Chamber of Commerce in that all represent a key section of the county's growth.

"You have the chamber of commerce representing businesses and commercial growth and the Madison County Foundation representing infrastructure and bringing industry in," Jones said. "This group brings another piece of the puzzle in - a group representing the citizens."

Most of the group's efforts at this point have been geared toward organization and membership, Hegwood said.

The federation has attracted 18 homeowners associations that either have given an official commitment or assisted in forming the group, she said.

"Those are just the ones that we've been able to get in touch with about it in the last month or so," she said.

Some have not been able to officially join the federation because homeowners associations have to vote in favor of joining, select delegates for the federation and fill out an application.

"We have to rely on the participation of their boards of directors, and you don't always have access to that information," Hegwood said.

Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler and Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee said they were not formally made aware of the organization or of the meeting today.

McGee said he suspects the organization will work much like the Federation of Reservoir Homeowners, a group that has, among other issues, opposed selling Reservoir water to Nissan and worked with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to find solutions to sediment, bacteria and erosion in the Reservoir area.

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To comment on this story, call Elizabeth Crisp at (601) 942-9019. Read more...