SIDE STREETS: HOA nixes 'guard llama,' angering homeowner

Chris Meier insists he’s not one of those guys who move into a neighborhood protected by covenants and then doesn’t want to follow the rules.

And developer Craig McConnell insists he’d never promise a laid-back homeowners association just to sell a house and then renege and strictly enforce the covenants.

But something clearly is wrong in McConnell’s Prairie Vista Meadows subdivision, causing hurt feelings and an exchange of angry emails in the neighborhood of 5-acre ranchettes near Peyton.

Meier, who works in Air Force satellite communications, asked me to investigate McConnell, a real estate agent who bought 300 acres in 2004 and developed 63 lots.

Today, there are 24 homes built. As is typical, the covenants give McConnell control of the HOA until the lots are developed or until 2016.

Meier, who bought his home in June, argues that McConnell should relinquish control because he no longer owns a home or lives in Prairie Vista. He wants residents to write the rules and govern.

He is angry at McConnell for refusing to waive the rules, preventing him from getting a llama to guard his two cows from coyotes.

“Before we bought, we asked if we’d be able to get a waiver to the covenants if we wanted to get a goat or chickens or a llama,” Meier said. He wants his eight children to be involved in 4-H projects. “We were told: no problem.”

But after they moved in, the answer was: no way. Didn’t matter that Meier has an e-mail from McConnell’s partner suggesting that the llama would be OK.

“Meier thinks it’s a big ranch,” McConnell said. “It’s not. It’s a neighborhood. I said no. Since then, he’s caused a stink.”

Further, he said Meier was violating covenants by not screening his RV behind a fence or in a building. And he needs to paint the barn, which Meier agrees is faded and weathered. McConnell has given Meier until August to comply or face fines and legal action.

McConnell denies any bait-and-switch tactics in dealings with Meier or neighbor Shannon Rogers, who says she feels misled into believing Prairie Vista would be a relaxed HOA where she could have a third horse. Her waiver, like Meier’s, was denied after she moved in.

“People bought out here because of the covenants,” McConnell said. “They want them enforced.”

Attorney Lenard Rioth, who represents McConnell and dozens of HOAs, said the conflict is all too predictable.

“This is a typical case,” Rioth said. “The homeowner didn’t read the covenants before he bought, and now he disagrees with them. They should have read the covenants before they bought. If it was important, they should have made certain the board was going to approve chickens, pigs and goats.

“It was all in the covenants.”

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