Article Courtesy of The St. Petersburg Times

By STEPHANIE HAYES
Published September 15, 2006

WESTCHASE - Jim Mills said it wouldn't be easy. And he was right.

The Westchase Community Association director predicted almost two years ago that revising the community's deed restrictions was going to be an arduous task. But on Tuesday night, the new rules were finally approved.

"This was not going to be easy. It was not going to happen quickly. And it was going to be a huge struggle," Mills told a room full of community representatives after they voted to approve the changes. "If it had been easy, then there would have been something wrong with the end product."

It has been a process mired in obstacles, and Tuesday's meeting was no exception.

Since March 2005, a small subcommittee has been scrutinizing the thick rule book that governs the nearly 3,500-home neighborhood, taking out references to its developer, changing outdated rules and adding new ones.

Two proposals caused some commotion: a line that would have made it possible for a small number of people to change the rules for visual details on properties, and a catchall phrase that would have prohibited anything not already specified in the rules.

In July, representatives of Westchase's villages voted down the changes. Revisions were made, and neighbors were polled again.

The second time around, only 15 percent of homeowners responded. Some blamed a lack of paid postage on the mailed polling cards. Others just blamed apathy.

Still, that left the representatives to cast the rest of the votes for their unresponsive neighbors Tuesday.

On the first go-round, the changes failed to pass, coming up short by 71 votes.

Voting member Carlos Quiros said some of his peers may have thought they had to vote proportionally - for instance, if 10 residents returned polling cards and seven voted "no," that representative would vote 70 percent "no" for the rest of the homeowners.

It didn't have to be that way, he said.

"It's a pity and a waste of time and money," he said.

Association attorney Steve Mezer said that legally, the representatives could reconsider and vote again.

They did, this time in favor of the changes.

Two homeowners in the audience stormed out of the meeting, upset with the notion of a recount. But most representatives concurred that it was in the best interest of Westchase to avoid the expensive polling process again.

Earlier that night, voting members elected Mills, Quiros and Ruben Collazo to serve on the community association for the next two years.

Don Costello, who lives in the Stamford village, also ran, but failed to garner enough votes.

There were four association seats open. Mezer said president Daryl Manning, who recently moved to Virginia to attend law school, would retain his seat on the board until he officially resigns. Then the board will appoint someone to the fourth seat.