Article Courtesy of The Sarasota Herald Tribune

NORTH PORT -- Tom and Carole Donnee left their Bobcat Trail home last summer knowing that hurricane shutters secured their home while they spent five months in Connecticut.

But this summer, after a recent ruling by their community's homeowners association, the Donnees and 325 other homeowners in Bobcat Trail will not be able to put up their hurricane shutters before leaving.

Statewide, homeowners associations are restricting how long shutters can cover a home's windows.

At Bobcat Trail and other places, seasonal residents -- who make up 6 percent of the state's housing market -- are being forced to rely on private handyman services, homeowners associations or their neighbors to put up the shutters when a hurricane threatens.

"We're talking about something that takes time to put up, takes time to put down," Carole Donnee said. "It's protecting the biggest investment of your life."

In Bobcat Trail, residents can install their shutters seven days before the storm and must remove them seven days after. If residents don't comply with the policy, they will face fines of $100 for each violation and, after a grace period, $20 a day until the shutters are taken down. Nearly half of Bobcat Trail's residents are seasonal.

"It certainly is a violation to take our rights away to protect our homes when we are not here," said Gerald Brynn, a Bobcat Trail resident who spends part of the summer in Michigan.

A gamut of requirements are being enacted by associations throughout the state, but not all are as strict as in Bobcat Trail, said Kris Wishard, president of Gateway Management, which manages 45 communities from North Port to Naples, including Bobcat Trail.

Wishard said half of the communities her company services are similar to Bobcat Trail's policy.

The Villas of Sabal Trace Homeowners Association, another community in North Port, elected this week to allow shutters to stay up all summer, said Jim Blucher, a board member.

Other communities, such as Gulfgate Community Association Inc., in Sarasota, haven't started talking about shutter policies, but intend to before the season starts next month.

At Bobcat Trail, the homeowners association responded to concerns that having shutters up all summer detracted from the neighborhood's appearance, Wishard said.

Before 2004, many communities did not have hurricane shutter policies. After four hurricanes hit Florida's coast in 2004 and two hurricanes crossed the state in 2005, associations noticed that homeowners were keeping their shutters up longer.

Some seasonal homeowners began leaving their shutters up the entire hurricane season, which starts June 1 and ends Nov. 30.

The market for shutters has grown. Now, residents can select from a variety of protection material, including clear panels, aluminum shields, plywood boards and automatic roll-down shutters that work a lot like a garage door. Costs range from $500 to more than $10,000.

Covered windows can change a neighborhood's look drastically, Wishard said. But critics of restrictions on shutters say that protecting property should supersede appearances.

"It's understandable that everyone wants to have a nice-looking community," said Jan Bergemann, president of Cyber Citizens for Justice, a statewide homeowners association lobbying group. "People have to realize that by making all these decisions, they are really invading private property rights. And that is bad."

Bergemann said he is receiving calls and e-mails from residents concerned that their homes will be severely damaged if they can't leave their shutters on. One woman told him she sold her house and moved north because she didn't want to risk losing her investment.

Many insurance companies also require that shutters are installed in order to qualify for a claim if a storm does hit, Bergemann said.

Hiring a handyman service can cost anywhere from $200 to $300 to put up and take down shutters for one storm. Bergemann said some homeowners association management companies are offering to install the shutters for $100 per storm.

Despite the controversy, fire officials are praising homeowners associations for enacting stricter rules. Rescue workers are concerned that keeping shutters up all season prevents emergency crews from getting in and out of a house, said North Port Fire Chief William Taaffe.

"It's there to protect your windows during a hurricane from flying objects. But it's there temporarily," Taaffe said. "We have to have a secondary means of escape, too."

But for seasonal residents who aren't inside their homes, the threat of a fire means little.

Bobcat Trail residents such as the Donnees fought their association's decision. They canvassed more than 270 residents; 80 percent said they wanted the option to keep their shutters up for as long as they want.

But their voices went unheard during Tuesday's vote by the homeowners association's elected board members. After the residents' survey was presented, a motion was made to change the policy to allow shutters to be placed on the homes' facades during this year's season. The motion died after a 2-2 vote.

Tom Donnee said the decision will be costly and time-consuming. He and his wife are leaving for Connecticut at the end of this month and don't intend to return until October.

Unwilling to burden his neighbors, Donnee said he's going to monitor the weather from his northern home and fly back if there is a storm that threatens Florida's coast. It's a gamble he said he feels forced to take.

"If I were to hire somebody, I don't know if they're going to show up," Donnee said.