Homeowners decry mandates of associations

CARSON CITY -- Unhappy homeowners at the Los Prados Golf and Country Club testified Monday that their association board allows gamblers and gaming buses into their 1,358-home gated community while denying entrance to school buses.

The testimony from homeowners Gary Randall and Sandy Ambrose disturbed Senate Commerce and Labor Chairman Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, who requested documentation of their allegations.

Townsend said the Los Prados development in northwestern Las Vegas violates federal law if it does not let school buses into the community to pick up disabled students.

"Some of you wonder why I continue to live in Reno," added Townsend, who has family in Las Vegas.

Barbara Laurienti, a Los Prados manager, refused to comment on the allegations in a phone interview with the Review-Journal. She said she would be happy to talk to Townsend about his concerns.

Randall said schoolchildren are picked up outside the community and face long walks to their homes. At the same time, anyone who wants to gamble must under state law be permitted by guards at gates to enter. Los Prados has a gaming license.

"Casino buses and CAT buses are allowed in our property," Randall said. "It makes no sense."

"If you have a gaming license, you have to be open to the public," added Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas. "Anyone has to be let in. But the same development won't let school buses in. They drop them off at Ann (Road) or Lone Mountain (Road). The kids have to walk across the street."

Jaime Lea, a spokeswoman with the Clark County School District, said in a phone interview it is the district's own policy not to send buses into gated communities. Some of the roads in gated communities are too small for the 80-passenger buses, she said.

Lea said the law does require the school district to pick up special education students at their doors and she knows of no problem in achieving that goal at Los Prados.

The exchange occurred during the second day of hearings on Senate Bill 362, a 48-page piece of legislation proposed by Schneider that's designed to curb autocratic power exercised by some boards of homeowners' associations.

A work session on the bill was scheduled for April 10. The bill must be approved by the committee by April 13, or it will be considered dead for the remainder of the session.

Schneider said he introduced the bill in response to complaints from people who live in communities regulated by homeowners association. But during a 3 1/2-hour hearing on Friday, board members of associations assailed the bill, complaining it was spawned by complaints by a few disgruntled homeowners.

Monday was far different. Ambrose broke down and cried as she discussed her problems at Los Prados.

"It's the lack of courtesy and common sense," Ambrose said. "They think they are above the law."

She said the homeowners association retaliated against her after she complained about how an area she said was set aside for recreational development was instead turned into 20 additional residences.

After the meeting, Schneider noted that the ArrowCreek development in Southern Nevada has requested an amendment to the bill to give its private police force access to state Department of Motor Vehicles' records.

"They want their private police to have the same power as regular police," said Schneider, noting his opposition.

He has become the champion of homeowners involved in battles with their association boards, having introduced numerous bills since 1997.

"I am like the little Dutch boy who put his finger in the dike," he said. "They try to find loopholes in everything we pass. Their attorneys are out there looking. It is awful."