Windermere: At the Dawn of HOAs

The traditional styled two storeyed colonial homes in all three sections of Windermere are within the Heritage Walk subdivision as noted in the public records. Yet, there are multiple levels of jurisdiction within Windermere and a peculiar history. As noted in “Windermere: A History of Good Community Planning,” development of the first section of the community and incorporation of the Heritage Walk Homeowner's Association occurred when homeowner's associations (HOAs) as a common interest development started to take hold as a means of preserving value.

Windermere’s entrance markers are all on Tuckerman Lane. For the first section of the community, there is an entrance marker at Lux Lane on the western side of the street since one side of the street is within Windermere and the other side is not. The other two entrance markers for section one are at Ralston Drive and Arroyo Drive. These are the Columbia Homes and Zuckerman Katz homes. A custom home builder built a few others as well. Most of the homes in Windermere I are within the Heritage Walk HOA.

The entrance markers for Windermere II is on Tuckerman Lane at Lancelot Drive, and all of the Zuckerman Katz homes are within the Heritage Walk HOA.

And, for the third section, the entrance marker is at Daybreak Court. The Williamsburg Group LLC built the third section of Windermere in 1999. This section has just six homes, are within the Heritage Walk subdivision, but not members of the Heritage Walk HOA.

All of these homes have the same thing in common: A generous house set back from the street with ample greenery made up of lush well manicured lawns and in some cases, exotic landscaping. In some cases, however, the house set back from the street is not so generous given that the lots are just 1/4 acre.

Overlapping Jurisdictions

In spite of these distinctive community markers, it is not always entirely clear as to what is Windermere the community, what is Heritage Walk the subdivision, and what is Heritage Walk Homeowner's Association the corporation. In fact, because of the overlaps, and those that come from the Luxmanor Citizens Association by virtue of voluntary membership being extended to many households in different subdivisions the historical concept of the war torn borderlands along the English and Scottish border may be helpful.

Some of the homes within Heritage Walk subdivision are not part of the Windermere development. For example, between Lux Lane and Rosemont Drive is 6121 Wayside Drive, where a comfortable rambler sits on a large level parcel in the Heritage Walk subdivision abutting lots in the Luxmanor subdivision on Tuckerman Lane to the north and Rosemont Drive to the east. It is not part of Windermere. Additionally, the home built in 1900 at 6220 Mazwood Road though within the “walls of Windermere” and in the Heritage Walk subdivision, is not one of the Windermere homes built after 1970. Neither of these two properties are within the Heritage Walk HOA.

Moreover, all of the original model homes for Windermere built on Rosemont Drive are not in the Heritage Walk subdivision or within Windermere. All of the homes on Rosemont Drive between Tuckerman Lane and The Oaks subdivision are within the Luxmanor subdivision and not part of the Heritage Walk HOA.

The Heritage Walk Homeowner's Association includes most of the homes within Windermere. It does not include as members the households within Windermere III or a dozen or so households in Windermere I on Wayside Drive, Mazwood Place, and Charnwood Drive. The annual dues paying members enjoy the benefit of having a private community pool and club house, tennis courts, volley ball area, childrens' play area, basket ball hoops, and trails that lead into the common wooded area that divides Windermere I from Windermere II. In this forrest conservation common area is a stream that feeds into Old Farm Creek; and here fox, deer, and other wild life call the woods their home.

Many of the original home buyers of those original model homes on Rosemont Drive, in the Luxmanor subdivision, elected not to become members of the Heritage Walk HOA when offered by the developer. The expense of the annual dues, the restrictive yet protective covenants, or the novelty of the HOA at the time may have served as deterrences. The initial buyers, after all, were landlords, investors, who rented back to the builder so that these properties used as tax write offs could also be used as model homes to be shown to prospective home buyers. One, however did: 10909 Rosemont Drive, Lot 5, Block Q, Luxmanor though not part of Windermere, is a member of the Heritage Walk HOA. And this quirk in early community planning helps explain away the oddities of the overlaps in legal subdivision names, community place names with sign markers, and why membership in the Heritage Walk HOA is closed.

Finally, less than half of the households within Windermere are also dues paying members of the Luxmanor Citizens Association. The overwhelming majority of Windermere residents are also part of the Heritage Walk HOA. But, some are not. Therein lies the potentially volatile elements for divisive contention where even households become divided over issues like the county's controversial Sidewalk Proposal.

The Luxmanor Citizens Association by virtue of open membership extended to several communities has unwittingly established itself as a Trojan horse within some of Windermere's households. Exploiting a weakness within the very nature of an HOA - collection of dues, payment of bills, mitigating liability, enforcement of covenants, and the day to day operations of a corporation - Luxmanor Citizens Association has filled a void left by Windermere's HOA by providing vibrant meetings, guest speakers, and events. As such, the potential was there for a quiet and subversive undermining of the entire Windermere community as well as the HOA.

In the world of advertising driven social media, NextDoor.com includes all of The Oaks and part of Luxmanor as part of the online community called “Windermere Circle.” Like Google and Facebook, NextDoor.com falls victim to the same types of shortcomings and justifiable criticisms leveled at third party platforms by the 2018 documentary film on Amazon Prime called The Creepy Line. Less than half of Windermere’s residents have signed up to post to NextDoor.com where the signed up neighbor is the targeted commodity, where real free speech is replaced by fuzzy feelings of a faceless community, and where real neighborhood distinctions actually do not matter.

With multiple levels of jurisdiction laid down, and with different percentages in memberships and sign ups, misunderstanding, confusion, and problems had to be inevitable. Enter the Sidewalk Proposal notice mailed by the Montgomery County Government in early December 2018 to many households within Windermere, Luxmanor, and Tilden Woods.

For some, more than likely the over mortgaged new comers to the community, it was a welcomed relief to see that the county had proposed sidewalks in a community that had been "deprived" of them for fifty years. Certainly an oversight by the developers. In their minds, no doubt, Windermere when first developed had roads paved with just crushed oyster shells, outdoor plumbing, and the first floor powder rooms were for Lord Windermere to powder his barrister’s wig to keep it free of lice. For the settled majority, it was as if someone had pulled the pin on a hand grenade, smiled, and said, “I was just trying to help.”

A Coalition of Windermere Neighbors, who relish walking the mature tree lined streets of the community many times a day and throughout the year formed to vigorously object and challenge Montgomery County’s unilaterally driven imposition onto a once quite and peaceful community. That coalition, moreover, came about to push back against the destructive threat from the Luxmanor Citizens Association that in effect has harmed Windermere.

As perhaps best said in the series Money Heist, season one, episode four, “A thief is by definition an arrogant optimist.” That is precisely what so many of the original homeowner's sense coming from those demanding a radical transformation to the community. They do not want what they prize taken from them.

One irritated newcomer to Windermere that is not part of the HOA had this to say of those, who have lived in the community since its inception: “We paid a million. What did you pay? Two fifty? I don’t care if they tear down all of the trees. All of you older people are not going to live forever. We will get our way.”

This is the third article in a series on Windermere and community planning in North Bethesda.

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