ARTICLE 1 – THE COMMON PLAN PURPOSES
Home is where life is lived. A home's value is anchored in the belief that “life, lived here, will be

an experience worth remembering.”

That core belief is shaped by the look and feel of our neighborhood. A look born of thoughtful design and prudent maintenance. And a feeling born of strong bonds between neighbors.

Because look and feel combine to form that “experience worth remembering,” the look and feel of this place are our most important assets. It is through caring for these assets that we make our neighborhood “a great place to live.”

The association and its governing documents are the means by which we care for these assets. But they are merely instruments. It is in how we play these instruments that this becomes a great place to live.

Played well, these instruments tap into our impulse to Give, to Trust, and to Share. And it is through acting on these impulses that neighbors make a neighborhood great.

B. Give.

A home means independence. A home in this neighborhood also means co-owning common areas.

Each one of us, seeking our own independence, have become partners, instead. Now we must transform this incidental partnership into one truly capable of caring for these assets.

Caring for these assets takes money and skill. We are the funding source and the talent pool. That makes each of us accountable to the rest of us.

Our success depends on the contribution that living here calls upon each of us to make. I must pay my share of our expenses. And I must, when the time comes, willingly step up to contribute that missing piece of the puzzle that I alone can supply.

So, my choice to live here is a choice to contribute.

A. Value.

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This need to contribute grows over time. Keeping the neighborhood up takes anticipating the inevitable and addressing it.

Structures age. Windows, roofs, and the like, eventually wear out. Diligently maintaining things postpones the inevitable, buying us time to set aside the cash needed to replace items when the time to do so finally arrives.

Timing it right is hard. We inspect items, learn how best to maintain them, decide who maintains what, and estimate how long things will last. We next budget income and expenses so that we can gradually grow neighborhood savings to help cover replacement costs.

Timing is partly guesswork. Odds are that some major item will wear out before we've saved the money to replace it. When that happens, we will raise and, if we have to, borrow and repay what it takes to replace it. One way or another, we will take good care of our neighborhood.

C. Trust.

Caring for assets necessarily means deciding how best to do it. Doing only that which all of us unanimously agree should be done doesn't work. Reasonable minds differ on how best to tackle a task. So, we must entrust these decisions to a chosen few to make on our behalf.

This only works if we can trust those chosen few. Building that trust is mission critical. It is best built through transparency, fairness, and understanding.

We believe that transparency promotes honesty. A decision reached with the door open is easier to trust than one reached behind closed doors.

We believe that fairness fosters trust. A decision impartially reached by applying fair standards to facts gathered from all who have something to say is a decision fairly reached, and so it is a decision we find easier to accept and respect.

We demand honesty, not perfection. So, we extend to those chosen few the benefit of the doubt, in the belief that an honest mistake ought not to become a lightning rod for our ire.

D. Share.

My home provides me shelter from the storm. Its boundaries also help shield me against intrusions on my privacy. But physical boundaries alone can no longer protect me from the impacts others cause.

Two centuries ago, an acre or so of land occupied the space between my home and the fence that surrounded it. What happened within my walls went unnoticed beyond my fence, thanks to that acre of buffer between the two.

That acre of buffer is now gone. Your home now occupies that space. And my home now occupies your buffer.

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Yet we often act as if that buffer still exists. So, your home does double duty as my buffer, absorbing impacts I mistakenly believe my walls kept in check, just as my home often bears the brunt of what takes place behind your walls.

Since we now share space that had once cushioned our conduct, our privacy now depends on how well you and I manage to share this space.

Privacy now rests upon a belief that I get what I give. My privacy is achieved by my decision to curb my conduct in ways that preserve your privacy – so that you will do likewise.

This belief that I get what I give is also what helps keep the neighborhood looking great.

Just as being greeted by a smile as you enter a room sets the tone for a visit, the homes others see as they enter our neighborhood likewise shapes their experience.

Seeing an eyesore, or an out of sync home, ruins the effect. It sticks out. It steals the spotlight. And it opens the door to more of the same. So, I keep my home up, expecting you to do likewise.

But this “give-in-order-to-get” approach to sharing space only works if I first care about you.

The shared purpose of caring for our neighborhood does not, alone, unite us. Time spent enjoying each other's company is just as important. The more I care about you, the more my actions will be driven by my respect for you. That's why creating opportunities for neighbors to break bread and share good times together is so important.

And while respect is a start, it still isn't enough. Sharing buffer space requires more. Lines must be drawn, competing needs must be balanced. So, use restrictions draw baselines for “give-to-get” behavior.

Use restrictions reduce conflicts. But conflicts still erupt. When one does, it signals a need for some fine tuning in order to achieve the right balance between the competing interests of two neighbors.

Fine tuning between neighbors is best done by those whose needs overlap. When a feud between two neighbors spreads through the neighborhood, it distracts us from pursuing our main mission of caring for the neighborhood. So, we generally encourage feuding neighbors to disentangle themselves by working out a solution that suits their unique situation, as we support their attempts to work things out.

Sometimes one of us will have a bone to pick with the rest of us. That's different. That invites us to consider whether we've made a mistake and, if we have, to correct it. But when someone takes us to task for a wrong we have not committed, then persists in doing so after his mistake becomes obvious, he should in fairness bear those expenses his stubbornness forced us to incur.

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E. Summary.

We state these Common Plan Purposes as our reminder to ourselves and to others who may serve our community that our governing documents and our conduct of governance are all anchored in this shared belief:

Giving, Trusting, and Sharing are what transform this incidental partnership of neighbors into one that is truly capable of making life, lived here, an experience worth remembering.