With all of the differences of opinions existing among residents and property owners in Lake Holiday, there is one issue on which we can all agree:  we need to rescue our property values.  This alone is the reason why the Board's current proposal for what they are calling a partial sanitary district is a cause that needs to be defeated.  It is not enough to simply not support their proposal, but instead give full support to a new, extremely advantageous plan that will pull homeowners and lot owners out of the mire in which we have been sinking and put us back in the market as a desirable and beautiful community in which to live, buy, and sell.  If we want to finally see a reversal in the continuous, downward spiral of Lake Holiday we must procure as many signatures as possible in support of our proposal to the County for a full sanitary district.

As a full sanitary district, we as residents will continue to enjoy the privacy of our gates, lake, clubhouse, and all other amenities.  The differences, however, will be that our roads will all be brought up to code and maintained year round, our speed limits will be enforceable by legitimate police officers, and our homes and land will receive the much needed protection from vandalism and theft.  These are services for which we are already paying, yet never will be received in our current status or under the Board's proposal.  In fact, should Lake Holiday fall prey to the Board's half-baked plans we will be reaping none of the benefits a sanitary district has to offer, but instead every aspect of our current situation will greatly worsen.

The Board suggests we follow the same dysfunctional path in paying the new tax assessments: merely divide up the total costs equally among all lot and homeowners.  This is sure disaster, as lot owners whose values have sunk to the $1500 range will not be willing to pay ANY more assessments.  Many of them are not paying already, and rightly so, as they have no benefits whatsoever to owning here.  If these lot owners dump their properties, those remaining will have to bear their burden.  Given the current, unfavorable economic condition this extra burden will be too great for many more here, and they will bail out, passing on an ever increasing load on to everyone else.  Do you see the pattern yet?  The end result will be a derelict community of vacant homes, undesirable renters (desirable renters won't rent in the place this will have become), and a handful of others whose common sense has long since escaped.  The notion that a select few could sustain this entire community all by themselves in their own private wonderland is beyond naive and incredibly stupid.  What the Board fails to realize is that they need EVERY owner and MORE to revive and flourish. That will not happen under the Board's proposed partial sanitary district.

Under a full sanitary district the HOA is defunct.  The Board will only exist to propose a budget for approval by the Board of Supervisors.  May we remind everyone that the Board of Supervisors is elected by registered voters of Frederick County, a much better representation of ourselves than the unqualified, special interest group running Lake Holiday?  Our dues will now be a special property tax assessed according to the property values.  These taxes are, naturally, deductible on your income tax return.  THERE WILL BE NO OTHER DUES OR ASSESSMENTS OF ANY KIND.  There will be no more double taxation or, as the Board's plan will allow, triple and quadruple taxation.  This plan will produce lower assessments for the vast majority of property owners, because the assessment will be applied to every property owner under a fair model. There won't be any exemptions that might allow an owner with hundreds and hundreds of lots to escape paying his fair share. This will encourage membership lot owners to keep or sell their lots instead of having to simply abandon them because they will be asked to pay only their fair shares.  This will restore affordability to families who purchased at Lake Holiday only to find their property values destroyed by assessments that spiraled out of control, with no end in sight. Those of us who wish to sell our homes - something that we will all do at some point - will experience rising property values. That will represent a much-needed turnaround from the collapse in values we have suffered because our community's excessive dues have driven buyers away.

This is perhaps our final opportunity to resurrect Lake Holiday from the depths of darkness to the light in which it should be shining.  There was once a reason we all fell in love this community, whether it was the glorious and tranquil beauty of the lake, a family oriented, safe place in which to raise our families, or the prospect of enjoying rising real estate values.  There is also one reason why our dreams have turned into this horrific nightmare: the high dues and excessive regulation exacted by our Board have made our community unaffordable and chased buyers away.  We cannot feed this legacy of failure by continuing to invest our hopes and hard-earned money into yet another Board-created catastrophe.  We can't allow them to drive the final nail into our coffins. 

Join us, sign your name with us, stand up and fight with us, and let's get back on the right track. We will be circulating our petition to encourage the creation of a full sanitary district. We'll be at the front gate, going door to door, sending hundreds of emails, and calling friends and neighbors. I'll be posting more links and information in the forum. Let's get it done before it's too late.

Bill Masters

PS - Because of the volume of calls and emails on this subject, we've created a separate email address to encourage you to support creation of a full sanitary district. Write to us at LakeHolidaySanitaryDistrict.