Private land becomes “safety zone” for Maricopa County Air Park HOA

By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities

Think that you don’t have to worry about HOA horrors because you don’t own property governed by one?

Think again.

Jacoba Nobel-Frima owns a parcel of land adjacent to the runway of fly-in homeowners’ association Thunder Ridge Air Park in Morristown, Arizona. Recently, Maricopa County Supervisors approved an amendment to a runway permit for the HOA. That permit no longer requires the existing runway to maintain a safety zone in the event that an aircraft inadvertently misjudges the location and length of the runway.

Attorney for Nobel-Frima, Sam Coppersmith, says that, by default, the HOA intends to use his client’s land as the safety zone.

At the moment, there is no structure on the land, but the County’s recent actions make it impossible for the owner to construct a home in the future. It looks like another case of HOA overreach, this time a potential land grab from an adjacent non-resident of the association. If the landowner intends to fight this, she can expect an expensive legal battle ahead.

 

Local HOA’s runway rules spark conflict (ABC 15 VIDEO)

Jon Erickson

 

Excerpt:

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors sided with the HOA on Wednesday in a decision that eliminated the need for a portion of the pavement on the runway’s south side to serve as a safety zone.The resident who filed the complaint, Jacoba Nobel-Frima, owns the land just south of the runway. She lives in the Netherlands.

“This is reverse Robin Hood zoning, taking from the Dutch to give to the poor, poor private aircraft owners,” said Sam Coppersmith, a lawyer for Nobel-Frima.

Read more here:

http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/west-phoenix/local-hoas-runway-rules-spark-conflict