Has Sun City Core Become Obsolete?
The Price of Un challenged Corruption
For those of us are old
enough to remember the ‘60’s, life was very different than it is now. The mere thought of computers seemed like
living in a Buck Rogers story. People
were not as environmentally aware, then.
Most families made do with one vehicle.
The Sun City Civic
Association (SCCA) is the name of the Home Owner’s Association that manages
4,762 units in an area it calls the Core.
Sun City is a residential community founded by Del Webb in the mid ‘60’s
as an adult only community of age 18+.
It was founded that way so the developer could avoid building schools or
being assessed for the cost of building schools. Look it up at the Sun City Library. There is a book written about the founding of Sun City by Del Webb.
Buyers were told that
CC&R’s would protect their property values and assure their purchase would
be a good investment. The CC&R’s
adopted by Del Webb were modified boiler plate restrictions written for
condominiums built in the “60’s without land. Landscaping standards then were “minimum
maintenance”. Thus
most of the 4,762 homes were landscaped with rocks, green painted perma rock,
or any other horrible substance that could be glued or painted in front and
back of the Core homes that could substitute a nice cool green lawn. In those days they traded beauty for no
maintenance. Who was around to challenge
the reality of the CC&R’s or that ugly landscaping was better than unwanted
maintenance as long as buyers bought into the Core. These were the ideas of 46 years ago which
are still accepted as Gospel in the Core today.
The people who bought into
the Core were considerably younger, healthier and more energetic when they
first bought their $22,000 to $35,000 price range homes (which even in those days
were a great bargain). For many it was
an opportunity to own property they could not afford anywhere else. What made their purchase even more attractive
was what SCCA calls the campus with its swimming pools, hobby shops, and other
amenities. Not having to spend any time
on maintenance free landscaping meant the residents had more time to play and
golf. These were amenities that prior to
Del Webb’s Sun City were really only affordable to the higher economic brackets
of society. Finally people who could
barely afford to own their own homes were enjoying amenities they never
imagined possible in their impoverished lives.
The people who became the
seven SCCA Board were popular and gave little cause to be challenged. Suddenly
people who never enjoyed any status were big shots. They thought Sun City
Core was the Beverly Hills of Riverside County.
The titleholders of SCCA’s
only source of information about their--then very isolated community was The
Core Courier. Anything that was said in
the Core Courier was accepted as Gospel.
There wasn’t any one around with either enough knowledge or enough guts
to challenge the The Courier and the Sacred Seven Board Members of SCCA who
served for twenty straight years. The
Boards power then was absolute. They did,
said, and ruled as they chose unchallenged.
As time passed, the residents
grew old, tired, and sickly. Less and
less members used the facilities. More and more became apathetic due to ill
health and old age. Less members
on important issues. Those
who did vote didn’t understand the full impact of what they were voting. The
residency turnover in Sun City has never been a large enough percentage to
replace the loss of vital voters. A good
guess might be that about 40% of the original buyers still live in their homes.
The SCCA Board had to continually
reduce the number of voters to make a quorum. Very few new residents who bought in the 90’s
and 2000’s have been interested enough in the Campus and SCCA clubs and
activities.
The Board grew more powerful
and more corrupt as less and less people challenged them. They arbitrarily began to claim Sun City was a
senior only community even though it was not. No one challenged them. In
1997, the CC&R’s still permitted residents 18+ to live in the Core. The
sacred seven (SCCA Board) began to worry that it might get discovered they were
not a 55+ only community and decided to correct the situation. That is when
Jean Roberge began "project 55" and illegally recorded with the County
Recorder that the majority of the Residendeces voted to amend the CC&R’s to
the age restriction of 55. No one challenged her—not the county
recorder’s office that had no reason to challenge her, not the titleholders who
didn’t understand what she did, and not HUD, FHA, or the media, ever had the
courage to challenge this illegal age restriction. One man by the name of Doug Gibbs who sued
the county and won. SCCA claimed he
lost.
Who would have imagined way
back then that just about every household would eventually own a PC, at least three
vehicles, HDTV, two cell phones, and working on “living green.” It is now the Twenty first century, and there
are thousands of new homes built right to SCCA borders. These homes are designed for today’s living
styles with computer rooms, large walk in closets and master baths, three and
four car garages, special wiring for cable, ceramic tile and hardwood floors,
environmentally compatible, and best of all beautiful landscaping with green
grass instead of rock and green painted rock.
Today’s home buyers want the benefits of these up to date
amenities. The new home builder’s feature them.
It is like traveling in a
time capsule when driving from one of the new communities into the Sun City
Core. The difference is immediately
shocking. Suddenly there are less trees,
green grass is gone, and there is very little landscaping. The roofs are composition instead of
tile. Many need painting, patching, and
tender loving care. Many more look as if
the front door hasn’t been opened in ten years.
There are more single car ports and less garages, and the streets look
abandoned—no walkers, no dogs, no children, no toys, no people, no interest, no
love, no joy, no life. It looks like a
city of the living dead. Sun City Core is
a Hamlet unto itself in the center of its own imaginary universe it created 46
years ago.
These are the ideas SCCA are
still trying to enforce 50
years later without regard for the changes in life styles, new family
neighborhoods built to the core’s borders, increase of population, SCCA is now under governorship of the city of Menifee, todays' cost of living has risen by 40%and modern day cost of living, the need for
older families to assist their younger families, and the fact the CC&R’s
are obsolete. Though it appears they get away with it, much of SCCA’s actions have been illegal, That the 55+
only restriction was established illegally. The 55+ only restriction is a
liability to the property values of SCCA Core. Except for invasion of
senior privacy 55+ only fails to offer one senior benefit. It still fails to keep children from the senior only community as the residents enjoy abundant visits from their grandchildren which means those children hating residents still have to suffer children making noises of joy and happiness.
SCCA continue to enforce
CC&R’s. It concerned itself less
with titleholders’ rights and more with absolute control of titleholders. It was so impressed with itself it posted
signs all over Sun City saying “We enforce CC&R’s here.” Now, SCCA Board which is more
interested in personal power than the highest and best interest of the
residents of Sun City Core, wants to persist in keeping Sun City an illegal 55+
community, continue harassing people with obsolete CC&R’s, prevent the area
from being upgraded and updated by permitting families to move into Sun city.
