About Seneca Park and Its Governance

Seneca Park Home Owners' Association (SPHOA) is the association of the homeowners of the Seneca Park community. If you own a home in Seneca Park, you are one Member of this Association. If you rent a home in Seneca Park, you are a Resident.

HOA MEETING

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2024 from 7 to 9pm
the 2024 ANNUAL MEETING
via Zoom teleconference only

ATTEND MEETING VIA COMPUTER:
https://tinyurl.com/SenecaParkHOA-meeting

ATTEND MEETING VIA TELEPHONE:
PHONE: 301-715-8592
Meeting Code: 856 0999 6045

Currently, we will hold meetings only via Zoom for the foreseeable future

The Seneca Park HOA Board is comprised of seven volunteer homeowners, elected by homeowners, who govern the community. The Board's main duties are to maintain common elements, manage the Association's finances, and ensure compliance with the governing documents of the Association.

For instance, the Board secures services like trash removal, landscape maintenance, tree maintenance and removal, snow and ice removal, repairs (streets, lights, playground, etc.).

SPHOA hired Vanguard Management as the management company.  SPHOA's Board and Vanguard work hand-in-hand to accomplish the Association's business. Vanguard performs many services for the Association, such as collecting dues, soliciting vendors to perform services (collect trash, remove snow, or maintain landscaping) or repairs (fixing lights, pavement, trees). Vanguard Management requests proposals from vendors for repairs or services, and then presents the proposals to the Board for evaluation and selection.

Budget for 2024

The Board of Directors for the Seneca Park Homeowners Association approved an operating budget for the fiscal year beginning January 1, 2024. There is no increase in the monthly assessments, which remain $104.50 for 2024.

The SPHOA BOARD of DIRECTORS

The following is each SPHOA Board member's name, position, and year his/her term expires:

Director name, Position, Year Term Expires

• Mr. Fred Bader, President, 2024
• Dr. Charles Wright, Vice President, 2025
• Ms. Lucy Fox, Secretary, 2026
  
• Mr. Joe Banaticla, Treasurer, 2026
• Ms. Dieneba Keita, At-Large/Director, 2024
• VACANT, Director, 2024
  
• VACANT, Director, 2025

Elections are held at the Annual Meeting in September each year. When the necessary quorum* of homeowners (17 homeowners, 1 per home) is not present at the Annual meeting in September, the election is postponed to the next meeting (usually in November but sometimes the first week in December).

The Board encourages prospective Board members - and everyone else - to attend all bi-monthly meetings. While tenants are welcome at all HOA meetings, only homeowners may vote in elections.

To run for a seat on the Board of Directors:

The primary business of the Annual Meeting in September is to elect Directors to the Board to fill seats that are expiring or are vacant.

If you are a homeowner and would like to run for a seat on the Board, please read the invitation letter from Vanguard Management.   If you would like to share the reasons why you wish to be elected to the Board, you are invited to complete a Candidate Questionnaire (see below) and email it to SenecaParkHOA@Gmail.com and/or mail it to Vanguard Management. Your answers to the questionnaire and anything else you would like to share will be posted on this page.

The responsibilities of a Director encompass all aspects of the operation and governance of the Association. Candidates should:

• ...have familiarity with the Declaration, By-Laws, and general policies, procedures and rules for the Association,
• ...be willing to give two to three hours every two months to Association business, primarily at bi-monthly Board meetings, and
• ...be willing to fairly represent all members of the Association.

Any homeowner may be nominated as a candidate from the floor for election at the Annual Meeting on  Wednesday, September 25, 2024. Any homeowner may nominate him/herself for election to an open or renewing position.

CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE:

HOA MEETINGS LOCATION, TIMES and DATES

The HOA Board Members, Homeowners, and Residents (i.e., renters) meet from 7 to 9 pm on the fourth Wednesday every other odd month [except in November when the fourth Wednesday conflicts with the Thanksgiving holiday, in which case the meeting will be moved to a different day.] A letter notice of the Annual Meeting is mailed to homeowners before the meeting.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, meetings were held in person at PlumGar Community Center. Now, all meetings are held on-line via ZOOM and will continue to be on-line only for the foreseeable future. Meeting info will be posted on this website.

2024 MEETINGS meetings, from 7 to 9pm on the fourth Wednesday of odd months, are as follows:

• September 25 - the 2024 ANNUAL MEETING
  
• December 4 "Second Try" Annual Meeting (atypical schedule due to Thanksgiving holiday)

Besides the bi-monthly meetings, Board members, Vanguard Management, homeowners and residents/tenants communicate often, mostly via email, regarding the Community's business. Homeowners and Residents/Tenants are welcome to contact Board members and/or Vanguard Management whenever they need to; no one should wait for a meeting to contact the Board and/or Vanguard. We invite you to email the Board at


SenecaParkHOA@Gmail.com 
or email/call Maria Nicholas, Community Manager
Maria@VanguardMgt.com
(301) 540-8600, ext. 3312
Info@VanguardMgt.com

NOTICE of the ANNUAL MEETING and ELECTION

The Board hopes that all of you attend the Annual Meeting in September and vote for Directors of the Board either in person, at the meeting, or via proxy (mail-in) ballot.

An Official Notice of the Annual Meeting for the Seneca Park Homeowners Association and a mail-in proxy ballot will be mailed to all homeowners in July. 

VOTING RULES for SENECA PARK HOA

If a quorum* of homeowners should not be achieved at the Annual meeting, Section 5-206 of the Corporations and Associations Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland will be invoked. Simply stated, this means that a subsequent meeting will be held at which those members present in-person or by proxy will constitute a quorum for the purpose of electing Directors.

*QUORUM: 10% of (or 17) homeowners, one per household.

History of Seneca Park

by Larry Lange, former long-time Resident and Director on the Board

Construction by Stanley Martin Companies, Inc. (now Stanley Martin Homes), began on Seneca Park in mid-1982. Route 355 was then two lanes wide, and Plummer Drive (just north of Seneca Park, by the Sunoco gas station) did not extend across Rt. 355. There was an old gas station about 200 feet north of the current Sunoco station; that old station actually had a "grease pit" (a large open pit wherein a mechanic would drive a vehicle over the pit, allowing him to walk down beneath the vehicle to service it - the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would definitely NOT approve). The only way to enter Seneca Park was from Wheatfield Drive, by the low stone "Seneca Park" sign.

At the top of the hill, approximately 150 feet past Wheatfield Terrace, was a steel highway barrier where Wheatfield Drive ended; past this barrier was undeveloped land (Seneca Park North, consisting of mostly single-family homes, which was not built by Stanley Martin Homes, was begun on that land in approximately 1990). Turning right onto Wheatfield Terrace, in the first line of homes on one's left, in Clover Meadow Place, were the model homes - two garage homes and four non-garage homes (the only place in Seneca Park where garage and non-garage homes were built in the same row).

The models were open to prospective buyers in early 1983. Three floor plans were available: the Spruce (on the first floor, the kitchen and powder room were in the front of the house, living room in the rear; on the second floor, three bedrooms, a full bathroom in the hall, and a master bath with a shower stall - the Spruce could be built with an optional single-car garage); and the Cedar (on the first floor, the kitchen was in the rear, living room and powder room in the front of the house; second floor with three bedrooms, a full bathroom in the hall, and a master bath with a closet and extended vanity counter, toilet and shower) - it too could be built with an optional single-car garage. A third model was available, which did not offer a garage as an option; it had a "great room" on the first floor (kitchen and powder room in the rear; three bedrooms upstairs with only a full bathroom in the hall).

White Barn Court, July 1983
Photo by Larry Lange

This was the least expensive model (few of these homes were built); prices for it began at $66,900. Prices for the Spruce model, without the garage and no other options, began at $72,900; with the garage and no other options, the price was $77,900. Prices for the Cedar model began at $81,000. Homes on the end of each row cost an additional $1,500 (the exterior end wall required aluminum siding, and these units received a window at both the bottom and top of the staircase). Some available, extra-cost options buyers could choose for their soon-to-be-built town homes included: two master bedrooms (each with their own full bath) in lieu of the standard three bedrooms; a fireplace; upgraded kitchen appliances (all appliances were then the "new" almond beige color); upgraded wall-to-wall carpeting and padding; and a finished basement. Of interest is that for some items in all the town homes there was no choice: all the kitchen cabinets in Seneca Park town homes were the same style and wood type; all kitchen countertops were the same off-white beige laminate, and all upstairs bathrooms had the same pattern of sheet linoleum for their floors.

The land on which Seneca Park was built had been an automobile junk yard; where the current gravel parking lot is for the walking trail at the base of Wheatfield Drive and Rt. 355 was situated a large metal quonset hut that contained the offices for the junk yard. That quonset hut remained for a year or so during the construction of Seneca Park's 165 town homes.

Construction of the town homes proceeded down Wheatfield Terrace: after the homes in Clover Meadow was almost completed, construction began on the homes in White Barn Court; then it moved on to the homes in Weatherburn Place (this is the only court that has all garage units, and where one row of garage town homes has all three floors above ground); then onto the houses around the tot lot on Wheatfield Terrace, coming back up the hill to Black Forest Way. The MPDU homes ("Moderately Priced Dwelling Units"), required by federal law, were in the rear half of Black Forest Way. Although these homes looked approximately the same as the other town homes in Seneca Park, they only had one floor plan, and no basement: the first floor had the living room across the front of the house - a closet and powder room across from each other were in the center of the first floor; and the kitchen/dining room ran across the back of the house. Because they had no basements, a storage shed in the backyard was provided with each MPDU home. The second floor had three bedrooms and one center-hall full bath. Presumably it was Montgomery County that decided whether these homes would either be rented (for $750 a month) or sold; originally they were rented, and after a specified period of time, they were "reconditioned" to some degree (possibly new roofs and kitchen appliances) and sold.

The last court of homes to be completed was Wheatfield Court; these homes were finished in either late 1984 or early 1985. Because Washington Gas Company had had a moratorium on gas installations for new homes in 1982, Seneca Park was built as a total electric community. By the time construction began on Seneca Park North, that moratorium had been lifted. An offer was made to the owners of Seneca Park town homes: if a percentage (something like 65%) of the owners of the homes in Seneca Park secured a contract to have two out of four appliances in their homes replaced with gas appliances (to replace either the stove, hot water heater, heat pump, or clothes dryer), Washington Gas would run the gas supply lines into Seneca Park for no cost. This percentage of Seneca Park homeowners was not reached, and Seneca Park remained a total electric community.

A December, 1984 Washington Post ad for Seneca Park touted:

Garage Townhomes on the Park. $527 a month can move you above the crowd into Montgomery County's finest townhomes. Don't miss these country classics at Seneca Park. Set up high on a quiet, wooded hill are 3 full levels with 14 imaginative elevations to choose from, plus garages, walk out basements, porches, double bay windows, and more. Move up in the world for $527 a month. Priced from $80,400.

[this ad included a photo of one of the model garage townhomes with a new Mustang convertible, top down, backed halfway into the garage].

Prices obviously had risen from their January 1983 starting points. Architects had specified the "elevations" of the fronts of all the town homes, plus the exterior color schemes, which mated each siding color with specific coordinating colors for the roof shingles, exterior trim, and front doors and garage doors. Homeowners were given new choices for "updated" colors for exterior trim, front door, and garage door colors in 1993 (which were to be utilized by homeowners as soon as possible).

Rt. 355 was widened in 1997 in front of Seneca Park (following Montgomery County conducting an environmental and wetland impact study) to its current six lanes - construction on one side was completed, with all traffic then being routed onto those new lanes, which allowed the three new lanes on the other side to be completed. The original stone "Seneca Park" sign at the intersection of Rt. 355 and Wheatfield Drive (which below the words "Seneca Park" had then stated "A Stanley Martin Community") had to be disassembled and moved back up Wheatfield Drive several feet; when it was reassembled, the line "A Stanley Martin Community" was left off, since Seneca Park North apparently paid for the moving of this stone sign, and it was not a Stanley Martin community. A joint meeting of the HOA's for Seneca Park and Seneca Park North was held to discuss requesting the installation of a traffic light at Plummer Drive and Rt. 355, which was subsequently accomplished.

Many changes have occurred around Seneca Park since its inception in 1982: besides the widening of Rt. 355 from approximately Montgomery Village Avenue north into Germantown, a totally inadequate, two-lane bridge over the railroad tracks on Rt. 355 just south of Chestnut Street was replaced by the current, six lane bridge (The Father Stanislaus Cuddy Memorial Bridge) alleviating the constant bottleneck the old bridge had caused; Germantown, and Gaithersburg, experienced tremendous growth in both housing and commercial establishments; and in 2013 the previous Gaithersburg High School buildings were replaced with brand new, state-of-the art buildings constructed in front of the old High School; the old school's buildings were torn down.

Seneca Park has always been a very attractive, sought-after place to live. Its management firm, Vanguard Management, in conjunction with the members of the Homeowners Association Board (that Board meets every other month, starting in January, on the fourth Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. in the Plum Gar Community Center in Germantown), and every resident, constantly work to assure that Seneca Park stays the beautiful place to live it was designed to be back in 1982.