Golf Carts

Electric golf carts in our community have suddenly become a hot button issue for reasons beyond our comprehension. Let’s talk about the history of golf cart use in our community and how the rule allowing them was established.

Back in the spring of 2021, several residents submitted an inquiry to the office asking if electric golf carts were permitted in the community. The Board of Directors researched our CCRs to see if there was any restriction on golf carts and found none. The Board’s next step was to survey the community members to see if this was something only two people were in favor of, or indicative of the wishes of a larger majority of members. An online vote was sent out through Election Buddy on May 22, 2021. Unfortunately, the wording of this was incorrect and gave the impression to our members that it was a Bylaw Amendment vote, when it should have been worded as a survey or solicitation of feedback from our membership. The Board regrets this error and made sure the results of this were published via mass communication to the entire membership with the correct language. Here is the mass communication sent out on July 1, 2021

It was therefore established that electric golf carts are allowed in this community. The Board also reviewed and ensured that wording on future solicitations for members’ feedback was correct, such as the amenity use survey sent out May 30th of this year. We humbly apologize for any confusion caused by the wording of the communication sent out on May 22, 2021 and took steps to make sure this didn’t happen again.

Going back to the original issue of golf carts, both the CCRs and our Bylaws give the Board of Directors the ability to amend, add, or change the community Rules and Regulations as needed or desired. Specifically related to this topic, please see Section 3.1 (Q) and (X) of our CCRs. The Board, since 2020, has always done this with the input of our members in a transparent and inclusive manner, even though it wasn’t necessary, because we feel at the end of the day it is our duty to represent the entire community and not just one or two vocal members. We are loath to give the perception of favoritism or special treatment to one or two residents and that is why we published to the entire community that electric golf carts are allowed. Anyone who wishes to operate and drive an electric golf cart as defined by Penndot in our community may do so. We want to make it clear that this is not a special privilege being reserved for a single family.

From the Boards’ perspective, electric golf carts are practically silent and do not by definition go faster than ~25 mph. Therefore they are not a catalyst for speeding or noise. We have feedback from some members that golf carts were outvoted during our CCR amendment process in 2022 and therefore banned. This is not accurate, as golf carts were not mentioned or included in the proposed CCR amendments voted on in 2022.

It is not the intent of the Board of Directors to punitively or preferentially create random Rules and Regulations. We are bound by our fiduciary duty to use care and reasonableness when establishing rules, regulations, and associated fines to all members of the Glen at Tamiment Property Owners Association. We welcome and solicit feedback from our members and encourage members who feel an issue needs to be addressed in a public forum to utilize their rights as prescribed in our governing documents. We appreciate your continuing support and dialogue and hope this clarifies the issue at hand.