On the Waterfront : Mission Viejo Group Is Making Waves Over Lake Membership Fee

When some Mission Viejo homeowners signed on the dotted line to become part of the “California Promise,” they made a promise of their own--to pay annual membership dues for Lake Mission Viejo.

Now a group of homeowners in the gated adult community of Casta del Sol, where a number of Lake Mission Viejo-member residents are elderly, is trying to get out of the mandatory $162 annual membership. They say they don’t use the lake.

They call themselves CALMM--Citizens Against Lake Mandatory Membership--and they know the change they’re determined to make is entrenched in the Mission Viejo Lake Assn.’s bylaws.

Those bylaws basically are the voluminous lake membership agreements Mission Viejo homeowners accepted when they signed the papers to their houses, and those bylaws are “set in concrete,” according to the lake association president.

CALMM, using money raised in Casta del Sol, recently hired an attorney to research its legal options.

“We do have a battle arm, now that we have our attorney,” CALMM chairman Milton Gerloff said. “They’ll see that we’re not a bunch of helpless old people sitting around hoping something will happen.”

Gerloff and 20 other residents make up the board of directors of CALMM, which in the past few months has picked up Mission Viejo supporters outside Casta del Sol.

They have written letters to the lake association and the Mission Viejo Co. (which turned over operation of the lake to the nonprofit association in 1978), but they have never spoken face-to-face with officials.

Jeff Miklaus, president of the lake association, confirmed that the association has received letters from CALMM but said the group has never asked to make any formal presentation at a board meeting.

He said that board members are willing to listen but that the lake association is bound by the deed agreements the homeowners signed. To change those bylaws would require approval by 75% of all lake members, Miklaus said.

“We don’t feel we’d be successful, because we would need a 75% vote of the people in the membership--that’s 75% of 14,000, cast in a sanctioned election to make a change,” Miklaus said. “Even if we wanted to change something very important, I know we’d have a tough time changing it. (The bylaws) are designed to be set in concrete.”

The 124-acre man-made lake is banked by five beaches, boat docks and expensive homes and condominiums. It is only accessible to lake members and their guests (for a fee).

Thousands of residents converge on the lake on weekends and during summer weekdays for fishing, swimming and sailing. It’s especially popular with families, some of whom say it’s more convenient than going to the ocean.

Gerloff said many in his group knew they were getting into lifetime lake membership when they bought their homes. But now, years later, they’re having second thoughts.

“We’re not against the lake, per se,” Gerloff said. “It’s great for people who have young families with children, but they pay the same as a widow in Casta del Sol who’s not even able to use the facilities. . . . We have many old, some decrepit people. Are they going to rent a paddle boat or swim? They’re lucky to get over there just to sit and look at the water.”

But the lake association board has spoken with its attorney, who said the board has a legal obligation to the majority of its members.

“We (board members) feel we have a pretty strong stand we are obligated to maintain,” Miklaus said. “We have a legal responsibility to our membership. We feel more damage would be done if we were to do what CALMM wants.”

CALMM members would like to see the lake operated more like a country club, where a membership could be sold to another household.

But Miklaus said every household in Mission Viejo is eligible to have a lake membership, so there wouldn’t be any other households to which homeowners could sell their memberships. Also, the lake association depends on the $2.3 million it receives in annual membership dues to run the lake.

About 14,000 households own lake memberships, Miklaus said. Of those, 10,000 are mandatory.

Before the lake opened in 1978, homeowners had the option to join the lake association; after 1978, membership became a mandatory agreement in the grant deed to Mission Viejo homes, similar to a homeowners association. Lake membership is for life and continues on the home with each resale.

The lake association has set a cap on mandatory memberships at 15,000, which Miklaus said will coincide with the build-out of Mission Viejo in the early 1990s, when the city will have about 22,000 homes.

“If membership were allowed to flow back and forth, it would be detrimental to the lake,” Miklaus said. “If it was run like a typical health club, we would see a rise and fall in membership--it would rise in the summer and decline in the fall. . . . (The lake) is run on a fixed budget, regardless of what the weather is like.”

CALMM members said they would like to see the issue resolved without going to court, but they are willing to take it that far if they have to.

On Friday, CALMM sent a survey about lake membership to 16,000 Mission Viejo residents through a local newspaper.

“It’s a numbers game,” Gerloff said. “We know we do not have enough people (against mandatory membership) to be more than those who want to be members.”

CALMM members don’t believe 75% of the lake members would want to change the bylaws, but they do think there may be enough to convince a judge to mandate a change in the purchasing agreement on the houses.

“We’ll probably end up in the courts,” Gerloff said with a sigh.

“Even if a judge said we had to change (the bylaws), I’m not sure how we’d go about it, to tell the truth,” Miklaus said. “I think it would end up being resolved at a high level.”

A LOOK AT THE LAKE

History: Mission Viejo Co. began construction 1974. Lake was dedicated to Lake Assn. and opened to association members on June 3, 1978.

Members: Current membership is 14,000 households (10,000 mandatory memberships and 4,000 voluntary memberships).

Size: 124-acre body of water has maximum depth of 70 feet and average depth of 30 feet.

Facilities: There are five beaches for sailing, swimming, fishing, boat launching and picnicking.