Governance Documents

The Chatham Woods Home Owners' Association was incorporated as a Vermont non-profit corporation in September, 2003.  The incorporation documents are included in the Declaration book received by every home owner before the completion of the purchase of the home, but a copy of the incorporation document is available here:  CWHOA Articles of Incorporation.pdf.  The Association is a "C Corporation" as filed with the Federal IRS for tax purposes.

The Association operates under and is governed by VSA Title 27A, Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, of the statutes of the State of Vermont.

The Chatham Woods community was created under terms defined and committed to by the Declarant (ACM) in a 2003 Public Offering statement and in a Declarations document and its subsequent amendments (eight amendments, the latest dated 19 July 2019).  The Declarations include commitments to the State and Town regarding the use of the land and operation of the Association by which the community is legally bound.  In particular, the developer's construction of the community was very restricted in its impact upon the heavily-forested property by the Town of Williston Development Review Board 2001 Final Approval and Conditions, by the State's Act 250 2003 Land Use Permit, and by Town and State wetlands restrictions -- all of which remain legally binding upon the Association.  

Association governance and operational details are provided in the Bylaws of the Chatham Woods Home Owners' Association and subsequent amendments.  The Bylaws were last amended (second amendment) in November, 2013.

To make it easier to search both the Declaration and Bylaws at one time for information, the combined, fully-amended Declaration and Bylaws documents are available here: Combined Declaration and Bylaws.   Remember that they are two separate documents, but combining the documents into one PDF makes it much easier to search for information in one place.

The Declarations and Bylaws must conform to Vermont statutes and may occasionally be amended as statutes changes.  Major changes in statutes in 2012 required major changes in Bylaws that year.

The Rules and Regulations primarily describe community standards rather than ownership rights or governance procedures.  They are approved by the Board after review and comment by Association members.  Many of the rules are taken from the Declaration or Bylaws (and noted as such) and may only be changed by 2/3 affirmative vote by all owners and, for the Declaration, by 51% affirmative vote of all mortgagees.

In purchasing or leasing a home in Chatham Woods, owners/leasers agree to be bound by the Declarations, Bylaws, and Rules and Regulations of the Association.  Owners are automatically members of the Association and participate in Association governance.

NOTE: The Declarations and Bylaws documents accessed by the links above are unofficial text versions made available in PDF format for easy searching.  If errors were introduced in the transcription to text from the scanned images of pages filed with the Williston Town Clerk, the Town Clerk version is the authoritative version.  Please report any errors in transcription to the Board so they may be corrected.  You may go to Town Hall to review and copy the original documents.  For your convenience, we provide in our repository the scanned images of the official Declarations and Bylaws documents from which the text copies were created.

• PDF Text Version of Fully-Amended Declaration and Bylaws

• 2003 Public Offering Statement

• Original Declaration

• Declaration Amendment 1

• Declaration Amendment 2

• Declaration Amendment 3

• Declaration Amendment 4

• Declaration Amendment 5

• Declaration Amendment 6

• Declaration Amendment 7#1 [26 April 2016]

• Declaration Amendment 7#2 [25 July 2019]

• Legal Opinion Regarding Roof and Perimeter Drain Maintenance

• Bylaws - First Amended, 2012

• Bylaws - Second Amended, 2013

• Rules and Regulations