Abstract
From 1980 to 2000, 50 percent the new housing in the United States was located in a development project where it was subject to the governance of a private community association. The creation of a community association requires unanimous consent, which is achieved in practice by requiring home owner agreement as a condition of initial purchase in new developments. In an established neighborhood of existing homes and other properties, however, it is for practical purposes impossible at present to create a private community association. This paper proposes that state governments enact legislation to allow for retroactive creation of private community associations in established neighborhoods with a vote of less than unanimous consent. In this way, the same advantages of private neighborhood government that have proven so attractive to such large numbers of suburban homeowners in recent years could be extended as well into inner city areas.
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