Signs with obscene content prohibited

In addition to revisions to several rules, a new rule was implemented last week at the Canyon Lake Property Owners Association Board of Directors Meeting that prohibits the display of signs or flags with obscene content or that contain “fighting words.”

The fine approved for violating the new rule is $250 per week if the sign or flag is located on the member’s property (or “interest”) or $250 per day if located within a community setback or common area.

Regardless of size, the rule includes any sign, poster, flag or banner viewable from the common area.

The board defined “Obscene Material” as “matter, taken as a whole, that to the average person, applying contemporary statewide standards, appeals to the prurient interest, that, taken as a whole, depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and that, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

“Fighting Words” were defined as “those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.”

Four additional rules were revised, two of which clarify the existing “gate runner” rule and two of which adjust fines for two dog rules.

An existing rule that included “piggybacking” as a gate runner has been changed to allow for a written warning for the first offense instead of a fine. All member vehicles entering the community are required to wait for the gate arm to lower and re-open before entering. In some instances, a member will not wait for the gate arm to lower and will piggyback another vehicle into the community.

At the request of the Appeals Committee, the board approved identifying that the member who piggybacks another vehicle is not a “gate runner” as defined under another rule that carried a fine on its first offense. This new rule will impose a written warning for the first violation instead of immediately resulting in a fine.

The second gate runner rule to change simplifies a Vehicle Identification rule where those who attempt to enter a member lane without a proper decal and, after being asked to re-enter through the guest lane, refuse. The rule is now entitled Non-Authorized Entry and much of the former description has been extracted to simply state: Any person who enters the community after being asked to re-enter via the guest lane, or, exit the community, is in violation. The fines remained the same.

The two dog rules simply change the fine schedule to a written warning on the first offense, a $50 fine on the second offense and a $100 fine on the third offense. Prior to the changed rule, the fine was $100 for the first and each subsequent offense.

The two rules included the rule to leash or confine dogs, and the rule prohibiting dogs from various specified common areas.