Removing racially restrictive language from our Covenants

Here's a little more background and information on removing Paragraph 6 from the Covenants than we could fit on the postcard...

The covenants were written back in 1949. It was a different era and different laws applied to buying/selling homes. Paragraph 6 reflects the attitudes and laws of those times. Since then, the Fair Housing Act has made the Paragraph unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the original developer didn't give the community a way to modify the covenants. So technically, paragraph 6 is still on the books. The community, to my knowledge and from my readings of old meeting minutes from the 1950s, never actually enforced the covenant. Yet, it is still there.

Sometime in the past, a practice was begun to blot out the paragraph on the HOA packets as unenforceable and unconstitutional. However, that doesn't technically or legally remove it from the covenants.

Last year, I happened to be reading the Maryland Homeowners Association Act (I know, I need a hobby). It seems that sometime in the last few years (2004?), the Maryland General Assembly addressed situations just like ours and created a way to remove racially restrictive covenants when no other option is available. (If you're a policy geek or need some sedative reading, you can find the procedure in the Maryland Code, under Real Estate, Title 11B Section 113.3. You can find it here.

All it takes to get the ball rolling is approval of 85% of the lot owners. Since every lot owner receives a bill for their maintenance fees, and nearly everyone pays, the Board of Governors decided this
was the most effective/efficient way to do the vote to get approval-- hence a seperate "ballot" that was included with your maintenance fees (the yellow card) vs. the ballot for the Annual Meeting.

For the person who was asking, and anyone else who's interested, here's Paragraph 6 which was probably blackened out on your HOA packets (and online):

"6. At no time shall any lot or any part thereof be sold, leased, transferred to or permitted to be occupied by any Negro, Chinaman, Japanese, or person of Negro, Chinese, or Japanese descent. This restriction is not intended to include servants or employees of the owner or occupant of said lot."

Sam Gallagher