James City County, VA HOA Rules: Board Governance (2026)

Sec. 19-70 sits in Chapter 19, Subdivisions, and applies whenever a major subdivision sets aside land for common recreation or conservation use, or leaves homeowners responsible for maintaining shared improvements. Before any lot in that subdivision may be approved, recorded, sold or used, the developer has to execute HOA documents the county attorney accepts as to form. Subsection (a) requires the documents to establish the nature of the permanent organization, including mandatory membership, and subsection (b), the governance rule, requires them to state how the association shall be governed and administered.

County staff read that as more than a boilerplate reference to a board of directors: the recorded declaration has to actually describe the governance structure, not just assert that one exists. The same 'satisfactory to the county attorney' standard reappears in Sec. 19-66(b), which requires a private-street subdivider to show the county attorney that a functioning homeowners association or other legal entity is in place before streetlight maintenance costs can be assigned to it, and in Sec. 19-73(d), which imposes an identical governing-document requirement on the shared-care entity for a private driveway in a minor subdivision.

None of these sections dictate a specific governance model, board size or election process; the county's role is limited to confirming that the recorded documents actually establish one before it will let a plat record. The current version derives from Ord. No. 30A-27 (Dec. 15, 1999) and was last amended by Ord. No. 30A-42 (Aug. 13, 2013).