Lynchburg, VA HOA Rules: Board Governance (2026)

Lynchburg's Zoning Ordinance folds property owners' association governance into the development-approval process rather than a stand-alone HOA statute. Sec. 15 applies whenever an applicant pursues a residential cluster, planned unit development or traditional neighborhood development under Article VIII, or otherwise proposes common open space or shared facilities serving multiple owners. In each case a property owners' association or other corporation must be established, and the developer needs the City Attorney's sign-off on the incorporation documents before the association can own and maintain the common areas.

The association has to be up and running before the City gives final approval, records the plat, or allows the first lot to sell, so no buyer closes into a development without a functioning governance structure. Once formed, membership is mandatory for every resident of the cluster subdivision or applicable development, and the association's documents cannot discriminate by race, creed or sex among members or shareholders. The incorporation papers must also spell out how the association is governed and administered, and disclose the extent of common interest each individual parcel owner holds in the commonly held tract.

All common open space, properties and facilities identified on the approved plat must be preserved for their platted purpose, and any later lease or sale of that common property requires arrangements ensuring the leased or sold parcels keep participating in retention and maintenance of the open space and community facilities, certified by a City-issued certificate of compliance. Separately, when City Council attaches conditions to a conditional rezoning, Sec. 6(c)(6) bars the City from requiring the developer to create a property owners association under Chapter 25 (Sec.

) of Title 55 of the Code of Virginia if that condition would force members to pay assessments for maintaining public facilities the City itself owns.