Beachway Park Community Association Bylaws

Approved January 23rd, 2025

2025 Revised and Amended Bylaws

Rules & Regulations

Master Occupancy Agreement

Other Resources for Reference

Florida Statute Chapter 719

Cooperative Shareholder Rights and Responsibilities

Why is Beachway Park incorporated?

Beachway Park is a Florida CH 719 cooperative-type housing community. A cooperative or "co-op" is a housing model where residents are formally incorporated into an ownership entity like a homeowner association but do not own the property beneath their units (coaches). Instead, each resident is a shareholder in the Beachway Park corporation based on a share purchase of park property (lease-hold) and ownership of a coach-type manufactured home. In other words, the Beachway corporation owns the park property and issues a share, and leases the property to resident shareholders. Owners or shareholders share in the expenses of the park common areas.

The Beachway Advantage

According to the Tampa Bay Times, resident ownership of a mobile home park is considered the gold standard for keeping mobile home ownership affordable. Residents are in control of Beachway operation and not some outside management company or landlord running the park for profit. Instead, owners share in the expenses of common areas and can invest in the community, upgrading the property and facilities. Co-ops like Beachway are typically less expensive than condominium ownership associations, professionally managed mobile home parks, or communities where mobile homeowners only rent the property. This is possible since Beachway operates at a cost, collecting maintenance fees from residents to pay operating expenses. Residents’ shares in Beachway typically appreciate as the property values of the park increase. The Tampa Bay Times also notes that of the county's approximately 600 mobile home parks, only about 100 are resident-owned.

In addition to the lower financial cost of residency in Beachway Park Inc, there is a social benefit to consider. Because Beachway is cooperatively run, more inclusive social interaction occurs because everyone pitches in to ensure all the work necessary to operate the Park is properly performed.

Beachway Administration

As a resident-owned mobile home park having ~ 156 units, Beachway has a Board of Directors, which is necessary to ensure the Park is operated efficiently and meets its legal obligations as a corporation. The Board of Directors consists of seven Director positions elected from among its residents. Five of the board positions (Grounds, Social, Infrastructure & Maintenance, Finance, and Development) have committees consisting of resident volunteers. A Director is the committee chairperson. Together, the committee chairperson and resident volunteers take on many of the tasks involved in the park's operation. The President and Vice-President are the two other elected executive positions.

Important Governing Documents

It's helpful to remember that co-ops must abide by Federal and Florida State laws that govern many aspects of community living. The Federal Fair Housing Act, and Chapter 719 of the Florida Statutes, also known as the Cooperative Act, is a chapter of law that governs cooperatives in the State of Florida, are just two examples. However, HOA’s and co-ops can be more restrictive than other housing options when it comes to ownership requirements and obligations. These restrictions are found in Beachway’s three administrative documents:

·         Master Occupancy Agreement (MOA) Original Certificate of Incorporation (From June 1977)

·         Beachway Park Rules & Regulations (Revised March 2024).

·         Bylaws for the Beachway Corporation - Approved January, 2025

The Master Occupancy Agreement is essentially Beachway’s incorporation document that delegates property rights to residents and outlines its organizational structure. This document contains critical details of the agreement between the Beachway Park Corporation and individual resident shareholders. In a sense, the Master Occupancy Agreement functions as a leasing agreement. The Master Occupancy Agreement can be viewed at this link.

Beachway’s Bylaws found at this link are the executive committee’s operating manual establishing regulations for the functions of the Beachway executive committee, prescribing its role and the area of responsibilities for directors or committee chairs. Said another way, the Beachway corporation bylaws provide details beyond the MOA document, delegating and limiting the authority of the executive committee and its directors.

Another document, Beachway Rules and Regulations outlines community standards and are established collectively by its residents and executive committee. Rules and Regulations are regularly updated using feedback from resident workshops. One explanation for the level of sweeping detail in this document is that Beachway has no landlord other than the corporation and there are no tenants, only shareholders. In the absence of somewhat arbitrary decisions made by a landlord or manager, the Rules and Regulations document provides details that govern important aspects of daily park operations and community responsibilities. For example, Beachway Rules and Regulations describe building and maintenance standards and requirements for background checks of residents and renters. Current Rules and Regulations, (2023 update) for Beachway Park can be viewed at this link.

Beachway Park’s Mission

To be a well-maintained, financially stable, inclusive, and respectful residential retirement community

Beachway Park’s Vision

To encourage the best retirement lifestyle while maintaining and enhancing shareholder value and services