CooperatorNews Chicagoland Spring 2021

Spring 2021
CHICAGO.COOPERATORNEWS.COM
CHICAGOLAND
THE CONDO, HOA & CO-OP RESOURCE
COOPERATORNEWS
A Look at Board
Powers
What a Condo or Co-op
Board Is … and Isn’t
BY A J SIDRANSKY
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205 Lexington Avenue, NY, NY 10016 • CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED
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CHICAGOLAND
THE CONDO, HOA & CO-OP RESOURCE
COOPERATORNEWS
Neighbor Noise
When Enough Is Too Much
BY A. J. SIDRANSKY
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Noise is an acknowledged part of urban life–particularly apartment living. Some of it—
traffi c, garbage collection, people shouting on the street—is external, and is controlled (theo-
retically, anyway) by zoning laws and noise ordinances. Some noise is internal, however, and
may be coming from upstairs, downstairs, or from the building next door. But even with the
understanding that city living comes with a certain amount of racket, how much noise is simply
too much—and what can you as a shareholder or a unit owner do about it? Th e answer is...it
depends.
Acceptable, ‘Normal’ Noise Levels
Deborah Koplovitz, a partner at the New York-based law fi rm Herrick Feinstein, notes that
“With noise issues, we get into the world of subjectivity. One person may tolerate a concert
pianist practicing the same phrase over and over all day, but for someone else, that may drive
them bonkers.” Th e sound of people walking on the fl oor above you “is normal,” Koplovitz
stresses, “but someone may perceive it as something other than that and say it’s intentional.
Minds can get lost.”
By the same token, dropping something on the fl oor at 3:00 a.m.
every night may not seem troublesome to the person doing it; the act
may not be intentional, but it’s also not normal—especially if it wakes
their downstairs neighbor nightly. In that case, the noise becomes in-
considerate and unacceptable.
As an attorney for community associations, Michael C. Kim, of
counsel to the law fi rm of Schoenberg Finkel Beederman Bell Glazer
in Chicago, has faced this problem many times. “Th ese are the most
When one buys a private single-family
home, it’s clear who the king or queen of the
castle is: the homeowner. When it comes to
condominiums and cooperative apartments,
however, the relationship between owner
and property is a little more complex. While
the shareholder or unit owner rules within
the walls of their unit, everything beyond
the drywall—from the wiring and pipes in
the walls to the shared common areas like
laundry and fi tness rooms, to the exterior
elements that hold the building together and
protect it from the elements—is governed by
the community’s board under the aegis of
its governing documents, which contain the
rules and regulations that cover a far-ranging
variety of issues and give the board author-
ity over diff erent aspects of how the building
or association is run. Governing documents
are themselves regulated by individual state
laws and statutes, and at times even local or-
dinances.
Th e hybrid nature of ownership pre-
sented by condominium and cooperative
homes gives many owners and shareholders
a skewed or incomplete—and oft en incor-
rect—understanding of who is responsible
for what in their community. Th is is partly
because few purchasers of condominium
and cooperative units ever really read the
governing documents of the community
they’re moving into, and also partly because
Plants, Money, &
Sustainability
The ‘3 Greens’ of
Landscaping
BY DARCEY GERSTEIN
In multifamily properties where diff erent
households share in the use, visual enjoy-
ment, and property value of landscaped out-
door elements, a lot of factors go into decid-
ing what and where to plant, how to maintain
it, and how much to spend. Th ese consider-
ations can be summed up as the ‘3 Greens’:
the vitality and vibrancy of plantings and
lawns; the ecological factors that determine
the best methods, placements, and products
that use the least resources and have the least
impact on the environment, and the dollars
that associations and co-op corporations
need to allocate in their budgets to design,
install, and maintain these areas.
To optimize each, the 3 Greens must be
considered simultaneously. For example, an
association with a limited landscaping bud-
get might think that skimping on mulch
will save them money—but according to
the pros, the right type of mulch in the right
amounts is important for soil health, water
conservation, and weed mitigation — all of
which saves money in the long run. Similar-
ly, a community with ample grounds might
think that laying a bunch of sod for sprawl-
ing lawns might be the right way to ‘green’
things quickly, instead of going through
the relative hassle of seeding grass from
scratch—but a sod workaround might ac-
tually be the least cost eff ective to maintain
and least ecologically effi cient or benefi cial.
Mix It Up
As with most things biological, diversity
is generally best. Having a combination of
soft scape (plantings and grasses) and hard-
scape (concrete, paving, turf) creates visual
appeal and can demarcate diff erent outdoor
spaces for diff erent uses. A carefully planned
landscape can also maximize water runoff
and absorption, take advantage of sun and
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