An Act Incorporating the Old Lyme Shores Beach Association

The owners of a freehold interest in any land within the limits specified in section two of this act, in the locality known as Old Lyme Shores in the Town of Old Lyme, shall be, while they continue to be owners of such land, a body politic and corporate by the name of The Old Lyme Shores Beach Association, and by that name they and their successors shall be a corporation in law capable of suing and being sued and pleading and being impleaded in all courts, and shall be vested with and may exercise the powers hereinafter specified. All persons who are over twenty-one years of age, who own or who may own any land within said limits shall, while they continue to be owners of such land, be members of the Old Lyme Beach Association, shall be entitled to vote at any meeting of said association and shall be eligible to hold any office in said association. Joint owners of any freehold interest in any land within said limits shall be considered for voting purposes, as one member of said association. Husbands and wives of said owners shall be members of said association but shall not be empowered to vote at any meeting of said association except as proxies for said owners.

The limits and territory of said Association shall be that part of the development known as Old Lyme Shores, located in the Town of Old Lyme bounded and described as follows:

• Northerly by land of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company;
• Easterly by other land of said company and by a line drawn from the southerly side of the state highway known as Route 156 to the south boundary of this development one foot Easterly of the east boundary of land with frontage on the east side of Billow Road;
• Southerly by Long Island Sound; and
• Westerly by a line drawn from the northerly boundary to the northerly side of said Route 156 along the westerly boundary of land with frontage on the west side of Sea Spray Road and by a line drawn from the south side of said Route 156 to the south boundary of this development one foot westerly of the westerly boundary of land with frontage on the west side of Sea Spray Road;
• being the same land described in a certain map entitled “Old Lyme Shores, Old Lyme, Conn., Daboll & Crandall, C. Engrs., New London, Conn.,” dated Dec. 1, 1931, on file in the Town Clerk’s office in said Old Lyme.

The limits and territory of said Association may be extended at any time upon written application of the owner or owners of other lots, provided such application shall have the approval of a majority of the members present at any annual or special meeting warned for that purpose and thereupon such land shall be incorporated within the limits and territory of said Association and the owner or owners thereof shall be a part of said body politic and corporate.

The objects of said Association shall be to provide for the improvement of the land in said territory, it’s maintenance as a residential summer resort and for the health, comfort, protection and convenience of the inhabitants thereof.

The first meeting of the members of said Association shall be held not later than July 15, 1947, at such time and place within the limits of the Town of Old Lyme, as the committee hereinafter named shall appoint in a notice warning such meeting, and shall elect, from said members, a Board of Governors of six members, two for the term of one year, two for the term of two years, and two for the term of three years, and at each annual meeting thereafter, successors to the members whose terms then expire shall be elected for terms of three years each. The members of said Association, at said meeting and annually thereafter, shall elect a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. The president shall be, ex-officio, a member of the Board of Governors but shall have no vote as such except in the case of a tie. The members of the Board of Governors and the officers of the Association shall hold office until their successors shall be elected and shall have qualified, unless sooner disqualified by ceasing to be owners of land within the limits of the Association or upon their removal for cause by a vote of two-thirds of the total number of members of said Association taken at a meeting duly warned and held for that purpose. Annual meetings shall be held at such time and place within said limits as a majority of the Board of Governors shall decide and warn.

Francis D. Ahern, Walton Hall, Fennessey Canty, Gerard E. Loiselle, William P. Quish, Thomas F. Henry and Harold J. Hines or a majority of them shall constitute said committee and shall have power to warn said first meeting, which warning shall be written or printed and signed by a majority of said committee and a copy shall be posted in a public place within the limits of said Association. Notice of such meeting shall be directed to each member by first class mail, to his her place of residence as shown on the records of the Old Lyme Shores Club at least seven days prior to the date of the meeting. All subsequent meetings, annual or special, shall be warned by the secretary of said Association in such manner as may be described in the by-laws of said Association.

The president of said Association shall be the chief executive, shall preside over all meetings of the Association and the Board of Governors and, generally, perform such duties as are customarily performed by presiding officers. The vice-president, in case of the absence or disability of the president, shall assume the duties thereof. The secretary shall sign all warnings, notices, orders and by-laws and shall keep a record of all actions of the Association and the Board of Governors. The treasurer shall keep an account of all monies received and paid out and shall render a report at each annual meeting and at other times, at the request of a majority of the Board of Governors. The Board of Governors may appoint an attorney-at-law as counsel for said Association and authorize payment to him for services rendered.

Any vacancy occurring in the membership of said Board of Governors between annual meetings of the Association shall be filled by a majority of the remaining members of the Board of Governors, until the next annual meeting, at which time the members of the Association shall elect as above prescribed, a member of the board for the unexpired portion of the term. Any vacancy occurring in any office between annual meetings, shall be filled by the Board of Governors for the unexpired portion of the term.

Said Association may buy, sell, lease, mortgage, hold or own such land or personal estate as it’s purposes may require, and the Board of Governors may enact by-laws or ordinances for the following purposes:

• to regulate travel over the highways within the limits of the Association, when, in the opinion of said board, the free and unrestricted use of said highways may become dangerous or inconvenient;
• to appoint and remove police officers to act within the limits of said association, who shall have the powers of constables within said limits for the purpose of making arrests for violations of any regulation or by-law of said Association or any law;
• to clean and improve any or all ditches and to care for the beaches and waterfronts;
• to keep streets and all public places within the limits of said association quiet and free from noise;
• to regulate the parking of motor vehicles; to build, repair and improve highways, roads and sidewalks within the limits of said association;
• to require owners or lessors of land or buildings within the limits of said association to remove leaves and other inflammable material or obstructions from the highways adjacent to or in front of property owned, leased or occupied by them;
• to prevent the deposit upon property within the limits of said association of refuse garbage or waste material of any kind which, in the opinion of said board, may endanger the public health or safety or become a nuisance;
• to remove garbage, filth, nightsoil, ashes and other refuse matter within said limits and to authorize such person or persons as the board may designate to make entry on any private property within said limits for the purpose of taking and removing such filth, garbage, ashes, nightsoil or other refuse;
• to establish building lines;
• to protect any property from fire, including the regulation of the number and kind of cottages and structures that may be erected or placed on any building lot within said limits;
• to prohibit the carrying on within the limits of said association of any business other than that conducted within said limits at the time of passage of this act;
• to regulate peddling as provided for in towns under the general statutes;
• to restrict the right of entry on the property of said association and to promote the planting of trees and shrubbery and other work leading to the improvement of the general appearance of the property within the limits of said association.

Said association shall have exclusive charge and control of all roads within the limits and shown on the maps referred to in section two which are not under state or town control.

Said board of governors may fix a penalty for each violation of any such by-laws, ordinances or regulations, of not more than twenty-five dollars, and the penalties may be recovered in an action brought for the purpose in the name of The Old Lyme Shores Beach Association before any court having jurisdiction, for the use and benefit of said association.

No by-law, ordinance or regulation shall take effect until ten days after its passage nor until it shall have been posted on a signpost within the limits of said association, to be designated by the board of governors, for at least seven days. Any by-law, ordinance or regulation enacted by said board of governors may be repealed by a majority vote of the total membership of said association taken at a special meeting, duly warned, provided a petition requesting such a meeting signed by not fewer than fifteen members of said association shall be filed with the secretary within seven days after such by-law, ordinance or regulation shall have been posted on a sign-post designated by the board as hereinbefore provided. Any by-law, ordinance or regulation enacted by said Board of Governors may be repealed by a majority vote of the total membership of said Association at any annual meeting. A certificate of the secretary of said association of the posting of any by-law, ordinance or regulation as provided herein shall be prima facie evidence of such posting.

The method by which water is supplied within the limits of the association at the time of the passage of this act is confirmed, but the association is authorized to purchase the property of any existing water company and after such purchase, to operate a water supply system for the domestic use and the fire protection of the inhabitants of the association; to make contracts for such water supply with any person or corporation having the right to furnish water within the limits of said association; to construct, lay and maintain water mains, pipes, hydrants or reservoirs within the limits of said association; to make use of any lands and of the ground or soil under any railroad, street or private way for the purpose of laying and maintaining such pipes and mains in such a manner as to least damage the owner thereof and to least obstruct or impede travel thereon, causing all damage to be repaired and all damage sustained by any person or corporation by reason thereof or in consequence of the interruption of travel to be paid to such person or corporation; to regulate the distribution and use of such water and to establish the prices to be paid therefor. Nothing herein shall be construed to authorize the association to impair the sole exclusive right of The Shore and Lake Corporation or Avy B. Smith, their heirs, successors and assigns, to install and maintain water pipes in the streets and to operate a water system within the limits of said association.

Written notice of the rate of such tax and of the amount apportioned to each member of the association shall be sent by the tax collector on or before the following August 1st and such tax shall be due and payable on the first of the following September, and, if such tax is not paid when due, it shall bear interest at the rate of six percent per annum from the date when it was so payable. The tax collector shall have all the powers of collectors of town taxes and shall pay over the taxes as soon as collected to the treasurer of the Association. Each such tax, if not paid when due, shall be a lien upon the property upon which it shall be laid and may be collected by suit in the name of the Association by foreclosure of such lien. Such lien may be continued by certificate, which shall be recorded in the land records of the town of Old Lyme, pursuant to the provisions of the general statutes relating to the continuance of tax liens.

The Board of Governors shall prepare and submit to said Association, at each annual meeting, a budget and recommend a tax, for the purpose of and based upon such budget, of not more than ten mills on the dollar on the total value of real estate within the limits of said association as shown by the last-completed grand list of the town of Old Lyme, which budget and tax rate shall be posted on the signpost of said Association not less than ten days before such annual meeting. Said Association shall have the power to decrease such budget and rate of taxation recommended by said Board of Governors, but in no case shall it have the power to increase the budget and rate of taxation. The rate of taxation so recommended by said Board of Governors shall be final unless decreased by the Association at such annual meeting. Said Board shall appoint a tax collector to collect such taxes, and a rate book shall be made out and signed by the clerk of said board of governors on or before the second Saturday in July in each year and warrants may be issued for the collection of money due on the rate bills, pursuant to the provisions of section 168F of the 1941 Supplement to the general statutes.

The Board of Governors shall have the power to abate any tax if any taxable property shall be destroyed by fire or the elements prior to the date when such tax shall become due.

Twenty members of said Association shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and any member may designate in writing any person to act as his or her proxy at any meeting of said Association provided such written proxy be executed before a notary public or any other person competent to administer oaths.

The restrictions, at the time of the passage of this act, applying to property within the limits of the Association as noted in deeds shall remain in force until changed as hereinafter provided, but in no case shall such restrictions be removed prior to the date provided in such deeds. The existing restrictions contained in deeds may be extended in time from the date of expiration thereof, but nothing herein shall be construed as authorizing the board of governors or the association to change restrictions in deeds. The board of governors shall appoint a duly qualified person, preferably a member of the association, whose duty it shall be to inspect all plans for proposed buildings, and, from time to time, to inspect such buildings during process of erection to determine their conformance to the restrictions and by-laws. Appeals from the rulings of said building inspector may be taken to the board of governors. Property owners seeking approval of such plans shall pay to the treasurer a fee of one-half of one percent of the actual cost of the building or buildings approved, at the time approval shall be given. Failure to build to plans as approved shall constitute a violation and the board of governors may petition any court of jurisdiction to direct the demolition of that part of the structure erected contrary to such approved plans and the erection in lieu thereof of a building conforming to the approved plans.

No permit to sell spirituous and intoxicating liquor within the limits of said association shall be granted, without the approval of two-thirds of the total membership of said association voting at a regular or special meeting, duly warned.

Any person aggrieved by any order, regulation or act of said association, its officers or agents, shall have the right of appeal to the court of common pleas for New London county or to a judge thereof in vacation, by petition setting forth the reasons of appeal to which shall be annexed a citation to said association, which shall be served upon its president or secretary within five days after the issuance or refusal to issue any such order, regulation or act and shall be returnable to said court or judge within five days after the service of such petition. Said court, or judge in vacation, shall review the facts and enter a decree thereon. Costs may be taxed as in civil actions. During the pendency of any such appeal, such orders, regulations or acts, or such refusal to grant the same shall remain in full force and effect until set aside or vacated by decree of said court or judge.

If any by-laws or regulation adopted by THE OLD LYME SHORES BEACH ASSOCIATION shall conflict with any valid ordinance of the town of Old Lyme, the ordinance of said town shall prevail. Any tax lien levied by said town of Old Lyme on property within the limits of this association shall have priority over any lien for taxes levied on the same property by said association.