A phased development is built and sold in distinct stages rather than all at once — Phase 1 might sell out and be occupied while Phase 2 is still under construction next door. For the HOA, this means the association exists and functions before the community is actually complete, with new units, new owners, and sometimes new amenities being added to an already-operating HOA over a period of years.
This creates a fundamentally different situation than a single-phase community, where the HOA doesn't really "operate" in a stable form until the builder is finished and gone.
Because new units keep being added, the sales-percentage triggers used to calculate the end of the declarant control period can be harder to pin down — a builder might cross 75% sold in Phase 1, but if Phase 2 and 3 are still being planned, that percentage resets against a growing total unit count. Governing documents for phased developments need to spell out exactly how these calculations work, since ambiguity here is a common source of turnover disputes.
Some phased developments split turnover as well, with earlier phases transitioning to homeowner control before later phases are even built.
Larger phased developments are often organized under a master association, with each phase potentially operating as its own sub-association underneath it. This lets shared amenities and infrastructure get built and funded consistently across phases, even as individual neighborhoods within the development turn over to homeowner control on their own separate timelines.
