(Photo by Casey Kuhn - KJZZ)

The Palm Valley Phase I subdivision in Goodyear, Ariz.

Last year, the Arizona Legislature passed a bill allowing homeowners' associations to regulate Level II and III sex offenders living in their community. A Goodyear HOA voted this month to ban those sex offenders from living there.

The Palm Valley Phase I subdivision sits just north of I-10 and includes a local park and elementary school.

Curtis Ekmark, the homeowners' association’s attorney, says the new rules banning Level II and III sex offenders would affect one person who currently lives in the community. He says the resident is working to get his sex-offender status changed.

“If the status doesn’t change, then they would be in violation of the association’s documents and the association could force them, get a court order compelling them to leave the community.”

State law says HOA’s can ban Level II or III sex offenders, and this ban would force out a homeowner — if they were an offender, they could still own property in Palm Valley but couldn't live there.

But attorney Augustus Shaw who represents other HOAs says that ban could be overreaching by extending to property owners instead of just renters.

“There is uncertainty, a lot of it, as to whether the association could do this," Shaw said. And therefore, unless they want to pay couple hundred thousand dollars for an attorney to litigate this matter, it’s probably not a good idea.”

Palm Valley residents approved the ban in early December. Sex offenders living in the community would be forced to move within 60 days.