Beware of the Shiny Object

I come from a family of developers and civil engineers. The idea of property and property rights is in my DNA.  In fact, I am the only physician in two generations in a family of engineers.  Family gatherings are very boring.  You should never ask an electrical engineer to “cut the turkey” without a tourniquet in the kitchen! Electrical, civil and nuclear engineers, several have been involved in large real estate and commercial developments, have taken an interest in what is happening in our little community. Despite our very different political opinions, when we talk about the Plantation legal case, two words always come up: PROPERTY RIGHTS AND STEWARDSHIP.

When I first met Will Gustafson, I believed we were kindred souls. I believed we both appreciated the duty of “stewardship”.  I don’t believe that today. He sat down with me in the winter of 2017-18 and gave me a detailed description of how he would use only the 10th fairway along State Street to develop a mixed-use apartment, retail commercial project.  The rest of the golf course would remain intact and there was an Island that could be used in the middle of the Bosie River that could actually expand the golf course.  I was “all in”.  He talked as though he was going to be a “good steward” of the property.  I believed him at the time to be the owner of the property as did many residents and club members.  I was an original contributor to Save Plantation.  I believed all our neighborhood especially Fair Oaks Place was going to be shielded from development. 

Three years later things changed. What was an early cancer that could be mitigated, metastasized.  Plans became known to “select insiders” at the club of the development extending into the neighborhood, something that had been promised to me that would never happen. I remained supportive of Mr. Gustafson, but I also became curious.  Sometime after the carve out of the 16th Tee Box----Glass Creek, into three lots----something we had never discussed, I saw that a precedent was being set for the golf course being carved up.

After neighborhood meetings, HOA meetings, P&Z meetings, and City Council meetings I later became suspicious.  I found out that Mr. Gustafson was not the owner of the property but was acting as an agent for an unknown syndicate, so at least by that time he was unable to make any promises at all, because only the owner could make those kinds of assurances and promises. After one of those meetings where Mr. Robert Taunton presented, I asked the question about the Master Declaration Contract and the CC&R’s having any impact on a Special Area Plan (SAP) application and whether a Court had ever ruled on its applicability.  He honestly, I felt at the time, said he didn’t know.

In June of 2023 I was approached by four neighbors who asked me to help our Plantation Community to get together to get that question answered.  About a week later I attended one of two meetings where the HOA President, a former Federal Judge and other neighbors attended.  After seeing the presentations of those people that included the Pleadings of the Judge before the Garden City Planning Commission that are a matter of public record, I said that this wasn’t what I wanted to do in my retirement, but it seemed like a worthy cause.  I jumped into the fray.

Then I started to review documents----records from HOA meetings, and City Council meetings reviewed the minutes of the Federal Judges pleadings before the City Fathers.  I noticed that there was a symbiotic relationship between those organizations that I would later come to understand was collusive and that continues today.  There was someone or some person or some legal firm that was pulling all the strings.

Documents were found showing the City Attorney Communicating with the attorney for the developer--syndicate that asked and received for legal advice.  That attorney then claimed she was doing “pro bono work” for Garden City!

The final straw for me was when both The Garden City P&Z and City Council voted that a member of the P&Z committee did not have a conflict of interest by his serving simultaneously on both the HOA Board and the P&Z Committee.  His comments made a material misrepresentation before a quasi-judicial body that materially impacted a vote that put our neighborhood in the crosshairs of developers----whoever they were, in perpetuity.

By August 15th of 2023 I knew the “fix was in”.  Even though my home is not severely impacted by the SAP or Brighton development, I felt a moral obligation to support my neighbors, and I feel a moral obligation to expose the processes at City Hall and in our neighborhood. 

After talking to members of my family about our situation, they are confused as to why Mr. Gustafson proceeded in the fashion that he did.  Why did he not come before the HOA and homeowners and mitigate the burdens that the (MDC) placed on his project.  Their answer:  He either thought that he could have attorneys’ “scrub” the document, apply the legal principles of letches and estoppel to the document, or that he could capture key players on the HOA or City Fathers who could help him circumvent the document before the neighbors even would know what happened. 

He could also try to “run out the clock” before any court and change the (MDC) itself.  In order to do that he would need the cooperation of the HOA Board, and the coordination of attorneys representing the parties who have tried to circumvent that document.

My answer to what has happened is this:  Mr. Gustafson felt that going around by the back door would be easier and more likely to succeed than having to ask a Judge to rule on the validity of the (MDC).

Honorable people, developers, businessmen and financiers have gone the front door route and found out the answer to that question. That is precisely why they didn’t proceed and why the golf course has remained intact since it was founded.

The entrenched “powers that be” and lawyers in “12 story law offices”---Mr. Gustafson’s words, were the ones that could have made this all not happen by addressing the issue up front.  With the help of Garden City Fathers, they have been able to play a shell game hiding the shiny object—the MDC, either behind a campaign contribution or lunch at the Arid Club, or the promise of WORLD CLASS FACILITIES.

The final “straw man” argument that “only I can save the golf course” is specious at best, and after a few drinks at the bar at the club it can easily be attested to by several members proving that there is still a place in the world for compurgation---look it up.

THE SHINING OBJECT IS ABOUT TO COME INTO THE LIGHT OF DAY.

—Dr. John Livingston