Our Side of the Story
The past several years have been complicated and at times contentious around our beautiful Plantation neighborhood. I have not been able to find a single homeowner who has not been primarily interested in preserving the integrity and continuity of our treasured Open Space—the golf course. That is not the issue. The argument is about how we preserve what has been given to us by those who came before us, and how we continue that legacy for our children and grandchildren.
On one side are a group of homeowners—mostly club members, who feel the best way to secure the legacy and stewardship responsibilities that we share with the club owner, is to develop a portion of the golf course and use the monies from a promised limited commercialization of the property to protect the remaining golf course—open space. The agent acting on behalf of the ownership syndicate that owns the property has made that very case with the words, “Only I can save the golf course”. From the day of his arrival on the scene in 2017, I was an early proponent and advocate of his plans for the golf course property. I was impressed with his commitment to stewardship. His promise of only developing along State Street, and to never allow development to metastasize into the neighborhoods seemed reasonable and reassuring.
When many neighbors saw the scope and magnitude of the Special Area Plan (SAP), they expressed their concerns to me and to the agent acting on behalf of the owner. No longer was State Street going to be in play, but a planned development on 22.5 acres of 720 single family units including holes 10, 8, 18, 7 and 11 were included in the development.
Lynn and I planned to simply sell our home that is on Fair Oaks Place that we were sure would provide access to the development and also provide access to the greenbelt for legions of bicyclers and hikers. We were approached by a group of neighbors that included several attorneys and one retired Federal Judge that showed us that we actually had the ability to control what was developed on the golf course. Our unique Master Declaration Contract (MDC) and the accompanying CC&Rs that has been given to every buyer of property in our Plantation neighborhood since 1977, and been used in every land division and change of zoning of the property except one—which was never approved by the Garden City Fathers, was the way that we could secure the integrity of our neighborhood, secure property values, and provide for future improvements and development throughout the neighborhood including the golf course open space property.
The legalities do not need to be reviewed here, they can be reviewed in the public record at Garden City Hall, and on this website.
The facts and plain language of the (MDC) are what are in dispute. Before The Garden City Fathers, representations were made about the validity and applicability of the (MDC) by a person who sat on both the HOA Board and The Garden City Planning and Zoning Commission at the same time. That person felt the Master Declaration Contract was not applicable to the golf course. We disagree with that assertion. We actually believe that in that person’s presentations before the City Fathers, he potentially made a material misrepresentation of facts before a Quasi-Judicial body that had a material impact on the votes that both the P&Z Committee and City Council made. Both governing bodies refused to recognize his obvious conflict of interest
In March of 2023 we invited all parties—The HOA Board, The ownership group of The River Club Property, and our objector group led by Mr. David Leroy, to join together and find a resolution to the issue. At a meeting at Stole Reeves in March of that year the owner could not make a promise that the entire golf course would not be developed. If all sides were confident in their legal positions, then together we could resolve the issue up front and early on int the process. Both the HOA Board at the time and the ownership group refused our request. We again later in March of that year, asked them to show us their legal reasoning that would be the predicate upon which their representations to the community and The City Fathers would rest, and they refused to do so.
Earlier this year we again asked the ownership group and The HOA Board to join us in our request for Declaratory Judgement. Both groups refused. We even offered to pay legal fees and indemnify the HOA Board from any litigation against them moving forward and they again refused. We again ask the question: IF THE OWNERSHIP GROUP IS SO CONFIDENT OF ITS LEGAL POSITION, WHY WON’T YOU PLEASE JOIN US IN OUR REQUEST FOR DECLARATORY JUDGEMENT?
As we move forward, we want everyone to know that we remain open to a “joint request and filing” by all the parties before The Court. If The (MDC) contract does not apply, then that would have been good to know earlier on in the process. We tried many times to engage all parties.
For the “Objectors” and the “Interpleaders”—different groups, there are now three questions that remain unanswered:
DOES THE MASTER DECLARATION CONTRACT APPLY TO THE GOLF COURSE?
Why does the ownership group not want to join us in our request for Declaratory Judgement?
Why does the HOA Board not want to join us in our request for Declaratory Judgement? Are they representing the interests of the River Club Ownership Group, or the Plantation Neighborhood? As the HOA Attorney advised, “You can’t wear two hats”.
I am not an attorney, but respected legal minds who have reviewed this case many times over have informed our group that our case is very strong and winnable. It is my humble opinion that the answers to question 2 and 3 have to do with the fact that “Ownership” and The HOA Board—are they not one and the same(?), are not as confident in their legal positions as they have represented to City Government, the River Club Membership, and to the Plantation Neighbors.
We hope our case will come before a Judge in the next few weeks. We will live with whatever decision the Court makes.
We also invite any representative of either the HOA or The Ownership Group of The River Club to present their case on our website, preserve plantation.com. As long as the words are civil and accurate, we will publish them. In the spirit of transparency, we believe all sides should avail themselves of any opportunity to present their positions so all can make an informed decision about the validity, the uniqueness, and plain language of our (MDC).
— Dr. John Livingston