Status Update on Request for Declaratory Judgement
As we move into a more intense portion of this now 3 ½ year negotiation/litigation between the ownership of The River Club and the Preserve Plantation Organization and the current interpleaders on behalf of homeowners—two different groups, I personally and many other homeowners wanted to go on record regarding the promises we have made to the involved parties dating back to a status meeting at Stoel Reeves in March of 2023, until today. We do this in the name of complete transparency and so long as legal backstops imposed by the courts or because of specific limitations placed on us by our attorneys we will continue to be as transparent to the neighbors as possible. We again invite comments from any homeowners via our website and as long as they are civil and accurate, we will post them.
Before posting our letter to The HOA Board and subsequent responses from the HOA attorney we wanted to make two important points.
In March of 2023 in the presence of all attorneys representing all interests in this matter, I told the agent acting on behalf of ownership, who had previously represented himself as the owner of the golf course that I would not bring suit against him. This was in the context of a letter he had sent me earlier that month asking me to discontinue my opposition to the Special Area Permit (SAP) application of the River Club before Garden City. Despite that, I assured him that going forward I would not jeopardize his standing with his ownership group by initiating such an action. I (WE) have kept that promise. Our case is NOT against him, but the ownership group.
I promised on July 4th of 2023 to both General Pierce Roan the then President of the HOA Board and Ms. Andrea Fogleman who was the oncoming HOA President that I (we) would not ever bring an action against the HOA Board. We have kept that promise.
Over the past several months, out of concerns for the ongoing costs of litigation to Plantation Homeowners that the HOA Board could accrue because of litigation, both the objectors and the interpleaders—different groups, offered to enjoin the HOA Board in our action against the River Club owners, pay all the costs of that action and to pay for the indemnification of the Board against possible actions against it in the future. They instead chose to withdraw from the notice to comply and the suit itself.
We purposefully chose not to include the HOA in our case against the River Club ownership group. Included in the filing of recent motions before the Fourth District Court in our case was an affidavit from the President of the Plantation HOA Board. For months both sides have tried to extricate homeowners and the HOA Board from this specific action. In the end they made the decision to insert themselves into the middle of the case. WE DID NOT PLACE THE HOA BOARD INTO THIS LAWSUIT. THEY PLACED THEMSELVES INTO IT. WE KEPT OUR PROMISE TO THE BOARD AND TO THE HOA HOMEOWNERS. They have now encumbered themselves with the costs of representation.
We have asked the Board to represent our interests before the Garden City Fathers regarding the changes to the (SAP) that the Brighton Development will be presenting before the Garden City Fathers on March 31st. Both our group and representatives of the HOA Board have been told that we would not be welcomed, nor should we attend that meeting. We appreciate the HOA Board asking to be present and we hopefully look forward to their stewardship in guarding neighborhood interests before the Garden City P&Z and City Council.
Our concern from the very beginning is that the interests of The Homeowners in the Plantation, the interests of Garden City, and the interests of the ownership of The River Club have occasioned the inability of certain groups to act impartially due to competing interests. This issue in our opinion has been central to the inability of parties to resolve the issue surrounding the golf course “open space”.
We will accept the ruling of the Court regarding the Master Declaration Contract. Win or lose. We only want to be good stewards of what has been handed down to us. The only way we can keep our golf course intact is by having a strong and active HOA Board, that will be willing to act through the AECC and execute the Master Declaration Contract equitably amongst all parties subject to that contract.
Only our side can make the promise of keeping the golf course for future generations. We need the (MDC) and a strong HOA Board to keep that promise.
— John Livingston