by Deborah Goonan, Indepedent American Communities
This month, we start with Crickentree, in Blythewood, South Carolina. There, a golf course is going into bankruptcy. The investment firm that holds the loan proposes redeveloping the failed golf course as a new subdivision with 450 homes.
Homeowners surrounding the golf course are not happy. They say that dense residential development will cause the value of their homes to drop.
Some homeowners think the HOA should purchase the defunct golf course and manage it themselves.
But industry experts also note in the following report that, although the number of golfers has increased, an oversupply of golf courses in the Midlands has resulted in a “weeding out” of less desirable, poorly maintained clubs like the one in Crickentree.
Neighbors fear property values will tank after another Midlands golf course closes
By Jeff Wilkinson wilkinson@thestate.com
July 28, 2018 05:01 PM
Updated July 29, 2018 09:42 AM
In 2008, Sandy Khan bought her dream home in the upscale Crickentree neighborhood in Blythewood.
The house is located on the 8th fairway of the Golf Club of South Carolina at Crickentree. Khan enjoyed sitting on her back porch in the mornings, gazing at the manicured fairway and the woods beyond as an occasional golfer came swinging through.
“It’s very peaceful,” said Khan, a Blythewood insurance agent. “It’s quiet. You have birds and animals. It’s just a beautiful sight. It’s priceless.”
But that could change soon.
Two weeks ago, the national investment firm that holds the loan on the course announced to neighbors in an email that the course had gone bankrupt and foreclosure proceedings had begun. In a public meeting with residents, an attorney for that firm — E-Capital — told neighbors the intent was to subdivide the golf course into small lots and build 450 homes.
Read more here: https://www.thestate.com/news/local/article215572275.html#storylink=cpy
A press release recently announced that a second lawsuit against the developers of Bella Collina, the Tuscany-themed country club development near Orlando, has been dismissed. Former Plaintiffs in the case dropped out, with one Plaintiff accusing Attorney Tim McCullough of forging is signature on legal documents.
In the second case, as in the first, the lack of evidence supplied by McCullough led to Federal Judge Paul G. Byron’s determination that there is no basis for the lawsuit.
Federal Judge throws out “baseless” lawsuit against the developer of Bella Collina
JJ August 5, 2018
(Mike Goldberg, Legal Watch USA)
Orlando, FL: United States Federal District Judge Paul G. Byron last week dismissed the sham federal complaint against the developer of Bella Collina, the luxury country club community just west of Orlando. This complaint, now the second filed by beleaguered Orlando Attorney Tim McCullough on behalf of Plaintiffs James and Virginia Shelton was dismissed by the court as being a “shotgun complaint” and noted that it was loaded with wild conspiracy allegations against the developer.
The first complaint was dismissed for the very same reasons in early 2018. In the original complaint filed in early 2017, the court noted that the plaintiffs accused the developer of no less than 12 major federal crimes that had no basis in fact and therefore completely unsupported. Some of the crimes claimed that were committed were RICO, embezzlement, and conspiracy among others. Oddly, Attorney McCullough even threw in a wild accusation of man slaughter into the salacious complaint. The plaintiffs claimed that in a previous incident a couple years before the complaint was filed, one of the defendants somehow caused a resident to die of a heart attack after a POA meeting. Numerous sources close to the case who did not want to be named stated that the claims were “outrageous”, “a complete work of fiction” and went on to say that the lawsuit was designed to inflict maximum damage to the defendant’s personal reputations. They further went on to state that this was done because McCullough advised that they would receive a huge payout from the developer to make this lawsuit go away quickly, which quite simply is a “shakedown” lawsuit at the end of the day.
…
The main defendants named in the complaint were DCS Real Estate Investments, Dwight C. Schar, Paul E. Simonson, Randall F. Greene, Rick Arrighi, and others associated with them.
Read more:
Golf courses and water features go hand in hand. But most golfers and homeowners don’t realize that the bodies of water on a golf course serve as official or unofficial storm water retention ponds.
When ponds are not properly designed or maintained, they can turn in to putrid cesspools, as is the case at Vista Valencia Golf Course.
Rain water drained into the basin, then became stagnant. That caused foul odors.
Homeowners adjacent to the pond complained to their HOA for five years, to no avail. Finally, someone contacted Los Angeles County Public Health, who inspected the pond, issuing an order to its owners to drain the pond for good.
Valencia golf course to drain stinky water hazard
Jiim Holt, The Signal, Santa Clarita Valley
August 1, 2018, 10:05 am
For five years, residents living near the Vista Valencia Golf Course say a stubborn stinky smell emanating from a stagnant brown water hazard on the links has left them scrambling to find the right agency to correct the problem.
Since 2013, they’ve called their homeowners association, the county, the city, sanitation district, public works crews, health officials and owners of the golf course, trying to find someone — anyone — who could the fix the problem and stop the stench.
Until now.
The company that owns the Vista Valencia Golf course — seen on the east side of Interstate 5 between Lyons Avenue and McBean Parkway — announced Tuesday it is removing the stinky water this week.
Read more:
When homeowners purchased their properties in Coffee Creek, they expected the golf course to remain forever. But the golf course was privately owned, and not affiliated with the HOA. In 2017, it closed abruptly.
Now land owners propose turning the golf course into a mixed use development of multifamily homes, apartments, restaurants and commercial retail.
Owners are not happy. The Planning Commission meets August 21st.
Homeowners, developer feud over Coffee Creek Golf Course future
by Emily Collins
Wednesday, August 1st 2018
EDMOND, Okla. — Homeowners in Edmond’s Coffee Creek neighborhood are teeing off with a developer who wants to turn the community’s former golf course into a mixed-use residential area.
This comes as the Edmond Planning Commission prepares to take up a new proposal for the property.
Around 300 homeowners call Coffee Creek home and not one wants to see their neighboring golf course turned into a concrete jungle.
Read more:
https://okcfox.com/news/local/homeowners-developer-feud-over-coffee-creek-golf-course-future
In Lake Lindero, the HOA leases its Country Club to Golf Projects Lindero (GPL). But in the past year, there’s been a great deal of confusion over who has responsibility for maintaining the dam and the lake.
More than a year ago, some homeowners filed complaints with regulatory agencies, accusing GPL of withdrawing water from Lindero Lake to irrigate the golf course.
Following homeowner complaints about depletion of Lindero Lake, inspectors determined that no water was being used for golf course irrigation.
But, in order to comply with state regulations, a sluice gate would be required to regulate water levels in the lake.
So, in 2017, the HOA ordered an emergency special assessment of $675, to pay for the installation of a sluice gate at the lake’s dam. The new gate will release water downstream from the reservoir over the dry summer months.
But homeowners think that GPL management should have paid for the gate, not the HOA. A new HOA board has been elected, and now homeowners are staging protests, while the HOA seeks legal action against GPL.
Sides squabble at Lake Lindero HOA
Protest erupts, board and management company at impasse
August 02, 2018
By Stephanie Bertholdo
sbertholdo@theacoarn.com
The Lake Lindero Homeowners Association board of directors and Golf Projects Lindero, the HOA management company for almost 25 years, stood at loggerheads this week over a wide range of issues dating back to 2017 when a 50-year-old sluice gate inside the lake’s dam had to be repaired at homeowner expense.
On July 28, several dozen homeowners picketed the community golf course and swimming pool at Lake Lindero Drive in Agoura Hills demanding that David Smith, the GPL owner who leases and runs the property, step down as the HOA manager.
The approximate $300,000 gate repair and lake dredging project came on the heels of a 2016 complaint filed by several homeowners who alerted state water officials that GPL might be depleting Lake Lindero water levels by diverting supplies from the reservoir to irrigate an adjacent nine-hole golf course.
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