Photo by Jonathan Spiers/Richmond BizSense
A fee of roughly $1,000 per home was approved in a vote to fund improvements for the privately owned golf course of the Chesdin Landing community in Chesterfield, Va. But a suit was filed by homeowners who claim the vote was misrepresented by not specifying that covenants would be amended to put the golf course under the POA’s services, opening the door for future assessments without homeowner approval. At an initial hearing, a judge sided with developers that the case should be dismissed, and the homeowners must now decide whether to file an amended complaint or appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court.
A dispute over assessments charged to homeowners in the Chesdin Landing community in Chesterfield, Va. to help fund the neighborhood’s privately owned golf course is playing out in court, Richmond BizSense reported, with an initial round going to the community’s developer and Board of Directors.
Dismissal is pending in a lawsuit filed in Chesterfield (Va.) Circuit Court that alleged the Board of the community’s property owners association hoodwinked residents into amending the POA’s covenants, causing them to potentially pay out upwards of $300,000 collectively for the benefit of Lake Chesdin Golf Club, Richmond BizSense reported.
The suit was filed in December by Bernadette (“Bernie”) Stewart-Johns, a 14-year resident, on behalf of all Chesdin Landing homeowners, who took part in a vote last summer that approved a roughly $1,000-per-home fee, Richmond BizSense reported.
Stewart-Johns alleged that Board members, including Chesdin Landing developer W. Scott Camp, misrepresented the vote by not specifying that the covenants would be amended to put the golf course under the POA’s services, Richmond BizSense reported. That opened the door, the suit argued, to future assessments without homeowner approval.
The suit alleged that the golf course, which anchors the 3,000-acre community in southern Chesterfield (Va.) County, was profitable last year, despite claims by Board members that it was in “dire financial need” and that the assessment was necessary to keep the course going and prevent residential property values from falling, Richmond BizSense reported.
It also argued that the vote violated the state Property Owners’ Association Act, because the money from the assessment is benefiting a privately owned business and not common areas or other responsibilities laid out in the POA’s covenants, Richmond BizSense reported.
While those covenants have since been changed and recorded, Matthew Weinberg, Stewart-Johns’ attorney, said the Board’s actions still violated the POA Act, Richmond BizSense reported.
“That’s really the bulk of the issue—whether or not you can get a [POA] to provide funds to a privately owned golf course or to a privately owned business, when the allocation of those funds was not included in your original articles of incorporation and bylaws,” Weinberg said.
At a March 16 hearing, Chesdin Landing’s attorneys argued that a subsequent POA vote held earlier that month made two of the lawsuit’s claims moot, leading Judge T.J. Hauler to side with them in their request to dismiss the case, Richmond BizSense reported.
An order granting the request remained pending, Richmond BizSense reported. Once entered with the court, Stewart-Johns would have three weeks to file an amended complaint without the two claims at issue: intentional misrepresentation, and breach of fiduciary duty.
Weinberg said after the hearing that he and Stewart-Johns were determining whether to pursue an amended complaint or appeal the ruling to the Virginia Supreme Court, Richmond BizSense reported.
The suit sought an injunction on all assessments for the golf club, removal of all members of the POA board, and damages totaling $350,000, representing the amount that the assessments would collect over time, Richmond BizSense reported.
Stewart-Johns, who formed a nonprofit group called Chesdin Landing Advocacy to raise awareness and legal fees, said she has support from more than 100 neighbors in the roughly 350-home community, Richmond BizSense reported. The group has a GoFundMe page that had raised $8,400 of a $10,000 goal from 40 donors.
“I’m not standing on that complaint alone,” Stewart-Johns said. “I’m the one with my name on the paperwork, but I’m not doing this by myself.
“If a court does not look at it the way we see it, this will open a Pandora’s box to any community member who lives in a property association anywhere in Virginia that has a developer and a private business inside the subdivision,” she added.
Camp, who has been developing Chesdin Landing since the mid-1990s and is one of four Board members named as defendants in the suit, said after the hearing that he considered the lawsuit resolved, though he added that the legal fight is not over, Richmond BizSense reported.
“We’re going to countersue these residents to recoup some of the monies, because it was a frivolous lawsuit to start with and the judge agreed,” Camp said.
“Everybody tells me, ‘Let it go, we won it,’ and I’m thankful for that, but I don’t want somebody else trying to challenge us on anything we do as it pertains to our property owners’ association or this golf course,” he added. “We’re doing what’s in the best interest of the community and the golf course as it pertains to the Board of Directors.”
Camp said the assessment, which homeowners are paying in installments over three years, has already had a positive effect on the 18-hole golf course, which opened in 1998 and briefly joined forces with Meadowbrook Country Club before that arrangement dissolved several years ago, Richmond BizSense reported.
“The golf course now is thriving,” Camp said. “[The assessment] has given us the opportunity to replace a lot of the equipment that we needed and repairs to the golf course, to bring it up to an 18-hole championship golf course, one of the best in [the] Richmond, Virginia [area].”
Stewart-Johns said the advocacy group wants the golf course to thrive, just not on the backs of property owners who didn’t buy their homes thinking they’d have to subsidize it, Richmond BizSense reported
“Everybody is fearful that we’re going to lose our property values if we don’t support the golf course. But we do support the golf course,” she said of the group. “We don’t support changing our covenants to do it. We want to find another way for them to get the money that they need.”
Camp is moving forward with a new section of home lots on the Chesdin Landing golf course, Richmond BizSense reported. Called The Masters at Chesdin Landing, the 80-home section will add to the roughly 350 homes already built at the community, which is ultimately planned for 700 homes.
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