Article Courtesy of Highland Today

By Marc Valero

Published December 16, 2014

         
LAKE PLACID — About 20 property owners from Lake June Pointe had a point to make at Monday’s Lake Placid town council meeting – they don’t want a clubhouse built in the community’s park.

Mike Ayers said the Lake June Point Homeowners Association is in the process of trying to get a permit to build a clubhouse on property that is currently a park.

He explained that about two years ago the HOA polled the homeowners who voted unanimously against building a clubhouse so the issue was dropped.

But, now it seems that the HOA wants to build a clubhouse, Ayers said.

“This is pretty upsetting to me and other people, too,” he said. “Nobody wants something shoved down their throat.

“We came from an area that had a clubhouse; I don’t want another clubhouse where I have got to go and pay for all the stuff to keep up the clubhouse.” 

Lawrence Martin said the homeowners were never notified and wanted to know if the HOA submitted a change of zoning for Lake June Pointe.

Town zoning official Mark Hill said the park at Lake June Pointe is a private park. Private parks are not allowed in the town of Lake Placid in single-family zoning districts.

“Therefore, the park is an illegal, nonconforming use,” which means the town’s building official cannot issue a building permit, he said. “As a matter of fact, we can’t do anything because the park is not legal. So that simple puts the park in limbo.”

The park was approved as part of the plat about 10 years ago and under a prior town planning consultant, Hill said. But, is should not have been approved because private parks are not legal in the R1A zoning district.

The only zoning action that would legalize the park would be a rezoning to a planned development, which would place the park under site plan review and control of the town council, he said. No one has filed an application for a planned development.

Town Attorney Bert Harris noted that an amendment to the code could also legalize the park.

Councilman Ray Royce said the town will have to consider amending its code on parks, not only for this situation, but for others, to allow a change of zoning.

Mayor John Holbrook said he would like to see the results of a vote on the clubhouse from the homeowners association.

“That would influence me greatly,” he said.

Town officials agreed to inform the property owners of any zoning or building permit requests related to the park. 

Lake June Pointe HOA President Ken LeBlanc did not attend the council meeting.

LeBlanc said Tuesday that he did not know the property owners were going to the meeting.

He explained that a couple of years ago the HOA did a survey to try to determine what the property owners wanted, but, “We couldn’t get anybody to collectively agree on anything.” 

Some people wanted tennis courts, while others didn’t. Some wanted a building, while others didn’t, Leblanc said.

Did he have plans to build a clubhouse?

LeBlanc said the development does not have a community building where it can hold its monthly meetings. Also, documents and files are scattered in people’s houses throughout the neighborhood because they don’t have an office.

“This really started out as needing to have a place to have our monthly meetings and we could store all our documents and so on,” he said. “So that’s something we are trying to accomplish, but no final decisions have been made on anything at this point.

He believes the issue will be a big subject of discussion at the association’s annual meeting in January. 

HOA secretary Joy Eberhardt said The Lake June Pointe Homeowners Association will hold its annual meeting at 10 a.m., Jan. 17 in the Lake Placid Town Hall.

Referring to the clubhouse issue, she said, “There are rumors going around that it’s a done deal, which is not true.”

The community, which is located at Sunset Point Boulevard, has about 181 property owners, according to Eberhardt.