Controversial assessment in Estero neighborhood may be retracted |
Article Courtesy of BONITANEWS.COM By CHRISTINA HOLDER Posted 09/06/04 A controversial assessment that
has disrupted a once-quiet Estero community may be retracted.
Each of the 250 residents of The Island Club, a
neighborhood off Corkscrew Road near Interstate 75, are required to pay $400
for the Fort Myers-based firm Bean, Whitaker, Lutz and Kareh Inc. to redraw
property lines in the community.
The undertaking could cost up to $100,000.
The property lines need to be redrawn because there are
203 illegal lanais, decks and patios in the community, and Lee County
officials have said they must be corrected or they must go. The Island Club's
homeowners' association is placing liens on the property of an owner who
doesn't pay the fee.
But grumblings from a group of about 10 residents and an
attorney they have retained may result in the liens being removed.
Naples attorney John Brugger, who is representing the
disgruntled residents, said if the homeowners association cannot produce four
legal documents, then the liens cannot be enforced.
Among them are a notice of the meeting where the board
of directors adopted a special assessment, an affidavit of mailing that
announced the board meeting, the minutes of the board meeting where the
assessment was adopted and a follow-up notice of the adopted assessment.
It is unclear whether the homeowners association has all
of the documents, but Brugger said the law firm representing the association,
Becker & Poliakoff, will enforce the assessments unless it gets the
documents.
What's more, to move forward with redrawing property
lines, a homeowners association has to have the full support of the
neighborhood, Brugger said.
"They don't have the right to approve that without
all the approval of the homeowners," he said.
In late July during a homeowners association meeting
closed to the press, Island Club residents voted 191-16 in favor of an
amendment to bring the illegal structures up to code. Forty-three residents
didn't vote.
The homeowners association needed a 67 percent vote, or
168 yes votes, to move forward with a compliance agreement with county
government. Through a lengthy process, the agreement would convey a common
area, or the piece of land that home owners don't own, to the property owners.
Entering the compliance agreement would protect property
owners who don't have an outdoor structure but want one, as long as it meets
county codes, Assistant County Attorney Dawn Perry Lehnert has said.
However, it doesn't mean all property owners would be
able to build new structures.
Many of the homes back up to one another, and there
isn't room to build any more.
Problems in The Island Club began more than two years
ago, when residents and Ronald L. Davis, president of RLD Homes, learned the
structures violated county code.
A resident applied for a building permit to build an
outdoor structure but couldn't get one because land beyond the homes is a
common area.
Davis repeatedly has said he had building permits for
all of the houses he built in The Island Club and that he thought a 2001
encroachment agreement, which is filed with the Lee County Clerk of Courts,
would include the additional structures.
But Assistant County Attorney Dawn Perry-Lehnert has
said Davis' company "did not use the necessary building permits" for
the structures.
Additionally, an encroachment agreement wouldn't entitle
a property owner to a building permit, county building official Bob Stewart
has said.
Some residents without structures don't want to pay the
fee.
"The homeowners that haven't done that don't want
to suffer the penalties," Brugger said.
The possibility of an illegal assessment is good news
for resident Bill Bishop, who has fought the measure for the past few months.
"I will always vote no, therefore this issue is
never going to happen," Bishop said. "It's not going to
happen." |
HOA ARTICLES | HOME | NEWS PAGE |