Motion seeks Caroline support

January 29, 2008

Motion seeks Caroline support

By Lucy Weber
lweber@mcherald.com

If it happens to them, it can happen to us. That worry is behind the Federation of Madison County Homeowners Association's resolution asking the Board of Supervisors to leave the master plan for Lake Caroline alone.

The supervisors earlier this month called for a public hearing to create an official plan detailing what should be done with the undeveloped tracts of land in the 3,088 acre development. The three supervisors voting in favor of the hearing said no record exists of a master plan's being adopted by the county in 1989 when Lake Caroline was created. A 1998 plan, which was approved, isn't viable.

"If this can be brought up on a technicality, any of our subdivisions could be challenged," said Doug Jones, who represents Northbay, one of 22 homeowners associations in the countywide alliance.

The federation at its quarterly meeting last week approved the resolution presented by Lake Caroline homeowners. In a letter sent to the supervisors, the federation asks that the board uphold the plans for Lake Caroline as a planned unit development, or PUD, as it now stands.

"We're not asking them to cancel the public hearing but when it gets to a vote, we're asking them to vote to uphold the current PUD," Lake Caroline resident Ray Lyle told federation members. "If they throw it back for review, we don't know where it will end up."

What will happen to the subdivision's undeveloped land - specifically the 153 acres that used to be an 18-hole golf course - has been a concern for Lake Caroline residents for the past four years, since course owner Craig Foshee said he wanted to build more than 300 houses on his land. The homeowners association and Lake Caroline Inc. don't want another subdivision with a separate set of covenants in their midst.

In April the supervisors on a 2-2 vote denied Foshee's plans to build houses on the now overgrown course he closed earlier in 2007. Foshee's contract to operate a golf course expired at the end of 2006. Foshee is now appealing the Board of Supervisors' ruling to Circuit Court.

The federation "should feel this is dangerous precedent Madison County Board of Supervisors is setting and voice its concerns," Lake Caroline association president Chris Shaw said in a letter to the federation. "If the board (of supervisors) has decided it has the authority to interfere with pending litigation and alter a master plan adopted and in place since 1998, we feel the board would have little worry in doing to this to another neighborhood."

District 1 Supervisor John Bell Crosby, attending the federation meeting, defended his vote to call for the public hearing.

"It is my understanding that the master plan of 1989 does not exist. Based on that, there is no master plan in the legal sense," Crosby said.

The 1998 plan technically does not exist because it was an amended version of the earlier plan, he said.

"How can you change something that is not there?"

At the hearing the three owners of Lake Caroline's undeveloped tracts will be asked to present plans for their properties and "essentially start from square one," Crosby said.

In his letter, Shaw said if Foshee is able to develop his land, there will be another subdivision embedded within Lake Caroline.

"This separate community would in no way be obligated to abide by the Lake Caroline covenants, and such a situation could no doubt lead to chaos in enforcing the covenants that every neighborhood desperately needs to sustain its property values, especially in today's real estate market," Shaw said. Read more...