Sea Pines resident sued their HOA over gate fee issue. Here’s what the judge ordered
Want to know how Sea Pines decides what visitors pay to get into its gate? A judge recently said residents of Hilton Head Island’s famed gated community have a right to that information.
Sea Pines resident Dana Advocaat sued the community’s property owners’ association in March to release the gate fee agreement to residents. An Aug. 4 order by S.C. Circuit Judge Brooks Goldsmith says Sea Pines must turn over the documents because they govern her property as bylaws and because they concern the finances of a corporation she is a member of.
The decision matters because it sets a precedent for how forthcoming property owners associations need to be with members of the association — who are, by nature, parts of the corporations. The order, filed one month later on Sept. 4 in the Beaufort County Court Index, lays the groundwork for residents to request and receive information from their POA or HOA.
On Hilton Head Island, where 70% of land is in private communities behind gates, the order makes it clear that bylaws, finance documents or agreements with commercial entities should be released to residents.
The gate fee agreement has long been controversial for Sea Pines visitors and residents.
This summer, the fee for single-day visitors to Sea Pines increased to $9. It was the second increase in as many years.
The graduated increases in gate fees were outlined in the 2018 gate fee agreement signed by Sea Pines’ property owners association, Community Services Associates, along with the Sea Pines Resort and The Shops at Sea Pines Center.
When those groups signed the agreement, CSA President Mark Griffith said it would be released to the residents. It never was.
Many residents took issue with the agreement’s focus on commercial interests in the community. In a petition circulated at the time, former Sea Pines resident Richard Matthews said the gate fee agreement would bring more traffic to the community and that it represented a “loss of control” for Sea Pines residents.
“Under the guise of revenue raising, this agreement was made in secrecy with no input from residential property owners. Terms of the deal were not announced nor were they released to the public,” Matthews, an Association of Sea Pines Plantation Property Owners board member, said in a video circulated with his petition.
He added that the agreement violated the community covenants “by eliminating our private gated community and making Sea Pines nothing more than a commons area with access via a toll booth.”
Now, Advocaat, who filed the suit, and other residents will be able to review the document, barring an appeal from CSA. She said she hopes to see how money collected at Sea Pines’ gate is distributed among the community.
“I’m thrilled that we won and that we got a stake in the ground on this,” she said.
Contacted Thursday, Sea Pines CSA declined to comment on the litigation.
This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 11:23 AM.
