Lawsuit may stop planned improvements to Sea Pines roads, trails and beach access
More than a year after a referendum in Sea Pines failed, the Hilton Head gated community has passed a nearly identical ballot issue that will raise most property owners’ annual assessments by $600 starting in 2022, according to unofficial results shared Thursday with property owners.
Of the 4,045 ballots returned by Sea Pines property owners, 87% voted in favor of the amendment, which surpasses the community’s 75% approval threshold.
While Sea Pines awaits the official results, a lawsuit from a property owner threatens to invalidate the process. It says the community’s HOA doesn’t have the authority to call for a referendum to boost dues.
The information about results came in a letter from Community Services Associates chairman Larry Movshin, in which he thanked people for writing letters and emails supporting the referendum. The money, he said, will aid in “the protection of our home investments and revitalization of our community.”
The referendum aims to raise $35 million in the next 10 years to repair and rebuild the community’s roads, bridges, leisure trails, beach access points and drainage systems.
A new leisure trail will be constructed between Harbour Town and Fraser Circle, and the deer island bridge will be replaced, according to the project list.
Although the money will be used to complete projects behind the gates, Sea Pines’ vote to raise their own assessments represents a movement on Hilton Head aimed at increasing services and upgrading communities that attract millions of tourists each year.
As the old island saying says, “as goes Sea Pines, so goes Hilton Head.”
In summer 2019, a referendum that would have raised property owners’ assessments by $450 failed. Although 72% of ballots cast were in favor of the proposal, the tally didn’t meet the 75% threshold needed to pass, as outlined in the community’s covenants, written in 1974.
Currently, residential assessments in Sea Pines are around $1,014 each year.
Sea Pines lawsuit
A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Jan. 13 seeks to stop the increase in assessments from starting next year.
The suit, filed by property owner Jill Jinks, alleges that CSA’s referendum is unlawful and asks the court to stop its implementation.
Jinks’ suit also asks the court to declare that any change to the community’s covenants as a result of the referendum is invalid, and that CSA had no legal authority to initiate the vote because the power to call for a referendum rests only with the residential property owners and the Sea Pines Plantation Co., according to its covenants.
The suit illustrates Jinks’ belief that CSA and Sea Pines Resort, which her suit argues has no legal authority to amend the community’s covenants to increase the residents’ assessments, have over stepped their authority.
Jinks, who lives in Georgia, seeks an injunction to stop the assessment increases and damages from CSA, The Sea Pines Resort, and the Association of Sea Pines Property Owners.
Reached Monday, CSA leadership would not comment on pending litigation.
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No choice?
In a way, Sea Pines property owners were likely to face increased assessments whether they voted in favor of them in December or not.
Last year, Sea Pines leadership considered a special tax district operated through Beaufort County’s government that would have raised money for the same road, trail, drainage and bridge projects.
The proposal would have drastically limited who could vote by requiring voters to be registered to vote in Beaufort County.
If the referendum had failed a second time, community leadership said in October that the CSA Board would have initiated the process of creating a Sea Pines Special Tax District.
