The Developer and the HOA

This is a repost from my substack feed.

I went to the Budget Board Meeting about 4 weeks ago and found it to be somewhat frustrating. During the Amenity Center board meeting one of our resident board members kept asking Robert Nelson, the main developer representative on the board, question after question about turnover to which the reply was always “I don’t know”. When asked why he doesn’t know anything, Mr. Nelson replied “nobody gets back to me from the company”. That prompted our resident board member to make motions that would, in effect, try to force Mr. Nelson to get answers. The motions were seconded by our other resident on the board, but then the motions were voted down by the developer people. So pretty much screw you, we don’t have to tell you anything!

Then I hear that another emergency board meeting was scheduled this past week and at that meeting our resident board member who was asking all the questions was thrown off the board and, I think, replaced. Or, at least, they’re looking for a new board member. I also heard that turnover is going to be delayed for five years! So apparently whatever is written in the bylaws can be changed to whatever the developer wants at a moment’s notice! I don’t know if that applies to all the HOAs , or just the Amenity Center and Hampton Lakes HOAs. I don’t know anything about the Riverhall turnover. Please comment below if you do.

When I was at the budget meetings and it was time for the Hampton Lakes HOA part, I was disappointed by the rather flippant attitude of one of our resident board members. To me that board member drank the developer’s kool aid. If I didn’t know the people on the board, I would have assumed that person was part of the developer team. I’m sure that’s the type of people the developer wants on the boards, sycophants and minions that say yes to anything the developer wants.

One of the more bizarre arguments was about the Hampton Lakes gates near Riverhall Parkway. Some people in the audience complained about the gates being open as much as they are, bringing up the possibility of people with nefarious intent entering our lovely community and that its going to last a long time into the future because of the new phases of building out our community. To which our resident board member said “we already have nefarious people living inside the community so why bother with the security of a gate! And that if bad people on the outside want to get in, they’re going to get in.” It makes you wonder why there are so many gated communities if gates are just a bunch of bull do do.

When people, myself included, bring up problems on Facebook, all we’re trying to do is point out a problem and maybe get a solution or at least an answer as to why the problem is happening. There’s one admin out there that will tell you if you don’t like it move out of this “master planned community”. I think this community has been planned by a bunch of idiots. There is no master plan. Its all done by the seat of the pants of a money hungry developer. How many different things were told to us when we bought into this community?

I was told there was going to be commercial development along Riverhall Parkway with small shops and restaurants. Now its going to be apartments, condos or townhouses, don’t know which, and apparently that development is now on hold! Another nine hole golf course? Nope. Heat the pool? Nope. Phase 2 and 3 in Hampton Lakes? If that was in the “master plan” nobody told me about it. If I was told they would be building homes here for another 20 to 40 years with unpaved streets filled with potholes, I might have looked some wheres else. If people are looking to buy a house in Florida and they drove through this community with all these potholes and patches and they find out its been like that for 20 years and probably going to be that way for another 20 years, I bet a lot of them would look elseware. The only hope for selling homes fast here would be if Florida gets rid of the property tax. Then there might be a selling boon like we had during Covid.

But guess what? There’s hundreds more developments starting up. I just read in the Gulfshore Business magazine that another 11,000 home development has been approved for the southeast corner of Lee County. Plus, we got Babcock and other communities popping up along Bayshore, 31 and Buckingham Road. Good luck attracting buyers with patched and pothole filled roads!

If we hadn’t put so much money into our home here, I would look elseware. We’ve put in solar panels, hurricane screens and shutters, a water softener, a mini split in the garage, screened in front vestibule and upgraded landscaping. I’d hate to leave it all behind. And then there’s the moving process itself! I hate moving.

So, it looks like we’re staying! Sorry about that Facebook admins! Although, good news for youz, it looks like I’ll be doing less and less Facebook stuff. I am starting up hamptonlakesherald.com website again. So I won’t be writing any HOA stuff out here on substack anymore. Those people who signed up to get my substack posts emailed to them, please subscribe to my website by clicking here to keep getting them. I am also adding a calendar to the website that will show any special events happening in the community. You can check out the calendar by clicking here. You can also subscribe to the calendar to be notified of any added events. The subscribe button if at the bottom of the screen.

Well, that’s all for now. Have a good day and see youz as I’m walking around town!

The above pic is a patch done about a month ago and its already getting new potholes along side it. They come back and paint around the new potholes, but it takes them so long to repair them the paint wears off or the pot hole expands and paint disappears that way! Wouldn’t you rather have all your streets looking like the one below? Yes!

That’s the part of East Hampton Circle that had so many potholes and patches that they decided to rip it all up and put in a new base coat of asphalt. Its not the finished product, just the first layer. That was done over a year ago and guess what? No damage by all the construction traffic. That’s the excuse the developer gives as to why he is not going to pave all the streets. But it looks pretty good to me! Lets pave the streets!