Owners of three properties in a neighborhood off Town Hill Road were surprised in late November to learn that their homeowner’s association had been dissolved.
Phyllis Beck, who owned six of the nine lots in the Southridge Trail subdivision which borders Brown County State Park, notified the homeowners by mail that she had dissolved the association as a condition for selling those lots.
The six remaining properties in the association and an additional 56-acre tract which borders homes along Town Hill West are now registered in the names of Brett and Cheryl Franklin and Rusty O’Neal.
Nancy and Steve Comiskey live on Southridge Trail.
Nancy Comiskey said she and her husband and their neighbors became concerned over the sale because the association was dissolved without their knowledge, and because the new owners also own Tri-State Timber.
The new lot owners did not answer a request for comment on their plans by press time. An email from their representative, Jeff Page, to the other lot owners referred to the properties as an investment and said they had not decided what they were going to do with them.
“Our intention is to look into all the possibilities of access and marketing to then sell these lots to people just like yourselves, and just as Mrs. Beck had been trying to do,” the email said.
David Bartolowitz and his wife Leslie planned to build a house on their lot after they retired, hopefully within the next three years, he said.
Like the Comiskeys and the owners of the third privately-owned lot — Ryan and Christina Buston — Bartolowitz said they had chosen the land because they felt it would be protected by the association covenants.
Even though those three lot owners would not have had enough votes in their association to override Beck’s decision, Nancy Commiskey said they would have liked to have had some kind of warning.
Prior to the sale, several people had come by to look at the other lots, Nancy Comiskey said.
Beck said she did have prospective buyers other than the Franklins and O’Neal. However, she said did not wish to continue as a developer with responsibility for the subdivision.
Beck began developing the land in the 1990s with her now-deceased husband. She said she had some difficulties with one of the lot owners and had gone so far as to block his emails and phone calls.
“I just felt it was time to sell everything,” Beck said. “I sold the property so I’m no longer involved.”
Under the rules of the association, as majority lot owner, Beck held all officer positions in the association.
Though she collected dues to cover some costs, Beck said she often just took care of things such as road maintenance. She said all dues have been returned to the lot owners, and she had shared contact information with them for the people she used for work such as maintaining the gravel road.
Beck said since she owned two-thirds of the lots and had two-thirds of the votes, it would not have mattered if the other owners had been consulted about dissolving the association.
The Comiskeys said they are looking into hiring a lawyer, and they would like to see the original covenants restored.
Bartolowitz said he would consider joining any action by the other lot owners.
Regardless the outcome, Steve Comiskey said the experience has made him leery. When the couple bought their lot for $62,000 in 2004, they paid more than they would have elsewhere in the county because they thought the protections of the homeowners’ association would always be there, they said.
Knowing what he knows now, he said he would be worried to ever again be one of the first owners in a new development.
