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September 30, 2005
Kiawah
Property Owners Group
Post Office Box
807
Johns Island, SC
29457
To All Kiawah Island Property
Owners:
The Town is about to enter into a
new Development Agreement (DA) with KRA that will impact our
property values and our future lifestyles. In response to requests
from numerous property owners for an easy-to-compare summary of “Who
Gets What” in this Agreement, KPOG’s Research Committee has prepared
the enclosed material.
KPOG conducted a line-by-line
comparison of the existing Agreement and the proposed new
Agreement. We closely examined the exhibits to the proposed DA, as
well as the KICA Covenants. The
resulting chart notes what benefits accrue to KRA and property
owners (the Town, KICA, as well as individual property owners), and
provides clarifications, explanations and page references. You will
see ambiguous language that needs clarification, apparent
inconsistencies between the KICA Covenants and the proposed DA, and
protections for property owners lost from the 1994 DA.
As lengthy as this summary is, it
is by no means complete. It does, however, offer you the
opportunity to step back from the rhetoric and form your own
conclusions. We don’t presume to know which of these items might be
significant to you and your family. It is important to “get it
right” now since this Agreement binds not only this Town
Council and KRA, but also all future Councils through 2018
and any Developer to whom KRA may sell its rights.
While preparing these materials, we
discovered a substantial number of issues needing further
exploration. The examples below, with references to the proposed
Agreement in parentheses, reflect significant concerns already
identified publicly by property owners.
ü KRA’s
veto over property owners’ ability to modify KICA Covenants and to
choose KICA’s attorney (Exh. 18.1)
ü KRA
may bring additional properties into KICA without approval of a
majority of Property Owner Directors (p24)
ü KRA
retains control of the ARB (Architectural Review Board), which has
authority to set and relax all standards on undeveloped properties –
there is no written provision for transition of control to KICA or
the Town (p9)
ü If
as many as three new streets are cut into the Settlement from Kiawah
Island Parkway between Night Heron Park and the V-Gate (Exh. 13.3,
section 4), traffic congestion may result
ü KRA
and the Town have joint responsibility to defend any
legal challenges to the proposed DA (p26)
When you review this analysis, we
hope you will:
ü Identify
the key issues from your perspective and tell the Town what matters
most to you. Contact the Town right away so the Town has time to
review your comments and respond.
ü Copy
KPOG on your correspondence with the Town (addresses on reverse
side) so we can understand how to best serve our constituency.
ü Send
a copy of your correspondence to
kicalist@kiawah-owners.org, so other property owners can stay
abreast of the issues.
ü Ask
the Mayor and Town Council the questions you need answered before
you can become as comfortable as they
are that this proposed Agreement is a win-win for all parties.
As we mail this letter, we have
received, and forwarded to the Town, approximately 300 responses to
our previous requests for input. To the best of our knowledge, the
Town has received an additional 50. The overwhelming majority –
some 95% – have agreed with KPOG that this Agreement is so
important that it is critical the Town take sufficient time to
carefully consider the thoughtful concerns expressed by property
owners.
After you study the enclosed
materials, we believe you will reach the same conclusion we have –
that it is in everyone’s best interest for the Town to hold
additional interactive meetings at which Council responds to
the concerns which have been communicated to them. This dialogue
needs to take place before the second and final
reading of the ordinance authorizing the new DA. This reading is
currently scheduled for Wednesday, October 12. As he has already
stated publicly, Buddy Darby (Managing Partner of KRA) is agreeable
to extending the review process.
If you have any questions about the
enclosure, you can contact us at
kpog@kiawah.org or at the above post office address – one of us
will respond to you as quickly as possible. Many of you have
already expressed your reservations about the speed of the process
and have requested more information about the content of the
Agreement. We hope this mailing helps you identify those issues of
interest to you. If you have not yet participated in the
discussion, please don’t sit back and depend on others to speak for
you. Those negotiating this Agreement on our behalf need to hear
from you.
Jim Piet,
President
For the KPOG Board of Directors
Click here to link to “Who Gets What
in the Proposed 2005 Development Agreement” Chart
Click here to link to How to Read
“Who Gets What in the Proposed 2005 Development Agreement” |
