Important Update on Town Purchase of the Property at 145 Buffell Head DrInbox

I received many email responses from you in response to my 2/11 email with a variety of concerns and opinions.  I also received a number of phone calls and personal visits.  While a few owners didn't think the Town's purchase and intended usage is a big deal, most of you had some level of concern over their purchase and potentially expanded use of this property.

After getting your feedback, the CDA Board had another meeting and decided on the following actions:

1. Hire an attorney to give us advice.  The Board then hired Robert Hornik from Chapel Hill.  He reviewed the CD Covenants and sent a letter to the Town stating the Town's stated usage of this property would violate the 'Residential Usage' clause in our Covenants.  That's his opinion.  His letter is attached.
2. Send a CDA letter to the Town identifying additional concerns.  This was completed.  This letter is also attached.

Last week the Town Council had their monthly meeting and one of the agenda items was the purchase of this property.  Here's a youtube link to the part of the meeting where this property was discussed:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFIiyeSWW8o&t=1977s  

I strongly encourage you to watch this video.  It's not too long.

 

In summary, this is what the Town Council did:

1. They are moving forward with settlement on the property.  They made a motion to move money between Funds in order to go to settlement and to figure out a settlement date.  Settlement will likely happen within a month or so, maybe before the April 5th Council meeting.
2. There was a discussion about a potential Town Ordinance that would memorialize limits on the usage of the property (this was one of the requests in the CDA letter of concerns we sent to Town), but there was no motion to proceed with that.  The Council seemed to want to find another way to memorialize the limits that might be more permanent.  I think the Town staff will explore this, but it's uncertain what they will end up with or what the Council will end up deciding.

We had a CDA Board meeting following the Council meeting to discuss status and CDA options for going forward.  There are limited options available to us:

1. We do not fight the Town in their planned acquisition and articulated usage of the property.  
2. We update our current covenants and include specific language that puts limits and conditions on the Town's usage.
3. We fight the Town using a political approach through organized petitioning.
4. We fight the Town using a legal approach through enforcement of our current covenants. 
5. We attempt to influence the Town into memorializing restrictions on the usage of the property to the best of our ability.
6. Other means.

The CDA Board wants your input and guidance on how to proceed.  To that end, we have schedule two Zoom calls as follows:

1. Tuesday, 3/14, 7 PM
2. Wednesday, 3/15, 7 PM for owners who can't make the first Zoom call.

For any owner who can't join either of these Zoom calls, please email me as soon as possible with your guidance on how you want us to proceed.  

It's VERY IMPORTANT that all owners who have concerns join one of the Zoom calls or email me with your guidance.