October 11, 2018
Dear Sea Pines Property Owners,
I hope this letter finds you well and unharmed by Hurricane Michael. The storm has had only a minimal impact here in Sea Pines, but we all feel for those in the panhandle. As you may know, the CSA Board of Directors approved the strategic plan on September 25. This plan lays the groundwork to address the critical needs of our community. If you are not familiar, I encourage everyone to read the plan
here
. Below are the three primary goals of the strategic plan. Each of these goals have more detail for review and exploration. But we are starting down the path of each. How far we go will largely be determined by you.
Goal 1: To develop an inclusive form of governance that equitable reflects community contributions/financial and otherwise.
Goal 2: To protect, maintain and enhance the Sea Pines Quality of Life.
Goal 3: To assure CSA has the financial capacity to protect, maintain and enhance Sea Pines assets while providing expected community services.
Although we have made some progress on Goal # 1, we continue to have much to do. Today I am writing about Goals #2 and 3. In order to secure the future of Sea Pines and prevent our community from further infrastructure and landscape deterioration, which may have already impacted the value of your home and the quality of your experience, CSA must increase funding. As you may know, the CSA Board of Directors in conjunction with The Sea Pines Resort and Sea Pines Center have made significant progress on raising funds through our Sea Pines gate fees. Through last year’s $4 increase for daily commercial vehicles and this year’s $2 gate fee increase for daily visitors. Additional increases in the daily visitor gate fee have also been negotiated, so long as volume does not decrease significantly. Over the years funding from gate fees has increased from 22.6% of total revenues in 1989 to 43.5% forecasted for this year alone. These fees go a long way to help support our communities funding, but not far enough.
Most of the other large scale communities on Hilton Head Island have already addressed their funding needs through the same measures that we are now asking you to address. Sea Pines currently ranks as the second lowest residential assessment on the Island and one of only three communities with no real estate transfer fee, (both of the other two, Palmetto Hall and Windmill Harbour, are less than half our age).
Age is our problem, our infrastructure spending has been deferred and delayed for many years, and we are now in a position of trying to catch up. Despite this condition, to the credit of our founder Charles Fraser we remain very popular, both as a destination for visitors and as a place to own and enjoy a home.
As I have said in previous communications, we will be coming to you in the next weeks and months with details on an upcoming referendum, to educate and inform you for the decision you will be asked to make. Those of you who attended the October 3 Community Coffee via webinar or in-person know that Sea Pines CSA intends to bring forward a referendum to the community for a vote in early 2019 to increase funding to support our community’s needs. (View a video of the presentation given at the Community Coffee
here
.) If approved, we can address many of the critical needs that may threaten the Sea Pines quality of life.
Here are the most critical needs facing our community today that will be addressed with additional funds from a referendum:
ROADWAY, STORMWATER AND LANDSCAPE REPAIRS AND RENOVATIONS:
- Roadways and traffic flow improvements are critical to address traffic, safety, and overall roadway conditions. Last year was the first year of a six year plan to repair and renovate all of the primary roadways in Sea Pines. Greenwood Drive, Sea Pines Drive, Lighthouse Road and Plantation Drive, (from Greenwood Drive to Lighthouse Road) are or were in need of at least some overlay of asphalt and in some cases, (like that of Greenwood Drive this year), extensive renovation.
- Gate and intersection improvements will help to improve the flow of traffic throughout Sea Pines, but especially at our gates. CSA will develop alternative locations for all gate pass and cash transactions, improve the entry experience and traffic flow through innovative solutions and technological improvements at our gates. Beginning with the Greenwood Gate and then, when time, access and funds allow, improving the Ocean Gate. Other intersection and leisure path plans will also make roadway, pedestrian and bicycle traffic safer.
- In conjunction with roadway drain systems for stormwater, broader storm water system repairs and replacements will be completed with lagoon dredging and bank erosion repairs to not only provide that the stormwater system returns to its original functionality, but also to restore the natural habitat for the wildlife that lives in and around our lagoons and water channels.
- Last, but not least is our natural landscape repairs and renovations. From our recent storms, the aging of natural species and from the introduction of various invasive species as well as our own minimal maintenance practices, our landscape and natural, but maintained areas have deteriorated. These funds will assist us in beginning the process of first replacing these areas and then maintaining them with the interaction of man.
- Other communication and technology introduction plans are also set to be implemented. All to provide improved service and convenience to you.
THE SEA PINES REFERENDUM PROCESS
Simply put, this referendum is a proposal to amend the 1974 Sea Pines covenants. The referendum that will be brought to the community in early 2019 proposes amendments to increase revenue to support the critical needs outlined in the strategic plan. Without amending these covenants, the strategic plan goals cannot be achieved. Please keep in mind the following for this referendum:
- CALL TO VOTE: A referendum under the 1974 covenants, may be called by The Sea Pines Resort or shall be called upon by the written petition of at least 10% of the participating property owners.
- ONE VOTE: A Participating Property Owner shall have one vote regardless of the number of residential lots and family dwelling units owned. Joint owners of property shall have only one vote.
- 75% TO PASS AND MUST BE APPROVED BY THE SEA PINES RESORT: In the event 75% of the votes returned are in favor of the action, (covenant amendment), the action voted upon shall be deemed authorized by the participating property owners; and will become effective as an amendment to the covenants, if approved by The Sea Pines Resort.
You may recall that The Sea Pines Resort intended to bring a referendum to the community in 2017 to make substantial changes to Harbour Town. It is very important to know that this referendum has nothing to do with the referendum that The Sea Pines Resort intended to present.
PROPOSED REFERENDUM COMPONENTS
Now that you have some background on how referendums work in Sea Pines, I want to share with you the components of the proposed referendum. There are four initial terms to this referendum that we would like you to consider: two are new to our community and three are changes to existing assessment as described in our covenants.
- REAL ESTATE TRANSFER FEE: The referendum proposes an update to our covenants to include a real estate transfer fee for all Sea Pines Owners: residential, Resort and commercial properties. The transfer fee states that all property owners are subject to pay one-half of 1 percent of the sale price of a property or potentially assessed value. While this fee may be new to Sea Pines, it’s certainly not new to our neighboring Island communities. As I mentioned, there are only two other large-scale communities on Hilton Head Island that do not have a transfer fee and they are both less than 1/2 the age of Sea Pines. One is calling a referendum to implement a transfer fee this fall.
- COMMERCIAL TENANT ASSESSMENT INCREASE: Commercial tenants in Sea Pines have paid an entry fee for business owners and their employees since a 1999 gate agreement was instituted. An assessment has never been established for commercial tenants, this covenant amendment will formally establish a tenant assessment that will increase in accordance with the same provisions as the residential assessment and will immediately double the tenant contribution to CSA funds. Commercial owners will continue to contribute 1% of revenues as currently described in the covenants.
- SEA PINES RESORT ASSESSMENT INCREASE: The Sea Pines Resort will increase its annual assessment paid to CSA by 50 percent, from 0.5% to 0.75% of Resort Revenues.
- RESIDENTIAL ASSESSMENT INCREASE: The Sea Pines Residential Annual Assessment will increase by $300, ($180 for an unimproved property). We currently anticipate that the 2019 annual assessment for an improved property will be $1,076, so this would represent about a 28% increase. Even with this increase, we will still be the second lowest large-scale community assessment on Hilton Head Island.
Over the next few months, we will address your questions and dispel rumors and misinformation provided through social media and other sources. As always, we encourage you to come to CSA with questions. The Board of CSA and our CSA staff look forward to continuing to inform you of the needs and challenges that Sea Pines faces today. We also want to assure you that after long consideration and input from representatives of all property types in Sea Pines, we believe that this represents our best path forward and remind you that Sea Pines CSA serves no other purpose then to promote, enhance and protect the mutual interests of all owners of property in Sea Pines.
To make sure the CSA Board and The Sea Pines Resort receive your feedback, we intend to survey you later this year to determine your understanding, questions and support for these critical matters that face us today. This is a big decision for you and we look forward to providing you with the information you need to make an educated vote on behalf of your household.
Bret
Bret Martin,
Sea Pines CSA President
