July 10, 2019
Dear Sea Pines Property Owners,
I write to you with the official results of the Sea Pines Critical Needs Funding Referendum. This referendum was focused on raising the funding CSA needs to properly maintain and care for the Sea Pines Community’s aging infrastructure including roadways and stormwater, our deteriorating landscape and our traffic issues while continuing to provide the existing other Maintenance, Safety and Security and Administrative services we provide to you today.
Elliott Davis LLC., our Referendum Ballot Administrator, has provided the following results (
click here for the letter of results provided to CSA from Elliott Davis LLC.).
Total Ballots In Favor (YES): 3,039 (72.12%)
Total Ballots Opposed (NO): 1,175 (27.88%)
Although this result, in most other communities, would overwhelmingly pass any initiative put forth, it does not meet the supermajority requirements prescribed by the 1974 Sea Pines Covenants to amend. We were 122 votes short of reaching the 75% majority required to pass the referendum.
4,214 ballots were counted by Elliott Davis LLC. Nearly an 80% return rate, our highest return rate and engagement from Sea Pines Property Owners to date. The results indicate that 72.12% of ballots returned were in favor of the amendment and supported CSA’s proposed plan to fund our critical community needs. The CSA Board and Staff would like to thank all property owners who participated in the referendum vote. We would especially like to thank the members of the CSA Get Out The Vote Committee for their assistance in achieving this tremendous response.
I would also personally like to thank each member of the CSA Staff who participated in the referendum process. Their help to coordinate and provide responses to so many of you who had questions, needed information or provided updated mailing addresses was tremendous. Special thanks goes to Amanda Sutcliffe-Jones, our CSA Director of Communications, who went above and beyond to coordinate this process and engagement.
Now to the question – where do we go from here? Your CSA Board and Staff are already reviewing alternative options for Board consideration. Until then, CSA will continue to provide the best services and experience we can with the funding we have. I hope that you will continue to engage in our surveys and forums, as we plan for the future of Sea Pines.
Thank you again for your overwhelming support and participation!
