Sea Pines Critical Infrastructure Referendum Update

A Letter from Larry Movshin, Chairman of the Board and
Sam Bennett, Sea Pines CSA President

We are very pleased to advise the Sea Pines Community that this morning United States District Court Judge David Norton ruled for CSA in the lawsuit brought by a property owner, Ms. Jill Jinks, called “Jinks v. Sea Pines Resort, LLC, et al.” The Court in its Order granted Summary Judgment to CSA, denied Ms. Jinks’ Summary Judgment Motion, and dismissed the Jinks lawsuit. While the CSA Board acted in good faith on advice of counsel, the Judge did not believe CSA had the authority to call the 2021 Referendum. Nevertheless, Judge Norton confirmed the validity of the Referendum and upheld the vote by which CSA members overwhelmingly approved the Fifth Amendment to the 1974 Covenants. That Fifth Amendment provides for the imposition of an additional $600 per year assessment per Residential property, and additional assessments on the Resort and our Commercial property owners, all of which will raise approximately $35,000,000 over the next ten years to pay for critical infrastructure repair and maintenance. In the same order, the Judge also denied Jinks’ claims against Sea Pines Resort and the Association of Sea Pines Plantation Property Owners, now known as the Sea Pines Property Owners Association.

We are very pleased that the Court has validated the votes of the 87.77% of voting members who recognized that the Sea Pines community must take proactive steps to maintain our aging infrastructure to keep Sea Pines a world-class resort community. We anticipate that the CSA Board will announce the next steps with respect to the Critical Infrastructure assessments imposed by the Fifth Amendment in the next few weeks.

Larry Movshin

Sea Pines CSA Board Chairman

Sam Bennett

Sea Pines CSA President

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