A heated meeting that pitted residents against the Killearn Lakes Plantation Home Owners Association prompted the board to take a step back from its controversial fee hike — for now.
Hundreds of residents wanted answers at Deerlake Middle School, where meetings are often held. Many were vexed by the board’s proposal: increase annual dues from $120 to $250 and $268 for lakefront owners.
HOA officials said inflation is to blame and point to a long list of needs within the master-planned community, one of the largest in Tallahassee.
But, residents like Ted Phillips questions the validity of doubling the dues, all while the board issues “nitpicking” notices to residents regarding covenant violations. Those violations, he said, could include whether trash cans can be seen from the street’s view, open garage doors and other issues.
“They’re just doing a bunch of stuff we don’t want them doing, and now they want to double our dues so they can do even more of it,” said Phillips, a 17-year resident of Killearn Lakes who attended the meeting and said “it was so shady the way that they did it.”
At the meeting, he told the Democrat that residents were allowed to submit proxy forms for neighbors who weren’t in attendance. But, by doing so, Phillips said all proxy forms given to a board member or designee were considered to be in favor of the proposed increase, even if the neighbor wasn’t in favor of it.
Phillips, who said he stood up for everyone to hear him, made an announcement during the meeting and explained the proxy process, which he said prompted people to walk out. He said the board was attempting to “railroad this thing through.”
At one point, Phillips said he asked Killearn Lakes Plantation HOA President Peggy Grantham about whether proxies were considered automatic “yes” votes.
“She reluctantly said ‘Yes, any proxies we collect get counted as a yes,'” Phillips said. “People were taking their proxies and walking out so their meeting blew up in their face right then.”
Killearn Lakes HOA President responds to controversial proposal
Killearn Lakes Plantation stretches across more than 2,930 acres. It’s north of Interstate 10 and borders Thomasville, Bannerman and Bull Headley roads. The subdivision includes more than 440 acres of greenspace, which the HOA maintains, along with six parks and five lakes.
In an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat, Grantham said the board didn’t have a quorum at its May 12 meeting — the first in a series of scheduled meetings if a quorum wasn’t reached. She described some of the residents as hostile and said things took a turn.
Grantham said the board wasn’t prepared for the reaction, adding people were “yelling out at the meeting and not letting me talk and answer questions.”
“People came in very upset because I don’t think we gave them enough information prior to the meeting to make them feel comfortable,” she said.
About 360 out of 4,200 residents came out, Grantham said. In order to vote on the increase, 30% of the membership or 1,317 members needed to attend the meeting to cast their vote or present a proxy. If quorum wasn’t achieved, the requirement drops in half to 659 members at the next meeting and so on for up to five scheduled meetings.
The board held another meeting May 14 where far fewer residents attended. The board decided to pause any action on increasing the dues at this time.
She said the HOA is operating at a deficit and hasn’t raised dues since 2005, adding the HOA also maintains areas that are supposed to be mowed by the county, such as medians, but aren’t as they should.
“We’re going to set an informational meeting so that we can give the community a little more information as to why we are raising the dues and show them some of the issues around the community as to why we need to raise the dues,” Grantham said.
Contact Economic Development Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com and follow @TaMarynWaters on X.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Inside the Killearn Lakes HOA meeting: Residents revolt over dues hike
Reporting by TaMaryn Waters, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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