Mailed letter dated: March 20, 2019
Dear Sea Pines Property Owner,
As you may already know, the Sea Pines community is facing a major funding shortfall to address several critical community needs. Most of these needs are related to our aging community assets including:
- Roadway infrastructure
- Gate capacity, delays and traffic congestion
- Stormwater drainage system management
- Landscape and tree health, replacement and renovations
Many of these community assets are over six decades old and are overdue for repairs, renovations or complete replacements. Funding a solution to care for and maintain these assets properly requires a community referendum, with 75% support of those voting.
In December of last year, CSA asked for Property Owner feedback in a community-wide survey to gauge your awareness and support of these issues within Sea Pines and to determine your level of support for proposed terms for a community referendum. Visit
www.SeaPinesLiving.com/2018ReferendumSurveyResults
to view the results of that survey. We received a record response rate, with nearly 40% of property owners participating in the survey including full-time, part-time, non-resident and rental owners. However, many of you did not take the survey. This letter is being sent to property owners to make sure you are aware of where we are in the process and to assure you that more information is coming.
Survey Results & Feedback:
- 78.5% of survey respondents indicated they were aware of the proposed referendum to increase community funding to address these issues
- 90% of respondents on average were aware of our community needs
- 90% of respondents who indicated they did not need additional information supported the four initiatives to address these asset needs
- No one area of need received less than 83% support by those survey respondents
- 28% of respondents, indicated they needed more information to determine their level of support for each initiative
During the survey, we received many questions both on our community needs and the proposed referendum terms. We intend to provide as much information as we can, to help you make the best decision for your household.
Sea Pines Property Owners will soon receive a document that provides detailed answers to the communities top questions, clearly quantifies our community’s financial needs, outlines the changes to the initial referendum terms based on your feedback and communicates why CSA is asking you to vote yes.
Proper care and continued management of these earlier mentioned community assets are intrinsic to the value of your property and the quality of your experience as a Sea Pines Property Owner. As I mentioned earlier, funding a solution to these issues requires 75% support of voting participants. Of those survey respondents who indicated they did not need additional information, 77.4% of you supported a referendum to address our communities funding shortfall. Over 1,200 respondents needed more information before they could make a decision regarding a referendum.
While we were pleased with the level of support and awareness of the above community issues, survey participants clearly voiced concern with some of the initial terms of the proposed referendum to address the funding shortfall. This valuable feedback led CSA to modify portions of the originally proposed referendum terms by:
- Removing the real estate transfer fee
- Introducing a residential owner assessment increase in phases, not a one-time increase
- Delaying collection of any new assessment increase until 2020
The CSA Board of Directors continues to modify and finalize the terms of the referendum that, based on your feedback, we believe should be supported by the community. This is a big decision for you, so we want to ensure you have the information you need to make an informed vote. To do this, it is important that CSA have your updated mailing address and email address on file. To update your contact information, please email us at
info@csaseapines.com
or call us at 843.671.1343 and our staff will happy to assist you.
Your CSA Board and CSA Staff are committed to caring for and properly maintaining our community. The passage of this funding referendum is necessary to allow us to address these long deferred and deteriorating assets that are the very core of Sea Pines. We need your support to accomplish this goal and we appreciate your patience as we work through these efforts.
Sincerely,
