by Jason Wright / Appen Newspapers
April 24, 2009
Crooked Creek's homeowners association feels a city policy tied to gating the 640-home neighborhood is unlawful. It is now weighing the option of legal action because of the policy if the city doesn't change its rule.
The development has been working with the city for more than a year to try and have the neighborhood gated because of safety concerns with traffic and speeding on Creek Club Drive, which connects Ga. 9 with Francis Road.
City Attorney Ken Jarrard said such a move would require the city to abandon the roads, and Fulton County's road abandonment policy – which Milton adopted – requires 100 percent of homeowners on the road to agree to such a move.
Crooked Creek's HOA board contends 100 percent participation is unattainable in such a large neighborhood. They already took an internal vote last year, and it hovered around 80 percent. According to the policy, everyone on roads adjacent to Creek Club Drive – including Ga. 9 – would have to vote yes, too.
At its work session April 20, Milton's City Council heard from Doug Dillard, a real estate lawyer with Atlanta-based Dillard and Galloway LLC, on behalf of Crooked Creek.Dillard argued that since Milton residents – specifically Crooked Creek residents and their friends, plus police and fire units – would use the roads, abandonment was not the issue. He also maintained the developer once cared for the roads in the neighborhood, which the HOA contends were never supposed to be public roads in the first place.
Lastly, he said closing the road wouldn't affect drivers enough to require them to be compensated for the longer trip and wouldn't create hardships for Crooked Creek residents who want open roads.
"I think the potential harm that might be created out there, either to the property owners in Crooked Creek or to the traveling public, is insignificant if not nonexistent," he said.
Council then retired to an executive session to discuss the potential litigation and to try and set up a meeting with Dillard to discuss the issue. At press time, no meeting date had been agreed upon.
To find out more about The Crooked Creek Subdivision in Milton, GA, click here=>
http://www.accessmilton.com/Neighborhoods/CrookedCreek.php
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11 comments:
Seems to me the homeowners in Crooked Creek want to gate the community because of the status that comes with being able to say they live in a "gated community". It was not gated when they moved in there, never was intended to be gated so why the big fuss now?? They should put speed humps in if they feel speed is an issue. This would start a chain of requests by other neighborhoods to request to become private and gated.
Well then, our neighborhood wants to gate also. We only have 50 homes so it should be easy to do. The City better let us or we'll sue because if they gate Crooked Creek they will have set precedent. In fact, I know a few other neighborhood that would like to gate since the recent crime in our area.
This group will never be satisfied. Give them gating and then they will want dirt roads. Then they'll want dust control. Then it will want traffic lights at both entrances. Then turn lanes and directional signals, etc, etc.
Mr. Dillard has "stretched" the truth . The fact is that the developer/builder is always responsible for the roads in his development until the residents take over control of the HOA. If it was intended to be gated, the developer would have done so at the time. Mr. Dillard, please relay the truth.
The neighbors in my development are also talking about the possibly of being "gated".
I think all the neighborhoods in Milton should gate. That way the City is not responsibole for any road or pipe in there. Bring it on!
Mr. Dillard is just an evil person because he is not an "activist"!
Crooked Creek is setting themselves up to be a black eye amongst the community.
I am a real estate agent and a resident here in Milton. I have heard complaints from residents, clients, and fellow agents about Crooked Creek subdivision regarding this issue.
To the residents: Negative press is not helping you or your home values.
At this point, I would not show clients to a subdivision lead by an irresponsible HOA.
Wasting the taxpayer dollars especially in the time of a recession is a bad move when you are trying to promote and retain your subdivision value.
The residents should look at other ways to resolve their problem and perhaps pump new blood into your HOA.
In these times you can not afford the negative repercussions your current actions will bring.
Dear Agent: Please leave your contact info so we know who not to call.
So they can't get their 100% signoff on gating so now they want the city to pay half of the cost for calming devices. Who do they think they are!? Can Bethany Rd. get calming devices for all the people in Forsyth, Cherokee and North Fulton who flies down our road every morning and every evening? Hell no!!!! We are not a subdivision and we get nothing. I SAY NO, NO, NO! to spending any of the taxpayers money for Crooked Creek!!!!!!!
Here are some facts so few people outside of this issue don't know.
Crooked Creek has tried the following;
We asked for speed bumps and the city refused because they had no procedure.
We asked for golf cart crossing and the city had no procedure.
We asked for additional stop signs at most intersections and the city would not allow any but three intersections - there are over 15.
We asked for crosswalks and they are not allowed. The public sidewalk crosses the main road twice in the most dangerous section and the city will not allow it.
We asked for additional spped enforcement and were told they can not run radar on anything but a very small area of one road.
We asked to gate and were told they WOULD allow it with a large majority of community support (to be determined) but around 70-75%.
Then the city attorney changed and the new attorney had a different opinion. That was after a year of work to educate our residents and call for and take a communitywide vote. Nearly 500 homes voted of 640 total and 80% voted in favor. Clearly an outstanding turnout for any election.
All of the above was to paid for by Crooked Creek with no tax money from citizens - even the tax revenue that Crooked Creek pays into the city. That means that more money would be available for every other Milton resident.
Gating is very expensive if you are a small community because the cost for road maintenance is failry high - but if you have a large community it is obviously much smaller/cheaper. For Crooked Creek the cost to gate is only about 45 a month per home. That includes the guards and the road repairs.
Milton can't afford paving what it owns right now so why not allow some roads to go away. Roads need to be paved every 25 years at a minimum. The citys current plan calls for paving every 50 years. Seeems to me that may not work out too well.
Again Crooked Creek is only asking for the rules to be changed from 100% to something possible. Clearly no community could get 100%. 70% would be outstanding.
Tim - bethany road is dangerous and you have every right to concerned. However the homes on Bethany are setback 50 100 200 feet or more. The lots are an acre plus. Most are over 3 acres. The homes on creek club drive (Crooked Creeks main street)are set back 35 feet - fences are not allowed in front and the lots are typically 1/3 or an acre. We all suffer from the growth.
Crooked Creek is a neighborhood and was not originally designed to a be a thru street. It also has an HOA that can tax residents with a majority of support and is big enough to solve our own problems.
The fact that your street is not part of an HOA and not a neighborhood makes it much tougher for you to get solutions to your area. We are a neighborhood and I don't understand why you want to stop your neighbors from solving issues that they are capable of solving and the city is not. Punishing us because you can't get what you want don't seem very logical.
CC resident
CC resident -
I think you are assuming that I was the post regarding Bethany. I was not. It might shock some folks but there are other passionate people who live in our open road neighborhood than just me.
If you would like to talk to me about the proposed gating of Club Creek Drive, feel free to give me a ring.
Keep safe,
Tim Enloe
770 653 0552
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