February 6, 2009 - Seven Lakes Times

4 Seven Lakes Times February 6, 2009 NEWS
West Side finds lessons in Terrill lawsuit
by Greg Hankins
Times Editor
The Seven Lakes West
Landowners Association [SLWLA]
has settled it involvement as a
defendant in the Terrill lawsuit,
contributing $30,000 in Association
funds to an overall $145,000
settlement that removes most
of the defendants and third party
defendants from the suit, leaving
only the Terrill family and builder
Accent Design-Build as yet to
work out their differences.
Legal Director Ed Silberhorn
told The Times that the suit
prompted a significant revision of
the Westside’s Architectural
[ARC] Standards that should
put the community in a better
position to deal with similar matters
in the future.
Linda and James Terrill own a
home on one side and a lot on
the other side of a Lake Auman
cove. Their original suit alleged
that Accent, in the course of
developing lots uphill of the cove,
caused silt to run into the cove,
ultimately reducing its depth and
making is unsuitable for swimming
and boating. The Association,
they alleged, had failed to
live up to its responsibility to
prevent the runoff. The Association
filed a related suit naming
other companies and individuals
involved in developing
the area — including Westside
developer Lakeside Development
Company — with the aim
of spreading the risk and improving
the chance of a settlement.
That strategy apparently
worked, with the last of nine or
ten attorneys signing off on the
$145,000 settlement two weeks
ago. Silberhorn told The Times
that a number of the defendants
were insured by State Farm —
as was the Association — which
helped facilitate settling the case.
Silberhorn, who joined the
Board last March, after the suit
was already well underway, said
he reviewed the SLWLA ARC
standards and found that they in
fact gave the Association the
duty to prevent runoff problems
like those that are alleged to
have silted in the Terrill’s cove. But
the Association lacked any real
authority to enforce its standards
on those matters.
“i read the ARC standards
and immediately saw what happened,”
Silberhorn told TheTimes.
OVER 10,000 LOCATIONS
[ WORLDWIDE. ]
“We had a duty, but we couldn’t
enforce that duty effectively. We
imposed the responsibility upon
ourselves. But we couldn’t put a
stop to the problems our inspection
revealed.”
unlike a municipality, county,
or state agency, Silberhorn
explained, a landowners association
lacks “police powers” that
could be brought into play to
stop a builderfrom continuing
runoff-creating activity.
While working to settle the
suit, Silberhorn joined ARC Director
Ron Shepard in rewriting the
ARC Standards to redefine the
Association’s role. Where ARC
members were once identified as
“inspectors,” they now are
“observers.” They are volunteers
and lack the expertise of the
sort of “inspectors” that a state
agency — like the North Carolina
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000-000-0000 000-000-0000 000-000-0000 673-1006 000-000-0000 000-000-0000
Local Address Local Address 4355 Local Hwy. Address 211 (Beside Local Address Local Address
Subway)
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Department of Environment and
Natural Resources [NCDENR] —
has at its disposal.
Going forward, under the new
standards, when ARC members
of SLWLA staff observe runoff
problems like those encountered
in the Terrill case, their
responsibilit y is to notify
NCDENR or other relevant state
agencies, so that those agencies
can take on the task of inspection
and enforcement.
After an extensive comment
period involving both community
and developer review, the
new ARC standards have been
approved by the developer and
are ready for final approval by the
SLWLA Board during its Tuesday,
February 10 Work Session, Silberhorn
told The Times.
Another aspect of the case
that made settling it in the Associations
best interest is a provision
of state law that — in the
case of environmental damage
(See“Lawsuit,”p. 5)
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