Does anyone think this email response is out of line or am I taking it wrong?

I am on the BOD for our homeowners association. I am also the co chair for the ARB committee (Architecture review board -the committee that reviews requests for home improvements) Recently we received a request from a homeowner that wants to widen his driveway.. the problem is.. He does not have the property line on one side of his house so our committee declined him to widen on one side.. but allowed him to widen on the other side. This resident has threatened law suits, has claimed that if he gets hurt.. he is going to sue us, etc. His recent ploy was to call all the Board members and plead his case. One of the board members is an non practicing attorney and after speaking to this man.. sent out an email..and I responded to him. My response was with the knowledge that this man has threatened to "lawyer" up..so I am going to copy and paste his email and my response so those responding here can voice thier opinion..

I did not see anything attached to your email.. I am going to assume that your call was from Anderson.. We have allowed him to widen one side of his driveway.. not the side where he does not have the required 5 ft needed from his property line. He has threaten with law suits.. stated that he hopes he does not get hurt so he can sue us.. and now states that he is going to push to have NO APRON on the one side to fall within the 5 ft required space. I am not concerned with this guy bullying the ARB into getting what he wants.. I do believe that we have made a "reasonable accommodation" for his request of widening the driveway. He is allowed to widen on the one side. I also expect for the board to forward all his requests to the ARB Committee and re frame from giving this guy their personal opinion on this matter. We have gone to great lengths to follow the guidelines that are governed by the county to allow Mr, Anderson to widen his driveway.. I ask that all board members keep the ARB committee informed on future conversations with this touchy issue..
His response:
With all due respect, please do not tell me to refrain from expressing my opinion on any matter. Note, as a courtesy, I advised all of you of the issue brought to my attention. My only intention was to bring the matter of the Fair Housing Act to your attention so that the ARB does not make decisions in a vacuum. There are other statutes and laws that dictate what the ARB can and cannot prohibit. For example, if I want to install a 90 foot windmill on my property the board cannot deny my request, they can dictate color etc., but an outright denial is not within the ARB's power, the same holds true for solar panels, water/rain cisterns, landscaping, etc.

Again, I will not refrain from expressing my opinion. So here goes two more opinions.

1. Why all this little petty bickering over the 5 tables? It's not like Mike was trying to sell or rent them to us. He was merely trying to facilitate accomodating guests for the 4th of July party. The man was trying to help.

2. We spent an excessive amount of $$$ on the pool pump, when with a little delay the association could have saved hundreds. But no, as I recall, your quote was "just get it done". Well "just getting it done" cost us hundreds of dollars.

As for the last sentence in your e-mail, why would anyone bring something to your attention when I did all I got was "I expect......re frame from giving this guy their personal opinion on this matter"

( He adds a few opinions..which are not relevant for this topic) ( this went out to all the BOD and comes from someone that never says a thing in the meetings)

Just wondering what others think..BTW.. he lives 4 houses down from me..
By pippi 14 years ago :: Neighbors
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