Twin Lakes: Join the opposition | Federal Way letters

Published 8:34 pm Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The proposal by the board of the Twin Lakes Homeowners Association to bail out the financially ailing Twin Lakes Golf and Country Club by more than doubling homeowners’ dues must be defeated.

Why should people, in the midst of the worst economic recession in 70 years, be forced to pay an additional $300 per year for services many do not want and will not use? The proposed fee increase, over the next 15 years, would total $6 million of homeowners’ money for a separate organization. Moreover, the proposed fee would be assessed only to Twin Lakes’ homeowners who are not currently country club members.

Residents are told unless they approve this still undisclosed plan, the golf course will be sold, replaced with low-income housing, and residents’ home values will plummet. The board has presented speculation about this debatable scenario as a certainty.

The planned Dec. 10 vote on this proposal should be postponed until homeowners have at least a month to review the text of the proposal, accompanied by a five-year plan to turn the country club’s red ink into black.

Last year, the homeowners association conducted a survey over two months on residents’ opinions on the aesthetics of truck roof racks. Shouldn’t a 15-year legally binding agreement be subject to a vote by mail ballot, not approved or defeated in one meeting during the holiday season?

If the homeowners’ association board rejects this reasonable delay of the vote, then the plan to bail out the country club must be made optional for Twin Lakes’ homeowners. The elected board members have a fiduciary responsibility to the more than 1,300 homeowners in Twin Lakes, not to a privately owned country club.

If you also question this plan, join the opposition by e-mailing twinlakesvoteno@gmail.com.

Dean Owen, Twin Lakes