Nearly seven years after construction began, the City of Cincinnati will spend $250,000 to complete phase one of the ill-fated Rockford Woods subdivision in Northside.
In 2005, developers EEHV, LLC, owned by Jerry Honerlaw, Rob Etherington, and an unnamed third party, abandoned the CitiRAMA 2001 site before the first phase was completed.
In their wake they left incomplete property deeds, crumbling infrastructure and delinquent property taxes parcels that were meant to become community greenspace.
Many of the problems have been blamed on a lack of oversight resulting from the desire to get CitiRAMA staged as quickly as possible.
As part of the planned development agreement between the City and EEHV, LLC, the developers were required to establish a homeowners association. Even though no association was ever established and property records were spotty at best, the City issued building permits anyway.
When basic maintenance on the subdivisions roads was not performed, residents began to blame the City - when it was the sole responsibility of the non-existent homeowners association to look after the development's infrastructure.
Residents of the subdivision have been forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars just to keep the streets livable, including paying for their own streetlights and maintaining their own sewer system.
At the same time, many residents were threatened with foreclosure or were watching the value of their properties plummet.
In late 2005, an agreement was reached between the City, the developers and the residents that would deed all common areas to the residents and would force EEHV, LLC to pay all outstanding debts.
The agreement was contingent upon all of the property owners signing a Homeowners Association Agreement, which was finally accomplished in December 2007.
One-fifth of the City payout ($50,000) will be used to capitalize the new homeowners association, from which legal fees will be paid.
The remaining money will be used to upgrade the streets to public standards.
Rockford Woods, which was once slated for up to 56 houses, has no second phase planned*.
* In 2005, then-City Manager Valerie Lemmie actually recommended giving the developers more money to complete phase one AND phase two!
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2 comments:
As a resident of Rockford Woods since 2003, I want to correct a few statements about this article and clarify some others.
”As part of the planned development agreement between the City and EEHV, LLC, the developers were required to establish a homeowners association. Even though no association was ever established and property records were spotty at best, the City issued building permits anyway.”
My understanding is that it is not uncommon for the City to make variances with regard to building permits. However, everything should be recorded correctly before homes are sold and Certificates of Occupancy are issued. The issuance of the Certificates of Occupancy is the real problem, not the building permits. This is in violation of the Municipal Code and caused the residents on the two side streets to not have legal access to their properties.
”When basic maintenance on the subdivisions roads was not performed, residents began to blame the City - when it was the sole responsibility of the non-existent homeowners association to look after the development's infrastructure.”
We blamed the City because it issued Certificate of Occupancy without informed consent. About half of the home buyers were informed of an HOA in the buying process by realtors who were familiar with the development, only to find out later that the HOA did not actually exist. The remaining home buyers were not informed of an HOA at all. Since the HOA was not legally recorded, this important information eluded Title Companies at the time of loan closing.
The developer dissolved his LLC development company. From a legal standpoint, it created a situation where, literally, nobody owned the streets and homeowner did not have legal access to their homes.
”Residents of the subdivision have been forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars just to keep the streets livable, including paying for their own streetlights and maintaining their own sewer system.”
This is false. We’ve never spent any money in addition to legal fees. On two occasions, Cinergy threatened to turn off the street lights. After informing the City about the lack of oversight it had caused, the former developer agreed to pay the bill both times.
"At the same time, many residents were threatened with foreclosure or were watching the value of their properties plummet."
I know of no residents who have been threatened with foreclosure as a result of this. One property went into foreclosure because the owner had some financial problems. It was purchased by an investor and subsequently went into foreclosure a second time.
Like most homeowners, I am concerned about future property value. However, homes have sold at market value by people who have moved out of the neighborhood.
”In late 2005, an agreement was reached between the City, the developers and the residents that would deed all common areas to the residents and would force EEHV, LLC to pay all outstanding debts.
The agreement was contingent upon all of the property owners signing a Homeowners Association Agreement, which was finally accomplished in December 2007.
One-fifth of the City payout ($50,000) will be used to capitalize the new homeowners association, from which legal fees will be paid.
Rockford Woods, which was once slated for up to 56 houses, has no second phase planned.”
This is woefully incomplete and not exactly true. To clarify, Rockford Woods is a Planned Development under Chapter 1429 of the Municipal Code. Planned Developments are required by the Code to establish HOA’s. The City bargained in good faith when it agreed to some of our requests in exchange for formation of the HOA by the homeowners.
Phase 2 of the development was approved in 2001 and would have been completed long ago had the homeowners in Phase 1 not demanded that all of the necessary recordation of documents be corrected. The developer blamed the homeowners and the City, the City blamed the developer, and the homeowners were stonewalled by both until the new Administration was elected.
The agreement is contingent upon several things to ensure the City, the new developer, and the homeowners are mutually obligated and protected. One stipulation is that the developer will remain in control of the HOA until 75% occupancy of all homes in both Phases is attained. This was an original part of the plan which obligates the three primary stakeholders (the City, the new developer, and the homeowners) while allowing for completion of the development.
Completion of Rockford Woods is also one of the three Key Action Strategies in the Northside Comprehensive Land Use Plan which has been approved by the NCC and the City Council. However, Phase 2 has expired under the “sunset clause” of Planned Developments, so it needs to be renewed by the City Planning Commission.
A final note: once the City fully understood the magnitude of the problems and a new Administration was elected, the City has focused on getting the problems solved. In particular, Mayor Mallory, Mike Cervay, and several Council members have done a good job trying to clean up this mess. Though each primary stakeholder did not get exactly what it wanted from the outset, the agreement is fair.
^ I would like to invite you to e-mail me directly at . Perhaps we can work together to produce an article better articulating what's going on over there at Rockford Woods.
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