The Bussards
We have lived in Ocean Neighbors since December 2015. We have two daughters, 5 and 7, and a whole zoo of animals. We have a massive but sweet Doberman, 3 rescue cats, a chameleon that our daughter wanted for her 4th birthday, a rescue bearded dragon, and a fish tank complete with river and waterfall. We recently adopted a sweet new puppy. If that does not sound like enough chaos- we also frequently foster with Georgia Doberman Rescue and PetHelpers.
As part of Craig's job, he has visited the North Pole and Antarctica and has seen the melting tundras first hand. This has led to us caring more about our environment and how we impact it. In the time we have lived at Ocean Neighbors, it has been hard to miss the increasing frequency of Old Military and Battalion Drive flooding.
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We came across a grant program through the City of Charleston and Clemson Exchange which trains homeowners on installing a rain garden and helped homeowners purchase plants and material for their garden.
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We completed the training which indicated that our front yard was our most effective location for a rain garden. It needs to be in a higher location in order to catch the water before it pools to flood. We then submitted an ACC application. We immediately recieved approval from the HOA Chair. The next day we received an email from Melissa stating we were denied because we did not confirm the exact plants (because we could not guarantee stock available) and we did not indicate we would keep the garden free of weeds. We were pretty upset as we felt these were not reasonable explanations for a denial. There was not a board meeting scheduled prior to the grant deadline for us to appeal the decision. We emailed Melissa and she confirmed that plants under 36 inches did not need an ACC application but must be mulched and kept free of weeds.
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We proceeded to install our garden on 10/22/23. On 10/25/23 we received a stop work notice from Poston. At this time, the rain garden was complete except a few bags of mulch prior to receiving the stop work notice. The HOA Board of Directors has indicated otherwise but we have pictures time stamped showing the plants all in the ground on 10/22/23. In an effort to work with the board, we reapplied with an ACC application. This time we were denied for the same reasons as before (even though we listed the exact plants) with an additional reason for not including a picture. The garden was installed and fully visible in real life at this time.
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We attended a board meeting virtually and gave our appeal to the board. Only four board members were present and the appeal ended in a 2-2 tie vote. We were told the board would discuss the appeal at the next meeting. The board called a special meeting and gave 3 days notice to meet during the work day so we could attend. We were told it was the only time the Board could find a free place to meet (at Poston office downtown). We sent Melissa the Baxter Patrick library page which showed ample availability for booking free rooms during times that neighbors could attend. This is an easy process that would increase community participation. All board meetings are recorded and available for residents to review. Craig and Jamie reviewed the meeting afterward. The board president stated in the meeting, "I have gone ahead and made a forensic audit of the paperwork. At the meeting [when we made our appeal] I was very concerned we had a well documented appeal from the homeowners but I had nothing to reference it on." We provided the board with an 8 page appeal document and 33 pages of supporting emails and documents. The dates and information presented in this board meeting were factually false. We were not allowed an opportunity to address this issue. We were not allowed to view the "forensic audit" prepared by the board president and presented to the board despite multiple requests. There was no vote on our appeal. A motion was made to have us return our yard to the state prior to the rain garden installation. The board member who had not heard our appeal supported this motion so it carried.
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At this time we hired a lawyer to help us navigate this process to ensure we were going about the process correctly as this process had begun to feel like a personal issue for us. This was not an easy decision as we knew this would ultimately cost the neighborhood money as well. We did not feel we were offered a fair chance to appeal our ACC denial, though.
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In the most recent executive session, the rain garden was discussed again. In this meeting three out of five members had never heard our appeal or our side of the situation. They told us we had 7 days to remove the rain garden. 2/21/24 Our attorney and the HOA attorney, Derek Dean, talked and determined that it was reasonable to request that we can present our case to the board again since three out of five members have never heard us present our case. This request also came with a 'stay' or 30 day extension. 2/22/24 we received notice that the Board would not allow us to present our case and we had to keep to the original 7 day timeline.
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This rain garden has kept our side yard and our neighbor's side yard from flooding since its installation. I am at a loss for why our HOA Board of Directors is requiring us to remove an effective flooding mitigation to allow our yards to flood again.
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