Board seeks resolution to dispute

HOPE — Don Myers wants the rules in his neighborhood suspended, and the group charged with enforcing them to disband.

Myers lives in a wooded neighborhood on the peninsula south of Hope.

The homes here are modest, the properties neat and well-maintained, and the covenants, conditions and restrictions that owners agree to when purchasing property at the Kullyspell Estates are supposed to keep it that way.

But, for a couple of years, Myers, who is trying to sell his home, said that he has wrangled with what he calls discrimination.

“They are picking and choosing who they let get away with things,” Myer said.

The former New Jersey teamster said the homeowners’ association board has not enforced a simple rule outlawing travel trailers in driveways.

In addition, no metal buildings are supposed to be built in the wooded 50-lot subdivision.

Myer accuses his neighbor of a blatant disregard for the rules, and he says the board is turning a blind eye.

“They pick and choose,” Myer said. “It should be universal where everybody follows the rules equally.”

The neighbor in question, Steve Generaux built a metal shop on his property at Kiebert Loop a few years ago and parked a travel trailer in front of his garage.

Generaux says the homeowners association has no qualms with the metal building.

Myers has no objection to the building either. The trailer is the focus of his concern.

“He just doesn’t like looking at it even though it’s a nice looking trailer,” Generaux says.

The subdivision’s restrictions call for travel trailers to be parked in a secluded location, Generaux says.

“That does not specifically mean out of sight, or hidden from view,” he contends.

The homeowners association in a recent letter to Myers upholds Generaux’s interpretation.

Board members go a step further: The restriction is worded too vaguely to do much enforcing at all, they say.

“It’s very vague and real broad,” said board member Jim Erdman.

He said the board is looking for a resolution to the neighbors’ squabble.

Rick Mosiman, another board member, said the board is in the process of having its attorney reply to a letter sent to them by Myers’ attorney.

He said the board has taken action on several complaints that Myers has filed in the past.

Complaints about signs illegally advertising home businesses, and trailers parked on undeveloped lots were appeased.

“They were remedied,” he said.

Therefore, to be accused of segregation is not fair, he said.

Erdman calls the dispute between the neighbors in a secluded, wooded subdivision, far from any traffic lights, and off the beaten path of most travelers on Highway 200 an oddity.

“It’s a neighbor to neighbor thing,” Erdman says. “It’s kind of weird.”

He wants Myers and Generaux to resolve the issue among themselves.

“In my mind, good fences make good neighbors,” he says.

Generaux points out that many residences in the subdivision have travel trailers and boats parked in their driveways or yards.

“I’m the only neighbor he’s complaining about,” he says.

Generaux hopes to be appointed to the board at a meeting this week, replacing a board member who is sick.

If that happens, Myers thinks he will get no closure on the issue that has already resulted in the loss of a buyer for his home.

He says the association and its board should disband if they will not enforce the covenants, conditions and restrictions.

“They should be upholding the CC and Rs,” he said. “It’s a contract I entered into when I came here.”