What is going on in Pine Ridge?

I came across something that seems CRAZY, but yet it happened. Developer James Dicks made an offer of $1 million to the Pine Ridge Property Owners Association (PRPOA) to essentially pay them off to help move his projects along. PRPOA made a counter offer to become joing partners in a new company. Let's dive in.

If you remember, Dicks has a pending project to convert the Pine Ridge Golf Course into a home development project to include 80 homes on what was once the golf course. In January 2024, the Pine Ridge community turned out in force to oppose the project and the Board of County Commissioners voted to deny it 5-0. Dicks has brought the project back and it recently passed through the PDC with a unanimous vote of approval and will be coming before the board in August. It was election season and I expect that played a huge role in that 5-0 denial vote. None of the incumbents wanted that vote on their record prior to the election. I expect it to pass 3-2 or 4-1 this time around.

Dicks has several other projects he is working on in the county, including others in/near Pine Ridge. This document references one of those projects but also includes ties to the golf course project.

Prior to writing this, I did receive confirmation from James Dicks that he did indeed write the post and share the documents discussed below.

In a recent post on the app Nextdoor, developer James Dicks addresses Pine Ridge residents and informs them that he made a "$1m cash payout in exchange for support on zoning changes and release of restrictions". He then goes on to say that the PRPOA sent a Joint Venture (JV) term sheet outlining an offer to create a company that would be jointly owned by Dicks and PRPOA.

The offer says that Dicks would supply the land to the company and receive credit for the property donated. He would receive $12,245 per acre for the parcel he already owns and would receive an undecided amount per acre on the parcel he is under contract for. When profits are taken, 100% of the profits will go to Dicks until he recoups the initial investment amount he is credited with from the land donation. The revenue split is then 67% to Dicks and 33% to PRPOA.

Seems wild to me that a developer can basically buy off a POA and have them help get approval/support for a project as well as removing some of the deed restrictions on the properties. But here we are.

The crazy thing here is that no one in Pine Ridge even knew this agreement existed prior to Dicks sharing it publicly. It was never mentioned at a meeting and the PRPOA board signed the document without the community knowing about it Remember, Pine Ridge has spent tens of thousands of dollars on attorneys to fight against Dicks' golf course project. That seems like money wasted at this point, although one of the board members still came out against it after they signed the JV document. Weird. Optics I guess.

So why wouldn't they take this to the citizens of Pine Ridge and members of the POA for a discussion at the very least? Seems odd that everyone was left in the dark. The bylaws for PRPOA (seen here) give the Board of Directors the ability to vote on things, similar to the BOCC. Each member of the board gets a vote on the motion presented before the board. It would appear in this instance, that the BoD did not vote on this at a meeting. Not good.

Also, keep in mind that the PRPOA is a non-profit organization. I have not seen anything in state laws that prohibits a non-profit from entering in a joint venture with a for-profit company, but there are things they need to be mindful of, such as comingling funds. They would also have to be mindful that they represent the residents of Pine Ridge. Seems like a HUGE conflict of interest for the PRPOA to be involved in a development project that may not be of interest to its members. Clearly the optics would be muddied at the very least.

At the end of the day, what is the purpose of this partnership? Would the profits from the development of the property reduce the annual fees for the residents of Pine Ridge? Would they go towards something else? The funds would have to be used for something and would be regulated by laws/reporting surrounding non-profits. The agreement does not state the usage of the funds. I am not sure anyone knows the answer.

I will continue to keep an eye on this and see what comes of it. To date, Dicks has NOT signed the agreement and not sure he intends to after going public with it.

Read through the Nextdoor post and review the JV document below!