Troubled waters at Seacoast Shores

Aug. 24--EAST FALMOUTH -- An argument over a beach, access to the water and a $1.2 million clubhouse has roiled residents of the Seacoast Shores neighborhood, where families who have owned modest summer homes for generations say they're tired of supporting a building they didn't want and can't always access.

The Seacoast Shores Association, a homeowners association, doesn't have enough money to pay for ongoing maintenance and repair of its assets, its 15 board members say. Those assets include a beach and 20 of the 31 rights of way leading to the water surrounding the neighborhood.

The association has floated selling the beach and rights of way, ostensibly to raise money and cut expenses, an idea that incensed residents and sparked the current acrimony.

"That's been the value of owning property in Seacoast Shores, the access to the water and the beach," said Alan Peterson, whose family has had a home in the neighborhood for decades. He and his wife plan to expand and improve their cottage, and retire there someday. "People use them (the rights of way) to store their dinghies and get out to their boats. Most of them are well-maintained."

The conflict has simmered for weeks, mostly via strongly worded yard signs, but it boiled over Saturday morning when a series of packed neighborhood meetings designed to provide answers left residents more frustrated than ever.

The morning meeting ended after nearly three hours, as the presentation finally turned to the association's financial overview, which most attendees had been clamoring to hear.

A group of 150 people was waiting outside to get into the second meeting, which was hastily scheduled when the meeting room in the association clubhouse was filled quickly to capacity.

Two off-duty police officers, one each from Mashpee and Falmouth, were hired to do crowd control and keep the peace.

"They're bamboozling us," said Alan Seiple after the morning meeting. The Vermont resident has owned a summer home in Seacoast Shores since 2009. "They're not giving us answers."

Board member Dan Frawley said Saturday's conversation will continue as the association works to improve its membership numbers and its finances.

"No one wants to sell anything," he said. "But we're faced with these legal and financial issues of liability and upkeep. Eventually, if we can't save the assets, we're going to be forced to sell them."

Although board members were focused on the association's future on Saturday, residents say the roots of the current strife can be found in the decision to tear down the neighborhood's old clubhouse and replace it with a larger structure with a pool, tennis courts and a restaurant.

The clubhouse opened in July 2012 and is available only to association members who pay the $300 annual dues, but full access comes with a heftier price tag.

"This turned off a lot of people," Peterson said. "They had no interest in belonging to that. They thought the dues should just belong to the association and not the clubhouse, and it turned people off."

FINANCIAL TROUBLES

Seacoast Shores is one of Falmouth's largest and most densely populated neighborhoods. About 900 homes, from modest cottages to million-dollar beachfront properties, sit on a peninsula off Waquoit Highway that's bordered by the Childs and Seapit rivers to the east and Eel Pond to the west.

It was established in the late 1940s, when cottages were advertised for a few hundred bucks each and a plot of land went for a few grand. Eventually the peninsula filled up. Just as soon, the association claims, the financial troubles began.

The association's dues always have been voluntary, and historically only about a third of homeowners have paid, Frawley said at the Saturday morning meeting. That put the association in a financial hole for years and meant that nothing was being saved for beach replenishment or to repair the rights of way to which all homeowners had deeded access.

That voluntary membership has been one of the fundamental problems in keeping Seacoast Shores solvent, Frawley said.

"You have a benefit with no obligation," he said.

The association is projected to break even this year despite a dropoff in membership when dues went from $100 in 2006 to $300 in 2013. But the amount of money being brought in went up over that period, and association membership is anticipated to top 300 this year, he said. By 2017, the board's goal is 575 members.

The board said part of the financial turnaround came from the clubhouse construction. The building, which includes a pool and dining room, replaced an older, more modest clubhouse that was open to everyone in Seacoast Shores.

'I REFUSED TO PAY'

The new building is open only to association members, but to get full access, residents must first pay a one-time membership fee of $7,750 and an additional yearly $900 fee, plus a $400 minimum charge for food. About 200 households pay those fees.

Those who pay only the association dues get a $25 credit at the clubhouse for food, alcohol, apparel or other special events at the clubhouse.

After that benefit is exhausted, association members can use the clubhouse only during specific hours and only some months of the year.

Frawley insisted that the association dues were not subsidizing the clubhouse's operation, but when he showed a breakdown of the $300 membership fee, it showed that 16 percent of that goes toward utilities, property taxes and insurance. The bulk of those costs, Frawley agreed, are clubhouse-related.

In 2013, the association brought in about $3,000 less than it needed to cover its $330,000 expenses, according to documents provided to the Times.

The bulk of the 2013 expenses -- about 70 percent -- came from the salaries for clubhouse employees and food and beverage costs, according to a Times analysis of the figures.

"The argument is being made that the (association) paid the taxes and utilities on the old clubhouse, so they should continue to pay for utilities and taxes on the $1 million building," Seiple said.

Seiple said, and Frawley acknowledged, that the board has not been forthcoming about its finances. Seiple stopped paying his association dues several years ago largely for that reason.

"When they failed to give me the financial statements, I refused to pay," he said. "A lot of other members did that. It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize where the money's now going."

But the board says it needs more money not to keep the clubhouse afloat but to invest in its beaches and rights of way.

repairs needed

Board member Bill Erickson said a professional approach is needed to keep up the properties. Now, they're not only falling into disrepair, but in some cases they're running afoul of local and federal conservation laws.

Repairing the damage caused by erosion can't be done ad hoc, he said, showing slides of rocks dumped haphazardly along some waterfront paths to shore up eroding shorelines.

An engineered solution must be devised, and it will have to meet Falmouth Conservation Commission standards.

"We don't want you throwing good money after bad," said Tom Corriveau, the commission chairman, who attended Saturday's meetings. "We want a solution that's working."

The work that needs to be done includes cleaning the rights of way, restoring eroding beaches, developing a system for dinghy and kayak storage along the shoreline and ongoing trimming of the vegetation.

That, plus other monitoring, maintenance programs the association board wants to implement, will cost about $90,000 a year, said board member Jim Demopoulos. Without raising dues or selling assets, raising that sum would mean roughly doubling the current association membership.

"This is for our kids," Demopoulos said. "This is for whoever comes next."

But for those who are in Seacoast Shores now, the skepticism level is higher than the clubhouse dining room's vaulted ceiling. Talk of selling assets, Seiple believes, is just a way to shock people into joining the association.

"The current board is literally trying to extort money out of the neighbors who are refusing to pay their voluntary homeowners association dues," he said.

No votes were taken Saturday. Frawley said a third meeting is likely for next weekend, and the board wants to keep the dialogue going with more resident meetings in the future.

Ultimately, however, only dues-paying members would get a vote on the association's future regardless of how high the outrage gets.

For resident Ed Grace, who does not belong to the association, that isn't enough reason to join.

"It's all because of a failed marketing plan for their clubhouse," he said. "It's deceitful and sneaky."

Follow Sean F. Driscoll on Twitter: @seanfdriscoll.

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