Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Declarant Control topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents, developer offer starkly different accounts of Captains Cove declarant control
Summary
At a Virginia Housing Commission work group meeting residents of Captains Cove described decades of developer (declarant) control they say has deprived lot owners of effective self‑government and left the association bearing infrastructure costs; the declarant's counsel described operational and financing constraints and said sustained declarant‑in
Residents of Captains Cove on Virginia’s Eastern Shore told the Local Land Use and Community Living Work Group they have endured decades of effective developer control and financial strain and asked the General Assembly to consider statutory fixes that would prevent similar outcomes for other older subdivisions.
"For the last 13 years our current declarant, CCG Note LLC, and their associate, Tim Hearn, have controlled our community and have changed its dynamics," Theresa Birkhead told the work group, citing settlement agreements, property transfers and a $3,000,000 declarant loan the board agreed to in 2012. Birkhead said the association now faces substantial unpaid assessments, roads needing major work, and a governance structure that allows the declarant to dominate board elections and budget decisions.
Mark Baumgartner, counsel for CCG Note LLC, described a different history and argued the community’s circumstances are unusually complex. He said much of Captains Cove was platted and sold in the 1960s and 1970s under older subdivision rules that did not require paved roads or modern infrastructure, leaving a private wastewater treatment facility and scattered ownership patterns that created operational and financing challenges when the market collapsed in 2008. Baumgartner said the developer and association worked together to increase the number of dues‑paying lots, stabilize utility operations, and attract buyers; he noted that the association had about 1,300 homes and roughly 2,900 dues‑paying members in 2025 and that a wastewater utility was eventually sold to an investor/operator, AQUA Virginia.
Residents disputed Baumgartner’s framing and described repeated attempts to use administrative remedies and the courts with limited success. Multiple Captains Cove residents who spoke during the public‑comment period said board seats were effectively chosen by declarant‑held votes, that the association budget is prepared outside community oversight, and that repair and infrastructure costs have been shifted onto lot owners. "The bankruptcy of a declarant should not affect the operations of the association after declarant control has been transferred to the members," Birkhead said, asking the work group to consider transition rules and statutory limits.
Work group members acknowledged the tension between preserving developers’ incentives to finish challenging projects and protecting lot owners from prolonged, post‑transfer developer control. Chair Delegate David Bulova proposed forming a small stakeholder group (including local government groups, home‑builders, and community association representatives) to examine statutory models other states use, such as tiered step‑down timelines for declarant control, and to report back to the work group.
Why this matters: the Captains Cove testimony illustrates a recurring policy question—how to balance developers’ ability to finish expensive infrastructure projects in distressed or stalled subdivisions with homeowners’ rights to democratic control and predictable maintenance obligations. Residents asked the work group to study statutory time limits, clearer transition rules, oversight for successor declarants and remedies for communities whose governance and finances are compromised after transfer.
