Agenda - Planning Commission - 01/03/2008

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Zoning Bulletin tutional rights did not implicate "important state interests" but, rather, the interests of an individual propeqy owner. Because the case did not fall under the procedural guidelines for ab- stention, the federal court refused to close the case. Whittaker's claims were allowed to proceed in federal court, with the court noting that the county could raise jurisdictional or other procedural arguments such as collateral estoppel-which barred a court from hearing a duplicative case-at a later stage in the proceedings. Restrictive Cov~nants-Association passes amendment barring further subdivisions New lot owner claims amendment invalid @ Citation: Hazelbaker v. County of St. Charles, 2007 WL 2990636 (Mo. Ct. App. E.D. 2007) :MISSOURI (10/16/07)-Hazelbaker owned Lot 41 in the HigWand Trails Subdivision located in St. Charles County. HigWand Trails was a subdivision made up of two plats of land containing 66 lots. Im- portantly, one of the two plats contained lots that were all more than three acres in size; Hazelbaker's lot was part of that plat. Hazelbaker acquired the lot in 2005. HigWand Trails was governed by a community association that con- sisted of the owners of the lots. The association was overseen by three elected trustees who administered and enforced the "Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions of HigWand Trails." Restrictions relevant to this case included provisions stating that "[n]one of said Lots may be improved, used[,] or occupied for other than private residence purposes"; "Any residence erected or maintained on any of said Lots shall be designed for occupancy by a single family"; and "members shall be entitled to one vote for each Lot in which they hold [an] interest ... but in no event shall more than one vote be cast with respect to any such Lot." Further, the restrictions stated that they remained in force "unless an instrument signed by the then Owners of 51 % of the Lots ha[d] been recorded, agreeing to change said covenants and restrictions in whole or in part." In 2000, the owners of two lots in HigWand Trails divided their re- spective lots into two new lots. The new lots were more than one acre in size, as required by the county ordinance. In response to these subdivi- sions, the community association drafted an "Amendment To Declara- tion Of Covenants And Restrictions" that stated, in pertinent part, that: "No Lot located within HigWand Trails Plats One and Two shall be split or subdivided, with the exception of Lot 65 which has previously been split by its owner with the approval of the Board of Directors." 8 58 !l ji d r, Ii l\ Ii ,I Ii