12/24/2009 10:00:00 PM Prescott Lakes residents, M3 at impasse
File photo/The Daily Courier
Prescott Lakes homeowners narrowly voted down a proposal from M3 Companies that was to give control of the community's athletic and golf clubs control to Arnold Palmer Management Co. The next step remains unknown.
Things remain in a state of flux in the Prescott Lakes neighborhood.
Residents narrowly shot down a proposal from developer M3 Companies earlier this month that would have given controlling interest in the community's golf course and athletic club to Arnold Palmer Golf Management Co.
M3 sought 763 votes and fell less than 20 votes short, leaving the fate of the greens and the club up in the air.
M3's most recent proposal was going to give Arnold Palmer Management Co. 51 percent ownership and control of both amenities - and would have raised monthly membership costs.
M3 and other builders in the community were going to bring $4 million to the table to build a multi-purpose room and restaurant, golf cart storage space, a pro shop and offices.
Prescott Lakes Community Association board member Dave Hackathorn said this week that a cluster of issues came together to doom the proposal.
"I think that the folks just basically felt there wasn't sufficient benefit for them," he said. "There's still some lingering bad feelings against M3 and that was what I heard a lot of.
"So we worked to get the best deal we could for the homeowners association and within that timeframe it was more than difficult."
The future is anyone's guess, according to Hackathorn.
"(M3 has) basically told us nothing," he said. "They said they don't know and they're working on whatever they're working on and hopefully we'll hear something after the first of the year."
What is certain right now is residents will see a 20 percent spike in dues to have an operating reserve, according to Hackathorn.
Bill Brownlee, managing member of M3, said the vote was "disappointing" for the management company, M3 and the residents supporting it.
Brownlee said he's looking at what the next step might be.
In terms of a future proposal that would cut M3 out of the community, "From our perspective it's not as simple as what people say," Brownlee said.
"We don't have a specific proposal that we're putting forth right now, so I think that the best thing to say is we all need to wait and see what proposal, if any, comes out of a result of this vote."
Brownlee said the developer invested a lot of money into both clubs and gave homeowners multiple options.
"I just think that it's important that the community continues to work together to try to find a solution that works for everybody."
Posted: Saturday, January 09, 2010
Article comment by:
No name provided
It's obvious that the PL golf course will never make it as a private club. Hassayampa is probably barely making it and they started way earlier. The golf course should be sold to deep pocketet persons who can make it a public course and keep it going until things in the economy improve enough to make it profitable. The Prescott Lakes homeowners will never financilly support this golf course. Ever. It was doomed from the get go.
Posted: Saturday, December 26, 2009
Article comment by:
Another Prescott Lakes resident
To the prior post by "Prescott Lakes resident" who hit the nail on the head: I totally agree with you! We are so tired of the misinformation and lack of correct information. The vote was no where near close as to what the "community" wanted! The developers and M3 are in it only for the money. There are other options as to what could happen with our community. Why can't we explore those?
The writer missed two points. First, the history of Prescott Lakes is rife with one broken promise and lie after another by M3. Few residents have any trust in the developer, and any solution to the ongoing problems in the PL community will require the developer to give up control which they refuse to do. Second, the vote may have been close, on paper, but 468 of the 740 some "yes" votes came from developer partners of M3. The lions share of the remaining votes came from golf club members who don't want their course to be closed and would love nothing better than to have all the residents bail them out of the M3-controlled failures that permeate the golf club. That so few remaining residents voted to leave M3 in de facto control while meekly opening their wallets to them was the telling point which the reporter missed in his story.
