Residents Want Control Of Condo Executive Board

By Andrew Gorosko

Residents at the Walnut Tree Village condominium complex who are upset over Walnut Tree Developers, Inc.’s, control of the condominium association are mounting an effort to elect a new three-member executive board for the association.

In a June 15 letter sent to all condominium unit owners, a group of 14 unit owners announces that new elections for the executive board will be held July 22.

The 14 owners state they are calling the elections to select all three members of the executive board in accordance with the state Condominium Act of 1976 and the by-laws of the Walnut Tree Village Condominium Association, Inc.

Joan Crisona, a village resident who is one of the condo unit owners calling the elections, said June 21, “We want to gain autonomy. We don’t want to be a part of the other [proposed] condominium complex.”

Walnut Tree Developers, Inc., a partnership of Louis DeFilio and George Trudell, has a proposal pending before the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) to add 110 new condo units to the existing 80-unit Walnut Tree Village on Walnut Tree Hill Road in Sandy Hook. The expansion proposal drew criticism at a June 15 P&Z public hearing, with some nearby residents calling for the P&Z to reject the controversial project for a number of reasons. Last November, the P&Z rejected a 133-unit expansion proposal for Walnut Tree Village, saying that that proposed development was too dense and too disruptive to the landscape. (See related story.)

A group of condo unit owners has complained that the developers, who control the association by holding two of the three seats on the executive board, have not been responsive to their complaints. The developers have replied that they work hard to meet condo unit owners’ requests for assistance. The Walnut Tree Hill Road complex, which is the town’s first condominium project, is intended for people over 55.

At the June 15 public hearing, attorney Stephen Wippermann, who represents Walnut Tree Developers and the condominium association, described the mechanics of the association to P&Z members. The developers plan to turn over control of the executive board to the condo unit owners 60 days after the 114th unit of the envisioned 190-unit complex is sold, Mr Wippermann said. The 190-unit complex would sit on one piece of property, Mr Wippermann said. Opponents of the expansion project claim that the 80-unit complex and proposed 110-unit expansion would occupy separate pieces of property.

The developers are expanding the complex, not creating a second complex, Mr Wippermann said. The developers control the condominium association, he stressed.

“We want to be autonomous. We want to have our own management company, and control our destiny,” Ms Crisona said of the drive to elect a new executive board.

Mr DeFilio and Mr Trudell are members of the executive board. Condo unit owner Matthew Keane was reelected to the board at the condominium association’s recent annual meeting, but has resigned that post, Ms Crisona said. Mr Keane could not be reached for comment. The annual meeting was closed to the public and press by the developers.

Contacted by telephone Thursday morning, Mr DeFilio said he was very busy and did not have time to discuss the condo owners’ drive for new elections.

The condo owners who want a new executive board have hired a lawyer to represent them.

Attorney Donald Mitchell said June 20 that he represents condo unit owners who believe that the owners should be in control of the condominium association, not Walnut Tree Developers, Inc. The July 22 meeting has been called to conduct an election of executive board members who would replace the current board members, he said.

The conflict may eventually be submitted to a court to determine the legitimate executive board members, he said.

Mr Mitchell said he is serving as an advisor to several condo owners who want different people on the executive board. The approximately one-half-dozen people whom he now represents are not a formal group, but have a unity of interests in pursuing new elections, he said.

“I’m trying to clarify for the [condo] unit owners what the [legal] issues are at each stage,” he said.

The goal of electing new executive board members is to create a board that is answerable to condominium unit owners, rather than answerable to the developers of the condo complex, he said. The new executive board members would represent the condo owners to the developers, instead of being the developers themselves, he said.