Power Struggle: Regatta Bay residents file suit

Residents of Regatta Bay, not developers, should be in charge of their own homeowners association, homeowner Richard Schmutz says.

“The homeowners of Regatta Bay should have had control of the association at some point in the past,” Schmutz told The Log. “Many homeowners share this view.”

Schmutz told The Log Friday that his attorney, David Theriaque, had filed a suit that morning against the Regatta Bay Company, a branch of Legendary, arguing that the company surrender control of the Regatta Bay Owners Association to the homeowners.

Schmutz’s complaint states that under the 1996 covenants for Regatta Bay, the association has two classes of members, individual property owners and the Regatta Bay Company, which has a number of votes equal to the number of parcels in Regatta Bay plus one.

“It’s entirely with Legendary,” Schmutz said. “All the officers of the association are Legendary people. We effectively have no voice.”

The complaint says the company’s membership in the association was supposed to end once 90 percent of the Regatta Bay parcels were sold.

Schmutz said that point is long past, but the Regatta Bay Company disagrees.

Schmutz told The Log that he was pushed to challenge the company by a recent announcement that vehicles from Turnberry Harbor will be given access to Regatta Bay by a gated entrance: “This would effectively turn Regatta Bay into a feeder road for construction and residential vehicles from Turnberry Harbor.”

The complaint requests the court end Regatta Bay Company’s control of the development, and render null and void any contracts the company has entered into after the point at which it should have surrendered control of the association. The Turnberry proposal is specifically named as one such deal.

Julie Cotton of Legendary said the company had no comment on the lawsuit.

Other Regatta Bay homeowners have objected to Legendary’s plan to build a 458 condo project instead of 64 single-family homes and 35,000 square feet of retail. That proposal goes before the Okaloosa County Commission May 20.