A court hearing in a civil matter between the Ridgemark Homes Association and JMK Golf LLC has been delayed as the parties try to reach an out-of-court agreement about what unkept trees to cut down on a fallow section of former fairway.
Ridgemark Homes Association filed a lawsuit in April against JMK Golf LLC, the owners of the Ridgemark Golf & Country Club. The association asked to have the golf course stop using roads owned by homeowners to cart away “healthy” trees and to stop engaging in predevelopment efforts on an unkept section of former fairway, according to court documents filed by the association’s attorney, Bradley Matteoni.
JMK asked for the ability to use streets belonging to the homeowners to get access to their properties so that they could remove unwatered trees from an unkept section of golf course property, to lessen liabilities in the event of a storm.
At the most recent hearing Oct. 9, Judge Harry Tobias issued a temporary restraining order, which forbid the golf course from chopping, trimming or removing trees on the fallow portion of the golf course, unless the two parties agreed upon the action in writing.
The judge asked the association to post a $1 million bond by 5 p.m. Oct. 16 to cover the cost of any damages up to that amount, if any of the trees in question would fall. At the time, JMK Golf LLC’s attorney, John Richards, asked for a more substantial bond amount of at least $10 million to protect against damages while the temporary restraining order – preventing tree maintenance or removal – was in place.
An “order to show cause” hearing was originally set for 2 p.m. Thursday Oct. 30 but later a stipulation was filed to continue the preliminary injunction hearing to 2 p.m. Thursday Nov. 13.
The 125 trees in question are in a fallow part of the golf course that employees stopped watering in July when Ridgemark closed some of its fairways and moved from a 36-hole course to an 18-hole facility.
Since the hearing, the parties met Oct. 22 and made progress in forming an agreement related to the preliminary injunction, according to a proposed stipulation order signed by both attorneys. The parties had planned to review the property with the fire marshal and both arborists this week and hope to resolve the issues without court assistance, according to the same document.
