By Paul Maryniak | Ahwatukee Foothills News
The former members of the Foothills Club West Association board of directors had no authority to annex the beleaguered golf course without approval by 75 percent of the community’s homeowners and violated open meeting law by voting to do it, a Superior Court commissioner ruled in an opinion filed today.
Commission Andrew Russell’s ruling – a major victory for the Club West Conservancy and attorney Francis Slavin – appears to be a major blow to the four investors who bought the course because they’ve lost the ability to appeal any time soon to homeowners to use the 160-acre site for anything but golf.
The previous HOA board – which includes four longtime members who lost their seats in an election earlier this month – had assumed the declarant rights for the course, giving the board considerable influence in determining the site’s future by deciding what plan would be presented to homeowners for a vote and how many homeowners were needed to approve it.
