Selby Community Association
Selby Community
Association, Inc.,
P.O. Box 599, Mayo, Maryland 21106
Information About your Community Association
The SCA Board of Directors would like to thank you for your interest in our website - it is your interest that will make this site a successful tool and enterprise for our community.
The Selby Community Association, incorporated in 1962 is Selby on the Bay's community organization. The duty of the SCA is to maintain and improve the common areas of our community.
Membership
Beginning January 1, 2001, all lot owners in Selby on the Bay are automatically members of the Selby Community Association and dues are no longer required. Selby on the Bay is defined as all properties within the Selby on the Bay Special Benefits District. If you were charged a special tax for Selby on the Bay on your AA County property tax bill, you are part of the Selby on the Bay Benefit District. This district encompasses the sub-communities of Selby, North Selby and Selby Heights.
Our Perpetual Injunction
Our community's 1938 AA County
Circuit Court Injunction states that all of the original
properties in Selby have permanent rights to the Community
Clubhouse, Beach and Park and we feel that while the Injunction
is limited to the original plats that it should extend to all of
the properties in the community. You can read more about this here.
Special Benefits District
Our Benefits District is fairly unique and very important to our Selby on the Bay community. Our district is following a trend established in the State & Federal government levels to move the directing of local funds back to local organizations, cutting down on bureaucratic redtape in our government and empowering communities. Currently Selby on the Bay's Special Benefits District is one of a few in the State of Maryland.
We recently expanded our Special Benefits District. For more on
this subject.
Our Clubhouse Lock-out & Court Battle
Currently the community is in a struggle to retain use of our community's clubhouse, which has been under control of the residents of Selby on the Bay for over six decades. The SCA has been in a legal struggle over our community rights to the building since proposed owner Dan Boger supposedly gave the property to a Northern Virginia charity, Youth Development Foundation (YDF). YDF feels they have the right to lock the lot owners out of the clubhouse. We feel that our rights have been violated by this action and we are in the midst of defending our rights in court. The SCA feels there are ownership discrepancies in the title to the property and that our exclusion from use goes against the 1938 Perpetual Injunction.
In May 2001, we won the right to full and unobstructed use of the clubhouse. YDF is appealing the ruling. For more information, see Our Current Situation .
Perpetual Rights
"You cannot have the free and unobstructed rights to
property and not have those same rights to buildings on said
properties" - Tom Wohlgemuth, SCA Legal Counsel for over 10
years.
Our Injunction neither precludes, includes or excludes the building on the property which we, as a community, have perpetual rights to. If we do not or cannot own the property at the Community Beach and Park, we will certainly have use of our rights as prescribed in our Injunction and 2001 Court Order.
Preliminary Injunction
Hearing
We had a Preliminary Injunction hearing in April 1998 ( a
pre-hearing before a full Injunction hearing) and our requests
were rejected by Anne Arundel County Court Judge Heller. What we
felt was an easy win was drawn out over many days with many
confusing and contradicting facts. It was five full days of court
and many things came to light from the Judges comments after our
case.
Diplomacy
In the mean while we have met and tried to work with our
counterparts through private meetings and mediation, we formed
new organizations, offered reasonable purchase prices, and during
a full title search our lawyers found several discrepancies of
ownership.
We have tried every means of communicating civily with the
proposed owner and we are still no closer than we were four years
ago at an agreement. We felt we had no other choice than to
continue with our lawsuit. We filed an amended complaint with the
court system in December 1999. The court system felt we should
settle this out of court, so we spent six more months attempting
to work out our differences. The only logical outcome, besides
going to court, was to attempt, once again, to purchase the
clubhouse. The judge that was mediating our case strongly urged
both sides to settle in this way. We made several offers to YDF,
but all were turned down. The SCA and YDF paid for a surveyor to
determine a fair value for the clubhouse and the two adjacent
lots titled to YDF. As it turned out, the value obtained by the
surveyor fell between the two highest offers we made to YDF. They
still felt the price was too low.
Current Court
Proceedings
Since it became obvious we were at a stalemate, the judge
mediating our case allowed us to set court dates for our Motion
for Summary Judgment (filed in Dec. 2000) and our full trial, at
which our amended complaint will be heard. The Motion for Summary
Judgment was heard on February 21, 2001. At this hearing, our
attorney argued one count of our amended complaint. This count
calls for the enforcement of our 1938 Perpetual Injunction on
the clubhouse.
On May 10, 2001, Judge Ronald A. Silkworth ruled in our favor!!! He signed an order stating that "...the Defendant's are hereby enjoined from placing any restrictions upon the free and unobstructed use of the club house building located in the community of Selby on the Bay by the Selby Community Association, Inc.", the other plaintiffs listed on the lawsuit "and all other lot owners in Selby on the Bay similarly situated." He determined that we do have the right to use the clubhouse with as much freedom as the surrounding land covered by our 1938 Injunction.
Youth Development Foundation filed to appeal, however, the appeal was filed improperly. We filed to have their appeal dismissed. A hearing has been scheduled for August 2001 to determine whether their appeal can be heard or not.
For More Information
Since we are currently in the middle of legal processes over our
Clubhouse, this is all that will be posted publicly. If you have
interest in our cause and/or would like to contribute to our
legal fund, please contact me.
Suggestions and comments about this page should be sent to the webmaster
Volunteers are needed to keep our site current.
Last updated 8/17/01