I politely replied that the HOA’s authority ended precisely at my well-marked property line, and that my dock’s aesthetic was my business.
This was like a gauntlet thrown down. Brenda’s entire persona was predicated on unquestioned authority. The idea that a scruffy-looking man in his 40s, living in an old stone pile, could defy her was simply not acceptable. She saw a bachelor who inherited some land. She didn’t see a man who also happened to be a hydrological engineer, someone who had spent his entire life studying, maintaining, and understanding the very dam that gave her a lake view.
She consistently, fatally underestimated me. That was her first mistake. Her second was much, much bigger. It involved 139 cabins, a fraudulent survey, and a complete and utter disregard for the law, both man-made and natural. It was a mistake that would ultimately require me to teach her a very expensive, very wet lesson in property rights.
The escalation began, as it often does, with a simple fence. I had the entire 2,000 acre parcel properly surveyed and marked every few hundred ft with discrete but official iron pins and bright orange flags, especially along the border with Lake View Pinnacle Estates. I wasn’t being aggressive. I was being precise.
I believe in good fences making good neighbors. Brenda, however, seemed to believe that good neighbors were ones who seated their property for her convenience. Her first major move was to announce the Lake View community recreation area. It was a beautifully rendered map in their monthly newsletter showing a sandy beach, a fishing pier, a volleyball court, and a kayak launch.
