September 14, 2001
 |
By Rick Adair, Bonanza Staff Writer |
By consent, the Board of Trustees approved the
formation of a committee to interview three defense attorneys
being considered for the lawsuit filed against the Incline Village
General Improvement District to open access at Burnt Cedar and
Incline beaches.
Also, for the first time, IVGID provided an estimate of the cost
and duration of the case.
The suit was filed in July by 2001 Beach Access, Inc., to open
access to owners of all properties within IVGID. The deed transferring
the beaches to IVGID in 1968 limited access principally to owners
of properties within IVGID's boundary then. There are now about
450 parcels outside the 1968 boundary, including all of Crystal
Bay.
District general counsel Scott Brooke recommended the attorneys,
whose names he didn't provide, and said he was familiar with the
abilities of each.
Board Chair Kenny Kinsman agreed to serve on the committee. Also
serving will be Brooke, General Manager John Danielson and Trustee
Ted Fuller, who is away on vacation, and was appointed in absentia.
Kinsman said the committee would hold its first meeting next month.
In response to a pubic query, Brooke estimated the case could
last 2 years, and cost between $50,000 and $100,000, but added,
"it is hard to estimate because we can't foresee the course
of events."
During public comments, members and representatives of the Village
League to Save Incline Assets, Inc., said they intended to file
an intervening suit by next week opposing wider beach access,
and urged all who now have beach access to join their efforts.
"Many, many people are joining with me," said League
incorporator Maryanne Ingemanson. "The purpose of this suit
is to protect our property values."
In comments earlier this month, Ingemanson said the League's board
included herself, Tom Menning, Joyce Anderson Bock, Chuck Otto
and Jeffrey Quinn.
The League's attorney, Mike Johnson, also spoke, and addressed
the relevance of a Connecticut suit, Leydon v. Greenwich, with
some parallels to the IVGID suit. Johnson said the Connecticut
suit, which opened access to a residents-only Greenwich park to
all on free speech grounds, didn't apply to IVGID's case because
Greenwich had no covenant granting its residents an easement to
use the beach.
"There was no private interest in the Greenwich case, which
is why First Amendment considerations applied," he said.
"In contrast, IVGID's involvement is simply to administer
the private easement that allows the residents to use the beach."
Although most in attendance favored keeping the access limited,
Manny Sylvester, a long-time Incline resident whose efforts helped
found Incline Village, forcefully urged that opening it to all
IVGID properties.
"I think the board made a mistake by turning aside an opportunity
to let Crystal Bay in," he said. "All I'm talking about
here is a business decision. The Connecticut case is not the first
one. Hawaii went through the same thing and lost. You are risking
100 percent of the value of the beach (by defending your suit),
versus a 3 percent diminution by letting Crystal Bay in. If you
had followed a decision tree, you would have been led to that
decision."
But Brooke pointed out that this board, like several before it,
were following the only course available to it in defending limited
access.
Some expressed concern that a 2001 Beach Access, Inc., board member
lists a Reno address. As reported in an Aug. 3 *Bonanza* story
on the suit, the articles of incorporation for group lists Charles
Bluth, Bruce Gray and Lee Herz Dixon as directors, and Bluth as
its incorporator. The information for Dixon contains typographic
errors, citing "Lee Herz Bixon."
Although the incorporation papers list a Reno address for Dixon,
public records list Dixon as a co-owner of a Lakeshore residence.
Gray is listed as the owner of a residence in Crystal Bay.