Developer seeks injunction
David Champoux, an outspoken critic of the homebuilder, had announced plans to demonstrate with signs to dissuade people from buying homes.In previous letters to the editor, he said D.R. Horton should be held liable to residents who paid a premium to live in a golf community now that Old Carolina LLC -- owner of the course -- is replacing nine holes with 199 apartments and 55 single-family houses. Some of the residents who bought homes from D.R. Horton possessed written guarantees that the Buck Island Road course would be in existence through 2010, Champoux said.

D.R. Horton wants to stop protesters

 

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Texas-based D.R. Horton Inc. is seeking a permanent injunction to prevent homeowners from picketing Mill Creek at Cypress Ridge on S.C. 170.

David Champoux, an outspoken critic of the homebuilder, had announced plans to demonstrate with signs to dissuade people from buying homes.

In previous letters to the editor, he said D.R. Horton should be held liable to residents who paid a premium to live in a golf community now that Old Carolina LLC -- owner of the course -- is replacing nine holes with 199 apartments and 55 single-family houses. Some of the residents who bought homes from D.R. Horton possessed written guarantees that the Buck Island Road course would be in existence through 2010, Champoux said.

More recently, Champoux had been corresponding with D.R. Horton directly. In a June 29 fax, he told the company that a group of residents would be open to negotiations, but that they were moving ahead with plans to protest because company officials refused to speak with them.

"I am forming a picket line initiative outside Mill Creek that will provide information to its potential clients," he wrote. "This, of course, is a reaction to the lack of action on Horton's part on the closing of Old Carolina and its realignment."

"... Folks will stop and talk to us," Champoux added. "I imagine the media will take note from Columbia to Atlanta."

That adds up to blackmail, attorneys representing the developer said in a motion filed with the Beaufort County Courthouse on June 30.

About an hour after the complaint was filed, Judge Curtis Coltrane agreed to a temporary restraining order preventing Champoux or other residents from "picketing, demonstrating or engaging in any disparaging comment against" D.R. Horton until a hearing is held Friday afternoon.

Coltrane wrote that it appears "Champoux has threatened to engage in picketing and disparaging public comment ... with the intent to obtain money or some other thing of value."

Champoux, citing the gag order, declined to comment. Attempts to reach D.R. Horton and its attorneys were unsuccessful.

Beaufort County approved a change to Old Carolina's master plan in February 2005 that allowed Old Carolina LLC to build the apartments, two single-family houses and 53 townhomes on portions of the golf course and practice range. Citing operating deficits, the company closed the golf course in November, a few days after voters approved annexing it into Bluffton as part of the Simmonsville and Buck Island tracts.

Last month, Town Council rezoned the course from single-family residential to planned unit development after town staff advised that Bluffton has an obligation to accept what the county approved.

Also, Old Carolina and the Traditions homeowners association agreed to a compromise just before the vote. Under the deal, proposed townhomes were replaced with single-family homes, and Old Carolina agreed to give some homeowners extra land to compensate for the course's reduction to nine holes. A wooded buffer was added to separate existing homes from the new apartments.

D.R. Horton bills itself as "America's largest homebuilder" and is marketing three developments in greater Bluffton.

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