The Tangled Story of Responsibility
The selling point was simple and enticing. Buy
for a home in Eden Isles, and you’ll never pay another penny. The streets will be
maintained, the medians mowed, and the entrance guarded, but it will not come out of your
pocket. The offer seemed too good to be true, and as we all know by now it was.
Originally, everything ran smoothly. Leisure Incorporated, the
developers, owned about 4,000 acres in Eden Isles. It was a private community at the time,
with only one entrance. The company was making enough profit from the lots to cover
expenses.
The community then changed hands and became owned by Eden Isles
Incorporated. In the early 1980’s, it was sold to Landmark, which was only interested
in the undeveloped property and the golf course. During the sale, Eden Isles Incorporated
gave the streets to the parish along with a million dollars for maintenance. At that time,
Eden Isles officially became public, and the government received responsibility for the
streets’ upkeep.
Landmark still paid for the guard service up to the time that the I-10
interchange was built. With a second entrance to guard, security fees doubled.
[This article was left unfinished.]
[The residents ended up having to pay for guard service themselves.
As voluntary donations were not high enough, a vote was recently taken to make security
payments mandatory. This change was contested, and the state supreme court overruled it.]
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