HOA on Caylee memorial: Neighborhood isn't the right place OS

HOA president says proposed Caylee Anthony project "not fair" to Chickasaw Oaks residents.

By Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel

10:43 p.m. EST, November 7, 2011
A homeowners association representing residents near a proposed Caylee Anthony memorial met Monday, emerging in total agreement: The don't oppose the memorial, just its proposed site.

Echoing his fellow residents who spoke on the subject, the president of the Chickasaw Oaks Phase Three HOA, Bill Fulton, said a memorial shouldn't be built in their residential neighborhood
"It's not fair to the people who bought the houses in there," Fulton said.

The group discussed the memorial plan Monday night during what was otherwise a typical HOA meeting; the issue was sandwiched between discussions of house paint and speed bumps.

The meeting came days after the group's attorney, Karen Wonsetler, penned a letter to the state's Attorney General expressing "apprehension and alarm" about the plan.

That plan, unveiled in August, originally called for a $200,000 memorial complete with a walkway and reflecting pond to be constructed on a wooded lot off Suburban Drive.

But the charity that plans to build on the property, Bring Kids Home, still doesn't own it. The HOA expressed concerns in its letter and on Monday about BKH soliciting for the project.

Specifically, BKH has been selling personalized bricks for a walkway it hasn't been permitted to build. "How can you sell something that you don't own?" Fulton said during the meeting Monday.

Several courses of action were discussed in the meeting, including petitioning the county commissioners to oppose rezoning the property, and seeking to limit permitting for future events at the site.

Ultimately, the HOA decided it would be premature to act. But members made clear during the forum that they don't want the traffic or attention that the memorial might attract.

Asked about the HOA's letter last week, Bring Kids Home executive director Eric Segura said he is "aware that zoning approvals and public hearings would be required" before construction.

"If the memorial is not wanted by the neighborhood, the memorial will be built at a different location and BKH has other uses for the property," Segura said on Friday.

Eddie DelValle, man who has been organizing the group's local efforts, said he has received a mostly positive reaction from residents to the proposed memorial plan.

Last week, he called the HOA's letter "premature and alarmist" and said that he believed it was a result of comments made by disgruntled ex-volunteers of BKH in a recent Sentinel report.

Caylee Anthony's remains were found off Suburban Drive in 2008. The girl's mother, Casey Anthony, was charged with her murder but acquitted of that charge in July.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/caylee-anthony/os-caylee-memorial-hoa-meeting-20111107,0,6538480.story