Woodwinds Buyouts OK'd—With Conditions

Two dozen condominium owners at the flood-prone Woodwinds development in Hatboro could have their properties bought out and demolished.

But, before the wrecking ball comes, 80 percent of the 79 homeowners must agree to terms laid out by the state and federal emergency management agencies, along with the Hatboro governing body, according to Borough Manager Fred Zollers. 

Chief among the conditions is for the association to deed over to Hatboro the land where the residences currently stand, along with any surrounding common areas, Zollers said. 

Barring the borough owning adjacent common property, FEMA and PEMA–the federal and state agencies set to foot 97 percent of the roughly $2 million project–worry that someone at some point could build again on the often flooded land, which abuts Pennypack Creek. 

"We never thought we were going to own that much property," Zollers said, adding that the hope is the borough could make the land into some sort of open space that the rest of the community could enjoy.

But, before that can happen, the homeowners must vote to accept the conditions as laid out by borough solicitor Christen Pionzio, along with FEMA and PEMA, Zollers said. 

Patch was unsuccessful in reaching Tricie Kohut of TMK Property Management Consulting, the property manager for Woodwinds, regarding when the homeowners would be voting on the conditions. 

Initially, the borough, in conjunction with Woodwinds property owners, submitted buyout applications for six buildings, totaling 24 units within the 79-unit community. The government had said that 12 of the residences were under consideration for buyouts and rejected the other 12. 

But, during a meeting this week after the government agencies had "recalculated things" and "updated construction costs," Zollers said he was informed that five of the six buildings would be approved for buyouts. 

Now, Zollers said he is awaiting signed voluntary participation agreements from those homeowners, who had originally agreed to be included in the buyout process.

"We want to make sure they still want to be back in," Zollers said. 

If one homeowner in either of the buildings does not want to participate the whole building is out, he said. 

Zollers said he did not know when the buyout funds would be provided or when the project would advance.