Loch Lloyd holds special election on Tuesday

On Tuesday, June 3, Loch Lloyd residents will head to the polls in a special election to break a tied vote for a seat on the Board of Trustees. 

Ruth Withey, whose term as trustee has expired, and Chuck Etherington, former chairman of Loch Lloyd’s Planning and Zoning Commission, ran in an April 8 election along with four other candidates for three available seats on the Board. By the following morning, Withey and Etherington received 213 votes. 

At a forum held April 3rd questions circled around a controversial rezoning decision.  On February 28, rezoning the former Sechrest golf course from Recreational to Single Family Residential was approved by the the majority of the trustees, despite a recommendation by Planning and Zoning to deny rezoning and opposition from the the affected homes association. 

By election day,  two trustees who approved the rezoning were voted out. Replacing them were candidates from the Planning and Zoning Commission who voted against rezoning in their committee. 

Withey and Etherington are on opposite sides of the issue.

Withey was the only member on the Board of Trustees who voted against rezoning the golf course. 

Etherington was the only member of the Planning and Zoning Commission who voted to recommend rezoning to the Board of Trustees. (This was erroneously reported in the April 7 article in the Telegraph.)

Whoever wins the run-off Tuesday will have the shared responsibilities to ensure the Sechrest developer’s agreement is enforced, advocate against heavy truck traffic on Holmes Road due to the  Intermodal Project at the former Richards Gebaur Air Force Base, and negotiating density concerns for 144 homes proposed at the north end of Loch Lloyd. 

The following are the two candidate write-ups from the April 3 election forum as reported by the Telegraph (with corrections made to Etherington’s stance). 

Voting to take place at St. Sabina Catholic Church and polls will open at 6:00 am and close at 7:00 pm

Ruth Withey

Ruth Withey, a retired schoolteacher and community activist, has served as a trustee for two years. As a long-time South HOA resident, she wasted no time jumping into the controversy. Whithey is the only member on the Board of Trustees who voted against rezoning. She said the Land Use Master Plan approved a year and a half ago was completely ignored in terms of housing density. “The new master plan didn’t last for one go-around,” she said.  However, she conceded that the master plan was not a legal document but a guideline. She believes that studies from a developer should be completed prior to rezoning approval, not after.

Withey claimed that Sechrest golf course was intentionally uncared for so that neighboring households would be in favor of any new course of action.  

 She suggested that club membership renewals have been jeopardized in order to manipulate votes for rezoning. 

Withey said the litigation was the “line in the sand” for South HOA residents who were not included in negotiations. “Sometimes litigation is necessary,” she said. (Litigation has since been resolved between the HOA and the developer.)

“You might believe these are harsh words,” she said. “But do you want an outspoken representative or guys getting together to abrupt your lives?”

Chuck Etherington

Chuck Etherington, a retired attorney who served on the American Century Investments Global Council, is in his second year as Chairman for Loch Lloyd’s Planning and Zoning Commission. He has lived in the Sechrest community since 2007. He said he “provided extensive thoughts and information to the Trustees” while also “keeping the community informed” during the rezoning process, which must first pass through the Commission. 

Etherington voted in favor of rezoning while serving as the Commission chairman. In a forum he said he was initially against the plan’s inability to follow the Land Use Master Plan regarding the density issue. “I was prepared to vote for it if the density issue was resolved,” he said. 

[In a recent interview with the Telegraph, Etherington clarified that he was not for the initial plan, especially in terms of density. “But the developer heard loud and clear that there was too much density and he removed four houses in the next phase,” he said. “So I approved the plan.”]

He feels the developer’s contract agreed upon by the Board of Trustees and developer Brian Illig resolves any issues. “The contract’s rights are enforced through the court on promises made,” he said. “That is valuable.”