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Keeping a Close Eye On the Master Plan
Dominion Valley residents say a water tower's size took them by surprise.
(Courtesy Of Paul Meyer)
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Paul Meyer, an airline pilot who signed a contract in Dominion Valley last year and in June moved into a million-dollar house down the street from the water tower and the proposed fire station, said he did not check the county plan, depending instead on the builder's materials and assurances.
The market was so brisk when he was looking for a home, he said, that he and his wife took a red-eye flight from Hawaii when they got a call from Toll Brothers that their names had come up on the waiting list.
"When we got here, that's the first time they mentioned anything about the fire station," Meyer said. "How much due diligence can you do when you're sitting there and they say, 'Sign, or you go to the bottom of the list'? So we said, 'Here's $50,000' " for a deposit.
The builder also "made us sign a statement that there would be a water tower there," Meyer said. He signed but says the tower that was built wasn't what he expected. "It happens to be the biggest water tower I ever saw. There was a model, but it didn't look that big. I didn't think this spaceship was going to land there and represent itself as a water tower."
He said, "The reason why you buy in a planned community is so this wouldn't happen."
Michael Steenson, another buyer, said in an e-mail that the sales agreement mentioned that "the county will be building a water tower on a public facility site" but made no reference to its size or scale and made "no disclosure that it would be IN the neighborhood. See, the tower is one thing, having it directly in your backyard is another."
Why not build a water tower with more buffer room around it? There was no need to, said John Elcano, group president for Toll Brothers. "We knew that the homes that were sold around the water tower were sold to customers who knew they were buying next to the tower."
He said: "This isn't unique to Dominion Valley; there are water towers throughout the country and the world and they have to go somewhere. . . . It's like buying a home near an airport . . . you know there will be airplanes taking off and landing there."
Steenson and Meyer both said the developer did not specifically say the fire station would have an exit onto Ryder Cup Drive, inside the gated community.
Elcano said: "We disclosed [the sites] to anyone who bought adjacent to it," and "there was an adjustment to the lot premium," or cost.
Toll Brothers senior vice president Cory DeSpain said the fire station "was disclosed to them at the point of sale. . . . I can tell you those people were apprised, and there were no ifs, ands or buts."
Elcano worried out loud that complaints "by a very small group of people" would tarnish the community's reputation. Dominion Valley has "thousands of happy homeowners" and has won awards from local builders, architects and environmental groups, he said.
