Information for this article was obtained from public records and recollections by friends of the community. Every effort has been made to use accurate dates and information.
Ridgewood Plantation began as a tract of farmland near the unincorporated community of Piercetown, SC. Approximately 150 acres were purchased by JKR Development LLC in 2005, and Anderson County gave approval for a new subdivision. Ridgewood Plantation Homeowners Association was incorporated and registered with the state in February 2007. Basic infrastructure for the community, such as streets and drainage, began to take shape. The original plan called for the subdivision to be a gated community with private streets maintained by the Homeowner’s Association, so the main entrance was designed with pillars for an eventual automatic gate. Lots were sold to individual owners who could choose their custom builder.
By late 2007, the first house was complete, and the first residents of Ridgewood had moved in. Approximately 30 lots had been sold by the end of that year. The recession of 2008 devastated the real estate market. Sales of lots dried up, and the developer was forced to pause work on the subdivision. Over the next several years, the number of finished homes in the subdivision slowly increased to nine.
In February 2010, the developer lost approximately 60 lots to People’s Bank. Control of the HOA was transferred to the bank, and for the next two years, the subdivision remained in limbo. Annual dues were not collected during this time by the bank, and there was little that owners could do about managing the HOA since the bank had majority control. Per the covenants, the developer’s rights were not set to expire until the end of 2011, and these had been transferred to the bank upon foreclosure. Basic functions of the HOA were neglected by the bank, so residents took turns cutting grass and performing maintenance of the front entrance.
Developer rights expired in December 2011, and at that point, the voting rights of the association became one vote per lot. As the bank still held the majority of votes, the remaining owners could not set up a functional HOA since the bank was only interested in selling the lots. Although covenants were written and recorded when the subdivision was established, no bylaws were ever written to provide for the governance of the HOA. Owners were limited from doing anything other than informally organizing as a group of interested residents to ensure the oversight of the covenants. An informal architectural review committee was established to provide guidance to prospective builders.
Throughout this period, the bank offered the lots lost by JKR Development for sale. Although the bank sold a handful of individual lots, a local developer purchased the bulk of those lots under the name Ridgewood Property Holding LLC in June 2013. These lots were then sold in bulk to a national builder, DR Horton. Over the next few years, construction within the community accelerated. By 2018, the community was almost entirely developed.
Following a period of management by an outside company, the residents organized and shifted control of the HOA to a resident Board of Directors. The board's priority is to use a common-sense approach to managing the community, emphasizing fiscal responsibility and resident autonomy.