While a faulty-stucco lawsuit involving thousands of homes in Sun City Hilton Head continues, the developer has asked environmental regulators for permission to add nearly a dozen new homes to the gated, Bluffton retirement community. It is unclear whether the new buildings will follow the same format as the existing ones, or whether building techniques or materials will be modified in order to prevent the same structural complaints from surfacing.
Efforts by telephone and email to reach PulteGroup’s regional media office and the local PulteGroup contact person listed on S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control records were not successful this week.
Del Webb Communities Inc. wants to build 10 single-family homes northeast of the intersection of Del Webb Boulevard and Sergeant William Jasper Boulevard, according to documents filed for Coastal Zone Consistency certification with the state agency.
An application for a construction/wastewater permit says it’s part of a phased project and represents a revision to one that was approved in 2006.
About four years ago, the S.C.
Supreme Court said that lawsuit filed by Anthony and Barbara Grazia in 2007 could be a class action. That opened the door for thousands of other Sun City property owners to seek recourse for defective stucco.
In court records, the Grazias alleged that “the stucco exteriors had common and typical problems inherent to their design and installation that would require identical remediation across the class, namely, stripping the homes of the existing stucco and recladding with a properly installed stucco system.”
In the fall of 2013, the parties took to the appeals court to spar over the outreach activities by the Sun City homeowners’ legal team to the residents.
South Carolina State Plastering was fighting a circuit court denial of an injunction that was intended to curtail communication from the Sun City attorneys to the homeowners who make up the class.
On Tuesday, Michael Seekings, an attorney for the residents, indicated the suit was continuing. He said class-action notices have been sent to 4,173 homes, and 200-300 additional notices should be going out in the next few months. The notices inform people that they are part of the class action unless they opt out and also outline the process to come.
