Grande Ocean was still providing a pass for the length of stay when we were there in January. None of the other properties outside of Sea Pines provide a pass. We also picked up a pass at the Welcome Center to enter Sea Pines on our checkin day at both Harbour Club and Heritage Club. They both provided length of stay passes to Sea Pines when we checked in.
I have a note to myself from years ago (and experience) that GO provided the pass even though outside and Monarch, Harbour and Heritage club provided them.
MGO did last year and the last number of years. They also have a finite number of bike Sea Pines passes which are separate. It wouldn't surprise me if this changed at some point though.
Hasn't MGO always provided a pass to Sea Pines for your vehicle? The only reason I could see it changing is if the HOA/BOD wanted to save on maintenance fees as I am sure there is some cost to the HOA to purchase the passes from Sea Pines. I suspect they would get a lot of complaints from owners though.
I know MGO was challenging some Sea Pines assessments for the past couple of years, which were requested to be paid by Sea Pines in addition to the normal annual easement fee MGO pays to Sea Pines. Last I saw in the minutes of meetings posted on the MVC site for MGO, Sea Pines had agreed to a 60 day term (to end toward end of April), whereby both parties needed to get on the same page, otherwise MGO's access would end for non payment of the past due assessments (again, these assessments are over and above the normal annual easement fees, which all have been paid). MGO's argument is that they have paid the annual easement fee, and should not be subject to the additional assessments, because MGO is not a property owner inside of Sea Pines.
MGO's 2025 Sea Pines easement fee was $382,220 (which was paid). Its the additional fees that MGO has a beef about, to the tune of $605K for 2022-2024 and another $199K for 2025, which are assessments for Critical Infrastructure inside of Sea Pines. MGO does not feel they should need to pay those.
They have as long as I've known but it's an expense that is potentially optional IMO.
Looking at the number of units based on 51 weeks sold and seven nights at $9 a pop. If they were to buy the passes outright it would cost nearly $1 million. Of course not every guest is going into Sea Pines every day and this is guaranteed revenue for Sea Pines. I find it odd that Sea Pines thinks they could levy an additional $200,000 that isn't part of the agreement. Is the easement just for access rights to Sea Pines or is there something else at play here?
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