Lady Justice
SPRINGFIELD — The Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District has affirmed a Greene County circuit court judgment that denied Corporate Village the right to develop two undeveloped acres within the Corporate Village Condominium, a commercial development in Springfield.
The dispute centered on whether CVC retained development rights over the land, referred to as the “Undeveloped Area,” or whether the land belonged to the condominium’s unit owners through their association, Corporate Village Owners Association, according to the Aug. 26 opinion.
The opinion was authored by Judge Don E. Burrell, with Chief Judge Jennifer R. Growcock and Judge Matthew P. Hamner concurring.
CVC originally created the Corporate Village Condominium in 2004 by filing a Declaration of Condominium and an initial plat subjecting 10.2 acres to the Uniform Condominium Act.
Plans submitted to the city in 2003 envisioned 11 buildings, including nine for office units and two for retail units.
CVC chose to develop the project in stages, filing amended plats as new buildings were constructed.
By 2010, eight buildings had been built, two for retail and six for office units, containing a total of 34 units, all of which were sold. CVC then sought to construct either three one-story office buildings or a single four-story building on the remaining two-acre parcel.
In 2020, when CVOA learned that CVC had received city approval to build a four-story structure, it filed suit, arguing that the Undeveloped Area was a common element owned by unit owners and that CVC’s development rights had expired in 2014, ten years after the Declaration was recorded.
The circuit court agreed, quieting title in favor of the unit owners and holding that CVC’s right to develop the Proposed Units had expired.
On appeal, CVC argued the circuit court erred in two respects: first, by declaring that its development rights had expired, and second, by quieting title in the unit owners’ favor rather than CVC’s.
The appeals court found no merit in either argument.
As to the development rights, CVC contended that the proposed units had been legally “created” before 2014 through its filing of 17 amended plats and installation of utility infrastructure.
The court rejected this argument, citing the UCA, which requires that any amendment to a declaration adding units must include a recorded certificate of completion verifying substantial completion of structural components and mechanical systems.
No such certificate was presented for the proposed units, and none of the amended plats depicted the planned buildings.
The court concluded that CVC had not met the statutory requirements to create the additional units before its rights expired in 2014 and that installation of utilities did not constitute creation of units under the law.
“We conclude that the circuit court did not erroneously apply the law in declaring that section 10.2 of the Declaration ‘restricts and prohibits’ Declarant from creating or constructing ‘buildings or improvements of any kind’ in the Undeveloped Area,” the opinion states. “Point 1 is denied, and the well-reasoned judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.”
Accordingly, the judgment prohibiting CVC from constructing any buildings or improvements on the Undeveloped Area was upheld.
Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District case number: SD38649
