WESTON, Fla. – A Weston Hills Country Club homeowner has been put on notice and told to park his new $100,000 pickup truck in a garage, out of sight, or face fines.
That homeowner is gearing up for a fight, claiming the rules are outdated and ridiculous.
“How long did you wait to get this vehicle?” Local 10 investigative reporter Jeff Weinsier asked.
“It was ordered over a year ago,” said Weston Hills resident Glenn Gordon.
Gordon’s truck was delivered just a few weeks ago.
“I felt like a little kid waiting for it,” he said. “The first one I saw was mine.”
Gordon’s truck is the first of its kind – an all-electric pickup called the Rivian R1T.
It looks like nothing else on the road and can go 315 miles on a charge.
Some can turn like a tank and go from 0-60 mph in three seconds with 800 horse power.
The truck drives itself on the highway and there are 11 cameras on board.
It’s become an attraction in the neighborhood.
“Some are taking pictures of it,” Gordon said. “They say, ‘beautiful vehicle, can I see it?’ That’s the only comments I have got.”
Less than two weeks after taking delivery, Gordon received a notice from property management that the truck can’t be parked in his driveway overnight.
The country club has strict rules for trucks, trailers, RV’s and commercial vehicles, set by Arvida, which developed Weston back in the 1980s.
They want it out of sight.
Gordon has lived there for 27 years, and called property management to discuss the issue.
“He said we will wind up getting fines and penalties, and until we remove it, they can even lien our house,” Gordon said. “We could even lose our house over this.”
“Did the rule ever cross your mind when you ordered the truck?” Weinsier asked.
“I never thought there would be a rule like that,” Gordon said. “There are trucks all over the place … We don’t have room in our garage to put it in there.”
Gordon says rules need to change with the times.
“These were written in the 1980s by Arvida and it said no trucks and no vans. Since then, trucks have become a popular vehicle for personal use,” Gordon said.
Minivans were being invented when they were writing the rules and there are now minivans all over the place.
“It may hurt our home values as these new vehicles come out, as they evolve and come out, we will discourage people from buying in our community,” Gordon said.
Jerry Engelhard is the president of Gordon’s association in Weston Hills, and left Weinsier the following voicemail after he called him:
“You can have a truck but he has to put it in the garage and it cannot be sitting outside the house all day long. If the gentleman would have read the documents when he bought the house, he would have seen that and there is a possibility that he would not have bought the truck.”
Engelhard didn’t return a call when Weinsier tried to follow-up.
“There are judges that have ruled that these vehicles are regular vehicles, they are not inherently a commercial vehicle just because it is a pickup truck, if it doesn’t have commercial markings or anything else like this does not -- it’s a regular vehicle,” Gordon’s attorney, Andrew Ben, said.
In the Villas of Bonaventure, another pickup truck owner wound up suing his association.
Not only did he win, but the association had to pay $40,000 for his attorney’s fee.
In that 2001 judgment, Broward County Judge Steven Shutter wrote, “personal use pickup trucks do not carry the negative implication they might have 25 years ago. In no way could parking these vehicles interfere with the quiet enjoyment or the property value of the condominium residents.”
“Is there anything that is going to make you get rid of that vehicle?” Weinsier asked Gordon.
“No,” he said. “We are ready to take it … It is just wrong.”
VIEW BELOW: Letter sent to the Gordons from Central Hills Maintenance Association:
VIEW BELOW: Broward judge’s ruling on Villas of Bonaventure case: