POA purchasing For Profit Corporation

How many residents do you have? I understood you had a 2/3rd's vote but out of how many? I am asking because if the 10 -12 members are in the minority then you have a better chance of winning/settling. Say, you have 100 members, and 75% voted "yes" that means 25 voted "no". Of those 25, only 10 are suing, then you may not have a serious concern if you did everything correct and by the rules. Those 10 are just in minority and lost the vote.
My HOA is a non-profit corporation so I am not that familiar with a "for profit". However, we were setup where we could acquire property if we so desired. We just never had the money nor the property available to do so.
I would question your planned future setup on how profitable this business is going to be. Is it going to be open to the public? If you kept it a "private" course just for the homeowner's in the community you may be under a different set of rules. However, I assume your going to do BOTH and have it private and public accessible.
I am not sure how you will be able to fairly give a discount to the owners and keep reasonable public fees. Remember your owner's are paying for this golf course through their dues, then they must pay out additional money to pay to play. The money they pay to play will be considered "Profit" to the HOA and be subject to taxes. So what do you charge the people from the public? The people from the public aren't paying any dues money. They will be paying a "straight fee". So it could be that the "Public" players are the ones with the real discount and NOT the owners.
That's going to be a difficult rate to figure out. You may start with figuring out how much (%) of the dues money is going toward the golf course per each owner. You would then need to add that amount onto the "Public" players fees plus maybe an additional amount for profit. So a owner may pay $25 to play while someone from the public may pay $100. I don't play golf so I don't know what "reasonable" fees are when playing. However, whatever it is, it needs to draw in customers.

John - I guess I don't follow your math. You say one phase required 2/3 to approve, and usually that means 2/3 of the owners, not the voters, and the rest of the phases only required a simple majority. Do you mean a simple majority of those voting or a simple majority of the OWNERS is required to pass such a major purchase? I would assume if one phase requires 2/3 of the owners approval, the other phases would require 50% plus 1 of the OWNERS, not the voters. It looks mighty close to me when you consider the 260 or 22% who did not vote, and the 300 or 25% who voted no. Doesn't look like a mandate to me. Just rambling. Harold

The actual wording in the declaration for the phase that requries 2/3s is; "The annual assessment may not be increased without the assent of at least two-thirds of the members of the Association at a meeting called for that purpose, with at least 60% of the Lot Owners or their proxies present after 30 days' notice. If 60% are not present, a second meeting may be called with 30 days' notice and the quorum may be reduced to 30% of the Lot Owners or their proxies."

That was interpreted to be 2/3 at the meeting, not all owners. The other areas simply a majority, with 10% creating a quorum. Incidentally, I live in that phase, and we (BoD) are trying to streamline all the decalarations as they come expire to mirror this one which is the most stringent, and provides owners more say in the community. As for the votes, that wasn't even identified in the suit, the crust was the POA's authority to purchase it. Which according to the lawyers we hired is covered under the declaration, as well as the NC Statutes for Non-profits and HOA's (NC55&47). The lease was going to be to one of the current owners son's who is a golf pro and manages another local course. The leasee would pay everything (taxes, maintenance, etc) except major capitol improvements. It looked like positive cash flow for the POA for 10yrs. I might add, that the out of the 10 suing 4 are realtors who own numerous lots in our community, and have an office at our entrance. If they develop that area it would surely put money in their pockets. But thats mere speculation, which is of course why we looked at purchasing it in the first place, as a Florida developement company had signed 1st look papers to purchase it initially. The lawsuit can be viewed here, under Golf Course purchase. I think we maintain a pretty good sight for the community, all by volunteers what do you think?

http://www.carolinalakes.com/