Coosawattee River Resort — Common Sense for All Owners

A fee that has been — and continues to be — misunderstood. The record shows the charge never had a settled identity:

• The Rules & Regulations call it an “Administration Fee for Rental Properties”; at the June 9 meeting, directors called it the “gate fee.” Those are different charges with different legal tests.
• The amount appears nowhere in the Rules — they say only that it is “established by the Board” and “available in the CRRA office.” Owners recall it climbing $29 → $39 → $59 over the years — yet those figures appear nowhere in the Association’s text-readable records (see the STR timeline); the only documented progression is the cabin-rental admin fee: $25 (2003) → $26 (2010) → $39 (2018).
• The adopting action and cost basis have not been produced — as stated at the June 9, 2026 Board meeting, staff have been unable to locate the record behind the fee (see the meeting recording on the Videos page).

The By-Law above authorizes a user fee tied to the tenancy — a use-based charge. A flat charge keyed solely to rental status is a different thing, and it is not what the By-Law describes. Moving to a nominal per-head, per-day user fee is not a new idea — it aligns the fee with what the governing documents actually authorize, applied evenly to every tenancy in the resort. A documented, By-Law-grounded, evenly-applied fee also puts the Association on the firmest available footing as Georgia’s SB 406 takes effect January 1, 2027.

This is not about blame. The current Board inherited a fee with no adopting record, no settled name, and no documented basis — a records problem years in the making. It’s even possible the original amount was per-head, per-day math averaged into one flat number — a reasonable shortcut in the paper era. Without the record, no one can know. But today’s gate systems don’t need the shortcut: they can count actual guests and actual days. The authority has been in the By-Laws all along.

That’s the way I read it — but don’t take my word for it. Read it yourself: Owner Portal → Documents → Governing Documents → “Complete By-Laws updated 2022,” page 8.

What does “leased” cover? Any change in tenancy — a long-term lease or a short-term lease (what we now call “Short-Term Rentals”). Every owner. Any length of stay.

The By-Law does not say “short-term rental.” It says “while the Lot is leased” and “for the term of the tenancy” — with no minimum stay, no maximum stay, and no exception based on who owns the lot. The By-Laws’ own definition of “Occupant” (Article I) includes anyone occupying “pursuant to a lease, a timeshare agreement or otherwise with permission of the Owner.” Owners are untouched: the By-Laws (Article II, Section 8(v)) let every owner share their rights with “members of his or her family… tenants and guests” — your grandkids, your parents, any visitor of yours comes through the gate exactly as they always have, at no charge. The user fee attaches only when the tenancy changes — when a lot is leased, long-term or short-term. It applies resort-wide — every community, every section, every gate: Beaver Lake, Beaver Bend, Beaver Forest, Eagle Mountain, the campground, and the Villas. Applied as written, the same rule covers all of these:

NO ANALYSIS NEEDED — JUST LIKE PAYING $5 AT THE POOL.It doesn’t have to be complicated or a big number. The By-Law authorizes “a user fee” and leaves the amount and structure to the Board. It can be a nominal, fair, per-person daily fee — as simple as walking up to a pool and paying $5 to get in. No analysis, no formulas, no paperwork: you’re here, you pay, done. The amount could be $2, $3, $10, or $12 — what matters is the structure: per head, per day, applied evenly to every rental in the whole resort, with a 30-day residency line so long-term tenants are treated like any other household member. The authority comes from tenancy — the fee applies only while a lot is leased, exactly as the By-Law says. The amount follows turnover: a yearly tenant brings the same daily traffic as an owner living in their own home; a weekend rental brings new visitors every few days. Two guests for two nights at $3 pay $12 — not a flat charge invented for one category of owner. That is exactly the approach in the proposal provided to the Board on June 24 (read the current, expanded version here).

One rule, applied evenly, exactly as written — that is what the governing documents provide. Whether and how to apply it is the Board’s decision; the language above is quoted so every owner can read it and decide for themselves.