This site was once dedicated to presenting current facts concerning the activities of an HOA called Holly Lake Ranch Association (HLRA) which governs a gated area called Holly Lake Ranch, Texas. It now has a more specific purpose, and that is to inform those who have so-called L-Lot designators on their lake lot property around Lake Greenbriar, in the eastern side of Holly Lake Ranch, Texas, that prohibits their use of that part of the lake lot for building purposes, as to how this prohibition came about. These L-Lot designations can be a significant area of a lake lot. The deed restrictions defined in quit claim deeds were filed in the Wood County property records (WCPR) in the 1990s.
These deeds, with their no-build deed restrictions on the L-Lot portion of the lake lot, have ancient origins and were promulgated by an ancient of days organization called Ascension Resorts LTD, now Silverleaf Resorts of Texas, which is affiliated with Holiday Inn Club Vacations and Orange Lake Resorts of Florida.
The restrictions were essentially copied into Architectural Review Authority Guidelines of the HLRA. The restrictions are now irrelevant and immaterial and have been for a decade or more.
The HLRA Architectural Review Authority (ARA) Guidelines have now been updated by HLRA as of September 28, 2022 to remove the no-build restrictions with the updated version now posted on the Holly Lake Ranch, Texas website at https://hlra.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=922331&module_id=513141 under ARA Guidelines. This ARA document is filed in the Wood County, Texas property records under Notices as Instrument 2022-00011456 with a filing date of 11/17/2022. The ARA paragraph I.A.B.7.b) has an implied reference to the ancient deed restrictions still filed in the WCPR stating
b) The property owner is still responsible to ensure clear title and no adverse deed restrictions bearing on any lot being built upon.
There are 107 or more lake lots around Lake Greenbriar in Holly Lake Ranch that contain L-Lots with no-build restrictions on them still filed in the WCPRs that take away more than half or more of land use.
These restrictions no longer have a purpose and except for the Sabine River Authority (SRA) in the 1970s having a pipe dream of building a giant reservoir called Big Sandy Reservoir would not exist at all. See https://www.sratx.org/about/ for a description of who the SRA is and their function. The shoreline of Big Sand Reservoir would have been at 387 foot mean sea level (MSL), some 27 foot higher than the current Lake Greenbriar shoreline at 360 foot MSL, with water covering today’s L-Lot lake lot area. However, through a series of actions by a now ancient of days organization, Ascension Resorts LTD, such restrictions would have vanished in both HLRA documents and WCPR long ago.
Would you like to be able to put a guest house with a deck nearer the shore on Lake Greenbriar? How about a storage building? Maybe you have an unimproved lot and would like to put a house on
the currently wasted, high and dry, 500 foot or more of L-Lot that is closer to the Lake Greenbriar shoreline.
Well, you can’t, because of some ancient of days restrictions placed on your lot. They are the “thou shalt not build on an L-Lot” restrictions that have no justification now. This site will elaborate on how the restrictions came about and how they can be removed.
In some cases more than half of the area of a lake lot on Lake
Greenbriar has L-Lot building restrictions. Since the L-Lot is defined as the land between 387 foot MSL, the original Big Sandy Reservoir shoreline, and the present shoreline of Lake Greenbriar at 360 foot MSL, the steeper the grade the less horizontal distance the L-Lot covers. The less steep the grade the more the L-Lot covers. Thus, some lake lot owners have much more of their land defined as L-Lots than others and thus have to have their homes and other improvements further from the Lake Greenbriar shoreline.
The proposed Big Sandy Reservoir shoreline would, for some lake lots on the east side, have been less than 150 foot from a street in Holly Lake Ranch named Holly Trail East.
Those who own lots around Lake Greenbriar that have a significant portion of such lots designated as a L-Lots, with the attendant building restrictions imposed by the Architectural Control Committee (ACA) of HLRA, now removed, are having their rights to use their land as they see fit, within reason, abrogated.
Below are the plats on the HLRA website that show all of the L-Lots in three sections bordering on Lake Greenbriar. Even a cursory examination of some of the lots shown in the plats show how much of an owner’s lake lot is taken up by the L-Lot portion. Any portion of a lake lot on these plats that have a -L associated with them is the L-Lot, no build portion of the lot. The date on these plats should be noted. They were signed some 47 years ago in 1975.
These L-Lots are shown in the Wood County Appraisal District records as a separate denoted part of the overall lake lot but are included in the lot acreage for taxation purposes. There are no provisions for lowering the appraisals on the lake lot portion designated as the L-Lot. The appraisal district interactive map around Lake Greenbriar shows the lake lots but does not specifically denote the L-Lot portion even though they are called out in the records with separate Lot Number – L designators.
PlatSEC_4_PT_5(1) PlatSEC_4_PT_5 PlatSEC_7 Plat SEC_9_PT_1 PlatSEC_9_PT_2 PlatSEC_9_PT_3
The line on plats that delineates the L-Lots from the rest of the upper part of the lot is the elevation that once was to be the shoreline of the Sabine River Authority (SRA) proposed Big Sandy Reservoir, i.e., 387 feet MSL elevation. SRA had been given an option to purchase this land in the document below signed in December of 1976.
70_1977_00018400_Vol740_page777
Of course that is all ancient history. There never was and never will be a Big Sandy Reservoir. However, the L-Lot restrictions remain in quit claim deeds as covenant restrictions going with the lake lot, filed in WCPR by an organization called Ascension Resorts LTD. Ascension Resorts LTD name was later changed to Silverleaf Resorts out of Texas, which is now under the corporate umbrella of Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Inc. and Orange Lake Resorts out of Florida.
The abandonment of the plans by the SRA to build the reservoir is shown in the linked document below, on file in the WCPR, on page 2, paragraph F where 360 foot MSL, the Lake Greenbriar shoreline, replaces the original 387 foot MSL, the once proposed Big Sandy Reservoir shoreline. This document was signed in September 1990. At this point the no-build L-Lot restrictions were a mute point although formally the option was specified in the document to expire in December of 2009, being changed from December of 1999 for some reason.
However, for some unknown reason, which may remain forever a mystery, unless the originators can be found, the ancient of days organization named Ascension Resorts LTD’s CFO filed in the 1990s quit claim deeds to the lake lots around Lake Greenbriar in the WCPR, with covenant restrictions, that specify no build restrictions on the L-Lot part of the lake lot. Pure speculation as to why is found in paragraphs below.
These covenant restrictions unfortunately are handed down from buyer to buyer of the lake lot and have no expiration. It could be that representatives of Ascension Resorts LTD recognized the official date of expiration of the option to purchase land to the 387 foot MSL by SRA formally expired in December of 2009. Therefore, to honor this official expiration date the quit claim deeds, filed in the early 1990s in WCPR, put in the L-Lot no build covenant restrictions.
However, what was missing was any reference to the formal expiration of the option to purchase by the SRA of December 2009. The quit claim deeds should have had an expiration of the covenant restrictions of December of 2009. As it is the covenant restrictions became permanent.
Here is an example of one of the quit claim deeds filed in the WCPR in 1992 by the CFO of Ascension Resorts LTD. There are many others, actually, most likely, all lake lots around Lake Greenbriar that have L-Lots.
QuitClaimSec9Lot10-70_1992_00027251
The lake lots on the southwest side of the Lake Greenbriar shoreline, where homes come within tens of feet of the shoreline, have no L-Lot building restrictions because they were developed after the events of decades ago. Some build dates go back to 1993 or about the time Ascension Resorts LTD CFO was signing quit claim deeds with covenant restrictions for no building on L-Lots on both sides of the lake.
Below is SRA’s official letter filing of release in the WCPR in March 2010 with a brief history of their option to purchase land for the purposes of building Big Sandy Reservoir. At this point, officially, the L-Lots certainly have no meaning.
Here are some questions and answers related to the Lake Greenbriar L-Lots.
What are L-Lots?
L-Lots are the portion of a Lake Greenbriar lake lot owner’s lake lot that go from the shoreline to a 387 foot MSL elevation, the now defunct Big Sandy Reservoir shoreline, sometimes 100s of feet from the shoreline. There are times the L-Lot portion of an owner’s lake lot exceeds 80% of the lake lot owner’s land. And, the lot owner pays taxes on the L-Lot even though the land cannot be used for anything but a pier and dock at the shoreline. The Appraisal district does not separate the L-Lot from the rest of the land as far as taxes are concerned.
Lake Greenbriar’s shoreline is 360 foot mean sea level elevation.
Where are L-Lot boundary lines defined?
The 387 foot elevation line on lake lots is shown on ancient plats, circa 1970s, filed in WCPR and available at https://hlra.clubexpress.com/ under Official Documents as PlatMaps.
How did these boundaries come about?
In the early 1970s the Sabine River SRA began to plan for a large reservoir to be called Big Sandy Reservoir whose shoreline would have been at 387 foot elevation some 27 feet higher than the current Lake Greenbriar shoreline of 360 foot elevation.
As a consequence, water would have covered all of the L-Lots and much of the surrounding Holly Lake Ranch area.
In 1976 the SRA negotiated with Holly Lake Development Corporation an option to purchase the land needed for the Big Sandy Reservoir.
In documents filed in the WCPR there were warnings against building anything on L-Lots since they might be inundated.
What has happened to Big Sandy Reservoir and the SRA option to purchase
L-Lots?
In the 1990s the SRA decided against building the reservoir and modified their option to purchase land, changing the elevation from 387 foot MSL to 360 foot MSL, effectively the Lake Greenbriar shoreline. At this point the need for building restrictions were effectively null and void.
In 2010, in a document named Acknowlegement of Option Expiration, 2010-00004222, filed in the WCPR, the SRA formally relinquished their option to purchase land associated with the L-Lots. The option had actually expired in 2009. A link to a copy of this document is found at
Where are the L-Lot building restrictions still in effect?
For some unknown reason, Ascension Resorts LTD, now Silverleaf, who by this time was in partnership with Holly Lake Development Corporation, chose to quit their claim to the L-Lots with the covenant restriction that there should be no improvements on the L-Lots except for docks and piers. This seemed possibly to be a means of keeping the L-lots intact in case the reservoir someday made a comeback. There are a number of other explanations for such restrictions remaining, none of which are valid. One is Ascension Resorts LTD just did not have enough foresight to see how such would affect future landowners. The comeback of Big Sandy Reservoir has never occurred and will not based upon the SRA making the option to purchase the land null and void formally in 2010.
These quit claim deeds are still in the WCPRs dated after the date the elevation was changed from 387 foot MSL to 360 foot MSL thus making the restriction for no improvements of no necessity at the time of filing of the quit claim deeds. This is the puzzlement as to why covenant restrictions were included.
In addition, the Holly Lake Ranch Association (HLRA) had building restrictions on L-Lots in their ARA/ACA documents but have since removed them. These restrictions likely derived from the quit claim deeds circa 1990s.
Is there any need for L-Lot restrictions now?
No.
What is the effect on Lake Greenbriar lake lot owners?
In some cases lake lot owners are prevented from using up to almost 80% of their lake lot except for docks and piers at the shoreline. Those lake lot owners whose lake lot slope is gradual, meaning there is more land involved to get to the original 387 foot elevation, Big Sandy Reservoir once proposed shoreline, are punished more because their L-Lot has more depth. A lot with a steeper slope has a no build line closer to the shore.
Below is a link to a contour map of Lake Greenbriar and surrounding areas in 10′ MSL elevations increments. One has to zoom in to see the lines. If one finds 400 which is 400 foot MSL and come down one line to 390 foot MSL one is very near 387 foot MSL. That is the beginning of the L-Lot. It is clear that for some areas around the lake the 390 foot MSL is very near streets meaning that the no-build L-Lot takes up most of the lot. For other lots the L-Lot takes up less of the lot.
TX_Shady_Grove_20160308_TM_geo
How can the L-Lot building restrictions be removed and the same
building codes established for a L-Lot as are for a lake
lot owner’s non-L-Lot?
A legal representative of Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Inc., now the umbrella organization over Silverleaf, Inc, which was Ascension Resorts LTD, has indicated that with HLRA’s cooperation they are willing to consider the removal of the L-Lot restrictions. That cooperation took the form of the modifications to the HLRA ARA removing HLRA’s L-Lot no-build restrictions.
However, even though a Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Inc. representative was notified on October 25, 2022 of the removal of the no-build restrictions on L-Lots by HLRA in their ARA Guidelines, and provided a copy of such, they have taken no action as of this date.
There has been action taken and the L-Lot restrictions for at least one lot have been removed by the filing of documents in the Wood County Property records. Details of such will be added soon.