CHAPEL HILL -- Residents of Governors Club, a gated community in northern Chatham County, have been told to take down their no trespassing signs and stop harassing the hunters.
The hunters are there with the blessing of the property owners association. To keep deer from destroying shrubs, flowers and other landscaping, the association obtained a state permit to allow bow hunters to kill up to 65 deer.
Governors Club may seem an unlikely place for a deer hunt. Homes ranging from the mid-$400,000s to $6 million surround a 27-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. Just beyond the guardhouse lies a shimmering infinity-edge pool behind shrubbery protected by green plastic fencing.
Now, arrows and hard feelings are flying. Opponents have threatened landscapers whom they mistook for deer slayers. The power of the community architectural review board has been invoked.
Lee Cheney, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1995, is one of several who have posted no trespassing signs to keep bow hunters from hunting or following injured deer into their yards.
"The deer don't just drop down in the middle of their tracks," Cheney said. "You've got a 200-pound animal in fear and in pain. There's no guarantee that animal is not going to come onto my property and cause damage I might be liable for."
Some anger expected
The hunt's supporters said they knew it would cause some anger. The association's board of directors sent an e-mail to residents at the outset that said, "We recognize that the violent death of these docile animals is abhorrent to some and regrettable to all."
The hunting is mostly taking place on 23 lots whose owners have allowed it. Hunters are baiting deer and shooting from tree stands, or, in at least one case, a second-floor window above a garage. Two deer had been killed as of Saturday.
The property owners association sent a letter to hunt opponents last week, saying it has already told the hunters which lots are off limits and that residents who don't take down their signs risk fines.
In a separate e-mail, the association also told opponents not to harass visitors after at least two verbal threats were made to landscapers. The e-mail cites state statutes that make interfering with the legal taking of wildlife a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $1,000 and 30 days in jail.
Jerry Cole, a resident since 1998 and chairman of the community's deer management committee, said the hunt must go on so that the community can remain verdant.
"Vegetation is almost impossible to keep up unless you put a fence around it, and our guidelines discourage fences," Cole said.
It's safe, state says
Hunt supporters and state wildlife officials say bow hunting is safe and that deer rarely travel far after being shot by an arrow. Gordon Myers, executive director of the state Wildlife Resources Commission, said the hunt was approved after a biologist visited the community and verified $50 worth of plant damage, the threshold for issuing a depredation permit.
"We believe it can be administered safely," Myers said.
The commission recorded 36 hunting accidents, eight of them fatal, from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008.
All eight of the fatal accidents were self-inflicted, and six of them involved falls from tree stands, according to the report.
Bows and arrows were involved in three accidents, none fatal.
In his letter, community manager Dennis McGarvey said the association has already told the bow hunters which lots residents have barred them from entering.
That notice makes the no trespassing signs unnecessary according to the association's attorney, McGarvey wrote. It puts residents who do not comply in violation of a covenant that requires approval of signs by a community architectural review board or removal within 16 days of the letter, he wrote.
"We hope we can mutually resolve this issue before going to the Hearing Panel," McGarvey wrote.
UNC professor David Owens said only a lawsuit would tell if the association is within its rights to order the signs taken down, but "it sounds to me like yes, they can do it."
The state bars community restrictions that violate the law, such as prohibitions against selling a home to someone based on race or religion, he said.
But those restrictions are narrow, Owens said. The state had to pass statutes exempting such things from covenants as the flying of flags and installation of solar collectors.
"I doubt there is a constitutional right to post your sign," he said.
