Big Canoe, GA Had Its Chance. Now the Public Needs to Know.

7 Years of Warnings, and Nothing Changed

For years, Focus on Big Canoe and others (BCMatters, BCResidents, and JCornelius.com/POA websites) have reported the facts — not rumors, not spin — real numbers, filings, minutes, and evidence.

We’ve shown how the Big Canoe Property Owners Association (“POA”) took on millions in debt, blurred the lines of nonprofit purpose, and mortgaged nearly every acre of Common Property to stay afloat. We’ve also uncovered long-term non-compliance on the Lake Petit Dam, chronic non-transparency, management pay that rivals small corporations, secret contracts and NDAs, Election Interference, repeated Covenant & By-Laws violations, and a rising wave of aggressive POA fines & lawsuits against property owners over rules violations — the kind of pattern that points to a system, not an accident.

And Big Canoe isn’t an outlier. Across Georgia, HOAs/POAs are drawing fire for weaponizing fines, liens, and opaque enforcement — and just like elsewhere, if people here get penalized or sued while the Board avoids scrutiny, that’s not governance; it’s power without accountability.

And when the Board gave up control of our community’s water rights, residents were left paying the price — literally. It’s one more decision made without transparency, now driving the spiraling water costs every property owner feels.

We gave the community a chance to fix it from within.
Most people looked away.

The Blame Is Inside the Gate

This isn’t the Board’s mess alone.
It’s on property owners who kept electing the same style of leadership, defended secrecy, and attacked anyone asking questions.

When people put comfort above accountability, the bill comes due — and it’s about to.

Debt, Collateral, and a Shaky Foundation

The POA now carries roughly $15 million in long-term debt, with major assets pledged as collateral.
Even trails, green space, and roadside buffers were zoned and appraised as “commercial property” to make the numbers work. That might pass on paper, but it’s a risky foundation.

If a single big cost — like the Lake Petit Dam repair — goes sideways, the financial structure can crack fast. When that happens, values won’t drift down; they’ll correct.

And potential homebuyers in Big Canoe face one more layer of risk: the real estate market itself may already be peaking. If home prices soften or interest rates bite harder — as many well-known market watchers have warned — then you’re not just investing in Big Canoe’s internal instability. You’re investing in a downward market and a structurally damaged community.

For Current Owners: Accountability Has a Price

When property values fall, it won’t be because someone reported the truth.
It will be because too many refused to face it when it mattered.

You don’t fix mismanagement by ignoring it. You fix it by demanding transparency — with a forensic audit and open books. That’s still the fastest, cheapest way to protect what’s left.

For Potential Buyers: Know What You’re Walking Into

If you’re looking to buy in Big Canoe, do your homework.
Ask about the debt.
Ask how much of the “Common Property” is pledged as loan collateral.
And when they tell you “we have annual independent audits” — ask the next question:

Were those audits forensic, or just financial statement reviews?

There’s a difference.
A financial audit checks if numbers add up on paper.
A forensic audit follows the money — how and why it moved, and whether anything was misclassified, misused, or concealed.

Big Canoe hasn’t had that kind of audit.
That’s the one that produces real answers — and it’s the one leadership keeps refusing to authorize.

The Shift

Focus on Big Canoe started as an internal watchdog. We gave the community every chance to self-correct. It didn’t.

So the reporting goes public — to neighboring counties, local officials, potential homebuyers, and anyone who deserves to know what’s behind the gate. If the truth affects prices, that isn’t sabotage. It’s price discovery.

The Fork in the Road for Property Owners

Two paths:

• Face the facts, clean up the books, restore trust.
• Or keep circling the wagons until the market and lenders do it for you.

A forensic audit could settle this. Everything else is just talk.

“The truth isn’t what hurts property values — denial does.”

Editor’s Note / Disclaimer

This article and its imagery are not warnings of violence or threats of any kind.
They are warnings of consequence — social, economic, and civic — that naturally follow when a private community ignores accountability and silences oversight.

For years, Focus on Big Canoe and others have reported factual, document-based concerns. Those reports were the warning — the opportunity to self-correct.
If property values, reputations, or public trust now face correction, that is not a product of hostility; it is a product of neglect.

The public has a right to know the truth about how this nonprofit community operates, how its debts and governance affect property owners and potential buyers, and how transparency — not secrecy — is the only path forward.
Any attempt to portray this reporting as a “threat” will be regarded as false, defamatory, and retaliatory toward legitimate investigative journalism.