NEW PORT RICHEY - Ed Kane joined the Seven Springs Golf and Country Club in 1982. He played the course plenty over the years, but decided last month to send a letter canceling his membership.

He figured the money for his monthly dues was better spent on his wife's medical bills.

Kane said he joined the club freely. He left because he wanted to leave He doesn't think anyone should force him to join again.

But come Nov. 1, country club membership will become mandatory for Seven Springs condo owners in phases 4-37a. Kane and 112 others will be charged $92 a month for a "social membership," which includes use of the clubhouse, swimming pools and tennis courts.

That charge won't apply to the remaining 232 condo owners in those phases who already have a social membership or the $230-a-month golf course membership.

"They'll probably send me a bill at the end of the month, and I won't pay it," said Kane, 79. "They cannot dictate to me or anyone else, as far as I'm concerned, that I have to be a member of this club."

But a recreational agreement approved last month by the Seven Springs Villas Association does just that. It's allowed under the Seven Springs condominium documents, association president Joe Ganley said.

"There's a strong feeling on the part of a number of us here that we're all better off based on everybody participating in the club," said Ganley, 70. 

"We feel strongly about it. Our property values are affected by the fact that we are collocated on the same property as the club.

"Sanity says we should support the club," he added.

The dispute has been brewing for months in this tidy retirement community off Little Road, just north of State Road 54 - the same community that made headlines in July when two girls set up a lemonade stand that violated condo association rules.

In the mind of Ray Turner, president of the Seven Springs Golf and Country Club, the membership issue is "quite understandable and logical."

Condo owners elsewhere pay a fee for the swimming pool or clubhouse provided for them, he said. For Seven Springs and nearby Golf View, the developer built one golf and country club to meet the recreational needs of nearly 50 condo phases, and Turner said everyone should help cover the costs.

He likened it to the condo maintenance fees that cover other communal costs, such as streetlights, roof repairs and cable TV, he said.

But some residents complain they weren't told about the potential cost upfront. 

Before buying her place two years ago, Dora Loeffler said she asked the condo association office whether country club membership was mandatory. They told her no, she said.

Turner said such owners didn't read their condo documents carefully.

"The condo law is clear it can be done," said Turner, 67. "But it is their responsibility to read their documents."

Both sides dispute whether such memberships have been required at Seven Springs before. Either way, the controversy is likely headed to court.

Dick Huseby, one of two board members who voted against the recreational agreement, plans to file a legal challenge to the mandatory membership deal. Huseby is a longtime golf course member but he thinks membership should be a choice.

As he reads the condo documents, the association can create a recreation agreement, but only with voluntary membership, Huseby said. Under the mandatory agreement passed last month, however, the association could place liens on condos if the owners don't pay their $92 a month.

"You can't force it upon people without their consent," said Huseby, 83.