Tanglewood residents file lawsuit against county commission, association

Three Tanglewood Lakes residents have filed a lawsuit asking the court to make a determination whether roads in the development are public or private. (Journal file photo)

By Charlene Sims

LCJeditor@icloud.com

MOUND CITY – Three residents of the Tanglewood Lakes development on Wednesday, Aug. 26, filed a lawsuit in the 6th District Court against the Tanglewood Lakes Owners Association,Inc. (TLOA) and the Board of County Commissioners of Linn County. Eva Riojas-Mackey, Sherri Toynbee and Charles Toynbee are the plaintiffs listed on the case document.

The issues are summarized at the end of the document with the plaintiffs requesting that the court:

• Enter judgment declaring the legal status of the roads within Tanglewood Lake development;

• Declare the legal effect of the March 23, 2026, settlement agreement and quit-claim deed;

• Declare whether the roads remain public roads;

• Declare whether defendants may lawfully restrict access to such roads;

• Enter temporary and permanent injunctive relief prohibiting defendants from restricting

  access to roads determined by the court to be public roads;

• Order removal of gates, barriers, chains, locks, signs, or other obstructions located upon roads determined by the court to be public roads;

• Award costs as allowed by law;

• Grant such other and further relief as the court deems just and proper.

In a statement released by Riojas-Mackey on Aug, 26, she said, “I didn't file this petition because I want a fight with Tanglewood or Linn County. I filed it because I believe the public deserves to know what happened to roads that were dedicated to the public forever and that a district court has already found were public roads accepted by Linn County.

“The county and Tanglewood entered into a settlement and executed a quit-claim deed, and now the same roads are behind gates that prevent the general public from accessing them. I'm asking the court to determine whether that can legally happen and whether a private agreement can extinguish public rights without following the law.

“I live in Tanglewood full time, so this isn't an abstract issue to me. These are the roads I use to get home. I'm not asking for special treatment—I’m asking for the court to apply the law and protect whatever rights the public actually has. I filed this petition because I believe the public deserves an answer to a very simple question: How can roads dedicated to the public forever, and later found by a district court to be public roads accepted by Linn County, become gated private roads through a settlement and quit-claim deed?

“I live here, so this directly affects me, but I believe the issue affects every member of the public who has a right to use those roads. I'm asking the court—not the HOA, not the County, and not me—to decide what the law actually allows.”

The ownership of these roads has dragged on for several years with some Tanglewood residents claiming the roads were public and other wanting them to be private. The issue came to head when some residents removed the gates at the entryways to Tanglewood on May 18, 2023.

Those residents  claimed they had been indiscriminately locked out of their homes by members of the TLOA board for a variety of reasons. In December 2024, 6th District Court Judge Andrea Purvis made the first move to decide the conflict when she ordered that all residents be allowed access to their properties.

And then in a ruling on March 10, 2025, Purvis determined that the roads were public.

The decision for Linn County to sell the roads in a quit claim deed came after much haggling

between the TLOA, Linn County and even the court system. Tanglewood filed a lawsuit requesting that Linn County determine that the roads were private and the TLOA would take over possession.

Both the county and TLOA wanted the roads to be private. The county did not want the expense of maintaining the roads, and the TLOA wanted to be able to put up gates and make the development private. So both sides tried to have Purvis removed from the case, claiming that her previous decision on a criminal case determined that the roads were public.

Amy Harth, chief judge of the 6th Judicial District, refused to remove Purvis just because the two sides already were anticipating what her decision would be.

Following that decision, Linn County commissioners and the TLOA met behind closed doors to negotiate a plan for Linn County to sell the roads. This settlement was completed on March 23, 2026 to have the TLOA deliver Linn County a check for $10 for the quit claim deed to all of the TLOA roads.

That settlement laid out the condition that Linn County was “conveying to Tanglewood any and all of Linn County’s rights, titles, and interests in and to any of the Tanglewood Lake Properties, including but not limited to ‘Common Properties’ and including but not limited to any streets, roads, roadways, and related infrastructure within the Tanglewood Lake properties.”