2026-09-10 · Kansas · Courts

A Johnson County developer promised a two-mile private driving track, sold garage condominiums from $120,000, then stopped building. Seven years later the undeveloped ground belongs to the unit owners. The Kansas Court of Appeals said so in a published opinion filed June 18, 2026 in Stonegate Motorplaza Condominium Association, Inc. v. HP Motorplaza, LLC, No. 128,469.¹

It is the only Kansas appellate decision on community association law in the past two years, and it turns on a deadline most declarations never mention.

The facts

The developer recorded a Declaration of Garage Condominium on July 17, 2015 with the Johnson County Register of Deeds, submitting the property to the Kansas Apartment Ownership Act. The plat recorded with it showed Lots 1, 2, 4 and 5 labelled “Convertible Land,” Tract A labelled “Common Area,” and a building containing twelve units.

In December 2015 the developer replatted Lot 2, built a second building, amended the declaration to add units 201 through 212, and removed Lot 2 from the convertible land description. A final replat of eight units followed in January 2022, with no change to the convertible land. Then nothing. In September 2023 — as the court put it, “seven years and nine months since the last designation of convertible land” — the association sued for a declaration that the development rights had lapsed.

Why the clock exists

The opinion sets out the reasoning at length, and that part matters most to boards. “Convertible land” is defined at K.S.A. 58-3102(h) as the “building site for one or more proposed additional condominium units within the submitted land.” K.S.A. 58-3115a provides that “all convertible lands shall be deemed a part of the common area and facilities until converted.”²

The court explained what that trade is for. Early buyers “have a right to rely on the declaration filed by the developer. They buy this real property with an expectation that a certain number of units and amenities will be developed. They make a significant investment, and they need to rely on written commitments made by the developer to ensure that their investment will not be compromised. Acts like the Condo Act are adopted to protect those interests.”

In exchange, convertible land “can be reallocated and altered without their consent as new units are built.” The seven-year limit is what bounds that power. Conversion “must be converted within seven years from the recording of the declaration, unless a shorter time is set out in the declaration.”

1. Stonegate Motorplaza Condominium Assoc. v. HP Motorplaza, No. 128,469 (Kan. Ct. App. June 18, 2026) — slip opinion ↩
2. K.S.A. 58-3115a, Convertible land — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes ↩
3. Stonegate Motorplaza Condominium Assoc. v. HP Motorplaza — docket record, CourtListener ↩