The tragedy of Hideaway Hills

What would you do if you were mowing your lawn and a sinkhole opened up, rendering your home worthless, and forcing you to move away, take on a second mortgage and completely uprooting your life? Worse yet, what would you do if it turned out that a bevy of people not only knew, but development of the land and building/selling of the home on unstable ground, but nobody was going to be held liable for the shady development?
We would be furious. You would be, as well. Welcome to reality for some of the current and former homeowners at Hideaway Hills in Black Hawk.
The South Dakota Supreme Court ruled last month that the people whose properties were damaged are not entitled to compensation from the state, the homeowners’ last gasp in a series of lawsuits that have winded their way through the courts since 2020 when a 30-foot-deep sinkhole opened on Daisy Drive in the development. Thirteen homeowners were evacuated, others suffered home damage, and all were incredulous that the development was constructed on top of an abandoned gypsum mine.
Worse yet, is apparently nobody responsible is going to be held responsible. Multiple lawsuits against Meade County, the land’s developers and the realtor who represented the homebuilders were dismissed. We know it didn’t happen here, but it is absolutely infuriating. Shouldn’t somebody pay for what has happened to these poor people?
Take a look a the high court’s decision sometime. It will make your blood boil. Not because of the court’s decision, but because it paints a picture of people who knew of the underground mine and that this development could or would be trouble, but appear to have been more motivated more by dollar signs than they were being honest about the ground underneath the development.
The decision shows that while the purchase agreement from the developer to each homebuilder made clear there was an abandoned mine under the property, the realtor who represented each homebuilder on subsequent sales to homebuyers did not have a disclaimer regarding the prior mining activity, and the purchase agreements between the builders and buyers did not contain any reference to underground mining activity.
The decisions states the realtor “did not deny his lack of transparency” with homebuyers, testifying that if he had been required to disclose the presence of prior mining activity on the property he “would have walked away from the subdivision (project).”
We don’t have the entire history of the project, and we don’t know why somebody—anybody—has not had to cough up some money for not being forthright with people investing thousands of dollars to build a home on top of what was essentially collapsing ground.
The whole thing stinks, and it appears those affected will not see any recompense for the way they were screwed over.  It’s just not right. These people deserve some relief that they are not going to get.