SEMINOLE - The Harbor Lights Homeowners Association has agreed to a $3-million buyout, but the deal to sell the park to be redeveloped is far from done.

"We have accepted the buyout," said association president Mike Rizzo. "It is signed, notarized and so forth."

However, the board's signatures did not commit any of the park's residents to the buyout. The board's approval was needed for East Madeira Corp., owner of Harbor Lights Club Mobile Home Park, to have individual homeowners agree to the settlement offer.

Those who do not want to sign don't have to, but the money they refuse goes back to East Madeira and the Travis family, which owns the company. That money would act as seed money to defend any lawsuits that may materialize. And it appeared one might.

"We have made a contract with an attorney. We are getting our group together, but we're not in a position to comment on it now," said Rick Biddle, who owns a mobile home in Harbor Lights. "We're looking for people who want to participate in a suit."

The issue, Biddle said, is the offer itself because it did not treat everyone equally but gave more money to some than to others. If everyone was treated equally, he said, there would likely be no problems.

Biddle declined to say whether the group planned to sue the homeowners association, East Madeira, the Travises, Crescent Resources LLC - which wants to buy Harbor Lights - or all of the above.

"If he does sue the board, I will fight him vigorously," Rizzo said.

"It's sad. It's getting so very dirty, that I don't like," he said.

St. Petersburg lawyer David Bacon, who represents East Madeira and the Travises, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Threats of lawsuits and one actual suit have loomed over Harbor Lights since last year when the Travis family agreed to sell the park to developer John Loder. At that time, park residents, who own their homes but rent the land underneath them, threatened legal action and lobbied the Seminole City Council for help. That deal fell through, in part because of the possibility of a lawsuit. The Travises and Loder went to court.

Homeowners hoped that would stop, or at least delay, any sale, but earlier this year, Crescent Resources, a North Carolina land management company founded by Duke Energy in 1969, offered to buy the park and the adjacent marina for $65-million.

This time, the Travises tried to help the residents, most of whom are elderly and many of whom are poor, by offering $3-million to help them get new homes. The Travises offered three plans for dividing the money, structured to give the longest residents the most, as much as $15,500, and those who bought after 2004 the least. The idea was that those who bought after 2004 were notified by the Travises that the park could be closed and the land use changed in the future.

Those proposals did not please many of the residents, especially recent purchasers. So the board made another proposal, Rizzo said. The board's proposal, which is Biddle's brainchild, would help the 20 or so owners who bought after 2004 and pay more than the $3,000 that the Travises wanted to give those owners.

Under the proposal, those who bought mobile homes after 2004 would get what they paid up to $15,500. That means those who paid $500 would get that and not the $3,000. The money left from reducing the cut would go to help those who paid the most.

"It's much fairer to all the people," Rizzo said.

It was unclear which payout structure the Travis family will use.

Rizzo said he hopes that any suit filed by Biddle's group would not tie up the $3-million; that would be unfair and hurt many of the other Harbor Lights owners.

"I've listened to these people," Rizzo said. "Some of them are very, very poor."