Some members of the largest gated-community in the U.S. want their board to back off.

HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE, Ark. — Hot Springs Village doesn't have a city hall, but a group of angry property owners in the huge gated-community feels like they fought city hall and walked away with a victory Wednesday.

Hundreds of residents overflowed the community auditorium, prepared to tell the property owners association board of directors to back off plans to renovate one of village's six golf courses. Some carried protest signs calling for the ouster of C.E.O. Lesley Nalley.

"We have a board of directors that seems to be controlled by the C.E.O., rather than the board controlling the C.E.O.," said Tom Blakeman, who like many of the village's 14,000 residents, is retired.

A group called hsvpeople.com rallied the crowd to the meeting that was supposed to include approval of a budget for 2020 and separate funding authorization for repairs to Balboa Golf Course. A subcommittee estimated renovations on the 30-year-old course to be more than $4.5 million.

"Staff recommends a funding combination of a five-year declining surcharge, capital budgeting, traditional borrowing, member investment, and sponsorship," said Mike Medica, the board member overseeing golf, which makes up a huge portion of the village's revenue. His reading of the request drew groans from the audience.

Protesters feared the board would rubber-stamp the proposal at the request of Nalley, who was on the closed subcommittee that came up with it. They pointed to the firing of one of three recently elected board members earlier this year, as a sign the proposal would be backed over their objections.

"They've been changing the bylaws bit by bit, with teams of outside attorneys," said Blakeman. "They want to set it up the way that it's currently functioning, which is not the way that we believe it should be, nor was it the way it was intended originally."

But, the crowds appeared to sway opinions on the board.

"I believe we really need to delay this at this time," said board vice chair Tormey Campagna, to a round of applause. "Once you kill the grass, you basically go for the whole enchilada. Therefore, I think we need to go back and figure out what can be done to make the course more playable at a significantly less cost."

The board agreed to pull the renovation out of the budget and look for money from other sources to patch up the course.