Hi Folks,

 

This was a momentous week for the community.  I'm going to deal with the Board of Directors Meeting held on January 26th and Scott Middleton's presentation to the Forum Club together. Scott is the new Division President for Pulte (see the article in the February Sunsations).

 

First of all, Scott has relinquished the presidency of the Community Association to the residents by resigning it, and the board elected Al Reuben to fill his term of office.  Karen Pacifico was elected Secretary so that residents now hold three of the four board officer positions.  In a related announcement, Scott announced his intention to transfer two of the Pulte board positions to the residents in the spring of 2007 and the remaining two positions in the spring of 2008.  This is ahead of the schedule mandated by the CC&Rs and reflects a very positive attitude on Scott's part relative to resident control of the community.  Transition has, indeed, begun.

 

The board approved all of the proposals listed in Board Update #129 with a small amendment to the criteria for board candidates to make it less restrictive.

 

Scott announced that the probable number of homes at build out would be 9200 which is a significant increase.  He also announced that he will change the amenity planning process.  He intends to give the resident board members a dollar budget for building the remaining amenities.  He and Richard Espinoza, Vice President of Construction, will then work with Karen, Al and me to develop cost estimates for various proposals.  He also announced his intention to deed the Sales Center to the Community Association at the end of the project.  He intends that we arrive at a final amenity plan within sixty days.

 

As might be expected, a number of special interest groups lobbied Scott for specific amenities during the Q&A period and he referred them to the Resident Board Members.  We have been gathering input regarding resident desires for amenities for over two years.  Several times during the Q&A, we responded to Scott that "It's on the list."  That simply meant that we know about that particular desire; it didn't mean that it could be accommodated in the budget.

 

We literally have a list of everything that we know about at this point.  Karen, Al and I met immediately after the Forum Club Meeting and began to develop some ideas that we will discuss with Scott and Richard next week.  We're excited about the way that Scott is approaching this very important issue for the community and see it as an opportunity.  It's also a daunting challenge.  When Pulte used to tell us that they would build what was good for us, we had no choices to make.  Now the choices are ours and we feel like the dog that caught the car.  We have to figure out what to do with it.  We're already getting ideas from residents and that's fine.  It's a given, however, that there won't be enough money to do everything on the list.

 

We'll do our best.

 

Jerry