President Dittloff’s Report From January 2019

The Ad Hoc Committee for the Revision of the Association’s CCRs
and Bylaws held its first Membership Input session,
January 17th from 4 – 6 pm,
at VIS Group, Inc. Headquarters on Martin Way in Lacey, WA

Highlights of the CCRs and Bylaws Meeting

• There will be a second input meeting for Members who were unable to attend the first one, which was scheduled at the 4 pm time by the request of a number of Members who did not want to be out late. The next meeting will be held sometime in February, at a later time for people who work or could not attend the first session.
• A “red line” version (showing where changes have been made) of the proposed new CCRs is impossible to provide as the entire document has changed. We can provide a red line in final version, however, from the current documents. If possible, we can also make additional notations on the side of significant changes.
• Our Association’s Attorney Barker Martin played an instrumental role in the revisions to the CCRs and Bylaws as the Washington State Legislature made major changes to the RCW’s (Revised Code of Washington) last year, that went into effect in July of 2018.
• The intent is to make the CCRs more representative of the current community which is evolving from an adult golf community to a more family orientated one.
• There is a proposal to change parking so that up to four cars can be parked in a Lot Owner’s driveway if there is room, and if there was no approved “cut out” or adjacent parking strip on the lot. Currently, the CCRs allow for only two cars. This change would also minimize the need for future cut outs and adjacent parking strips.
• The new CCRs recognizes that there are several duplexes on lots and that the Golf Course is conducting a business on the three lots that they own. The original Plat says that all lots were for single family homes, with the plat being ignored at times in the past.
• “Like for Like” is introduced. Examples of this concept are if you have an approved paint for your house and re-paint it using the same color, you do not have to submit an ACC Application or if you re-side your house with the exact same siding, you do not have submit an ACC Application. Routine maintenance such as repairing a window that does not change the appearance of the house still will not require an ACC Application.
• There will be some clarification as to when the Board or their Representative could come onto members property. This section will be re-written for better clarification. The intent is to allow the Board the ability to come on to a lot of an abandoned house and make necessary repairs and lawn maintenance so that they are not a detriment to the neighborhood. A fee would be levied against the owner of property, which would typically be a bank. Currently, the Board has that ability with houses that are rented but this change would allow the Board to go onto abandoned property, as well. The Board still will have to provide proper notice to owners and cannot go onto any property without good cause. Advance notice and with an opportunity for the owner to correct the situation. In the past we have been advised not to make repairs to the abandoned house like the one on 58^th Street SE. There would still not be any ability to go inside a house.
• Christmas and other decorations will be removed from the CCRs as they are not an issue at CCGCE.
• A color wheel was suggested to be developed of allowable house colors.
• Verbiage regarding Fences and Walls (8.5.5) to include block retaining walls that are already present on many lots. Fences up to six feet will be allowed but all fences will still need to be set back from the edge of the street by 25 feet unless there is a Board-allowed variance (which have been granted for good reason).
• It was noted the Association already has a 10-foot utility easement in front of every CCGCE house.
• A typo at 10.2 occurred as an Association Meeting Quorum only requires 10% of the total voting power to be present as this is State Law.
• The next meeting will go through the CCRs section by section.
• No comments were expressed about the proposed new Bylaws.

In Other Business at the Regular Board Meeting that followed from 6–8 pm on the 17th

• The Board discussed the possibility of Capitol City Golf Course’s plan of moving its party tent from its current location to the property line in front of Lots 234, 235 and 236. Subsequent to that conversation, I spoke to the General Manager of the Golf Course and he has confirmed this plan and has requested to speak to the lots that will be impacted by their change. Everyone present indicated that they would not like a large tent obscuring their view of the course as that is why they purchased their homes in the first place and it would diminish the value of their homes. A Board strategy is being developed.
• Treasurer Randy Luke gave his year-end budget report and he stated that the Association ended up with a surplus $9,689.00 for 2018, with two thirds of the funds being folded into the Reserve Fund and the remaining going to the 2019 Operating Fund.
• David Luhr was elected as the Association’s Secretary
• David Luhr was confirmed as the Chair of the Streets and Sign Committee and Kevin Rae was confirmed as Chair of the Architectural Control Committee (ACC).
• Darrol Steiner was previously confirmed as the Chair of the Compliance/Enforcement Committee at last month’s meeting.
• The Board is starting the process of accepting bids to pump out and repair the Communities Storm Water Catch Basins. They will also launch the annual mail box cleaning project later this season. This upcoming Summer the speed bumps are being planned to be painted, again.
• I have also had discussion with the Golf Course about their use of the Association’s streets for sand delivery. The sand often spills and needs to be pumped from our catch basins. They had previously agreed to not drive on the streets with sand. The Golf Course indicated that that use would stop as they have some new crew members that did not know about that agreement.
• The Board considered the requests for a number of Variances, rules infractions, late fees and issues that involve our Attorney. All submitted ACC Applications  over the past month were approved.
• Trustee Terms were confirmed for all seven current Board Members with David Luhr, Randy Luke and Kevin Rae taking on a three-year term, Darrol Steiner and Larry Dittloff finishing off the last two years of their three-year term and John Leo, and Ed Obie serving a one-year term.
• In December, 2018, the contract with VIS Group, Inc. for association management was approved for another year.