Now you all are getting rough. The Valspar golf final ends around 5.
What's a golfer to do? I'll try...
I'd also remind everyone that in my opinion, our common driveway needs
primary, immediate attention. The last "permanent" estimate was over
$20,000 including considerable excavating of several large areas. The last
and commercially applied crack sealing, often known as "asphalt tape", was
a quarter that cost and bought us years of service. But the cracks are bad
and with the freezing and thawing process. Not filling them will hasten the
expensive repairs.
I would recommend that if power goes out on a 100 degree weather night, we
all agree to vote to have dinner and a sleepover at 102.
Dan
On Sun, Mar 19, 2023 at 10:46 AM anncfreeman <anncfreeman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
That sounds good. Thanks for being definite, Charles! Ron and I will look
forward to seeing as many as can make it this afternoon 4 PM at the Arbutus
street sign.
Ann
Ann C Freeman
On Mar 19, 2023, at 10:05 AM, Charles Baskinger <cbaskinger@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Let’s meet by the Arbutus Place street sign at 4pm today, for anyone who
can make it then.
On Mar 18, 2023, at 11:43 PM, anncfreeman <anncfreeman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Adrian, what time would suit you and Barbara for a meeting tomorrow
afternoon?
Ann
Ann C Freeman
On Mar 18, 2023, at 9:37 PM, Adrian Dumitru Ilie <
dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
We agree that a quick informal meeting sounds like a good idea. We'd also
like to hear about the costs involved in getting a generator. How about
later afternoon tomorrow?
Adrian.
On Saturday, March 18, 2023 at 11:20:35 AM EDT, Charles Baskinger <
cbaskinger@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Ann & Ron. I have some questions about your proposal, and am wondering
if there might be a simpler solution.
I wanted to suggest that sometime tomorrow (Sunday) or during the week we
might have an informal, brief, outdoor get-together for anyone who also had
questions. If you set a time, we could meet near the affected area so you
could show us the suggested modifications.
What I understand from your email and diagram is that there are two
separate but related issues:
First, you would like to have a standby generator installed outside, near
your unit. But the best place to put it is too close to the property line
between your property and that of the HOA common property. Your proposal is
to have the property line moved. But wouldn’t it be simpler if the HOA
would grant you permission to have it built there, perhaps if needed as a
formal, legal easement? I know I support your desire to get a standby
generator, and would have no problem with it being close to HOA common
property, as long as the legal concerns can be resolved.
Second, the retaining wall at the end of your property is crumbling and
needs to be replaced (as have other retaining walls in our development over
the years). But the wall is partially on your property, and partially on
HOA common property. I think we could reach an agreement on how to split
that cost, as you note. I know I would have no issue with a special
assessment of $300 per unit to cover the HOA contribution of $3000 as you
suggest, or if we could reach an agreement for you to cover the full cost
by saving you from other costs in your proposal.
I think a brief meeting to discuss these points would be worthwhile. We
would need to take a subsequent vote of the HOA unit owners to take any of
the actions under discussion.
Personally, I’d also like to ask you about the standby generator (how much
it costs, details on installation and operation, etc.), as that is
something I’ve thought about over the years. We didn’t have any outages for
over three years, and then we had seven (mostly brief) outages last year!
On Mar 17, 2023, at 5:19 PM, anncfreeman <anncfreeman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hey y’all,
As you all are well aware, we’ve had a number of power outages in the past
couple years. In our previous email, we said that we hope to stay in our
little community for as long as possible. We’re not getting any younger as
they say, and have decided to get a standby generator installed so we feel
more secure.
We had a generator installer evaluate our gas and electric lines for
hooking up the generator. He checked with Chapel Hill and Orange County
about meeting the necessary rules and codes. He told us that we could not
place the generator along the side of our unit because it would be too
close to the property line. Placing the generator there was preferable
according to the installer because it would be close to gas and electric
lines under our unit. It would also lower the generator noise for everyone
by bouncing the sound waves off of our unit toward the street. To confirm
the location of our property line we hired a surveyor to mark it. The
survey confirmed what the generator installer was told.
The survey also revealed that the original developers had built a
retaining wall extending from the front of our unit around to the side of
it, and it is partially on our property and partially on the HOA common
property. The retaining wall was made with railroad ties, and it is now
crumbling and in danger of falling down. So it needs to be torn down and
replaced with a more permanent wall. We got an estimate to do that and it
came in at about $8000. Based on materials and the work required we
estimate that our portion of that would be about $5000 and the HOA’s part
would be about $3000.
Rather than go through a process of determining how to split the cost to
replace the retaining wall between us, we were thinking that the best all
around solution might be to do a trade: we pay for replacing the entire
wall if the HOA would agree to move our property line enough to include the
wall, plus the required five foot building “setback.” (For anyone who does
not know, in our area any structure cannot be built closer than five feet
from an adjoining property line.) If the property line was changed it would
allow us to have enough space between our unit and the street for the
generator to be installed.
Changing the property line will require some costs for county real estate
registration fees, and a survey to draw new boundaries. We are offering to
pay far all of those costs. We don’t know if hiring an attorney to handle
the conveyance of property will be necessary, but we would pay for it if
needed. We have attached a drawing showing the retaining wall, the current
property line and the proposed property line. We took measurements and used
them to dra
<cid:0685E621-950B-491C-806C-2C4B474E59F0.pdf>
w the drawing as accurately as possible, but it is not a surveyor’s
drawing so there may be some small inaccuracies.
Please let us know as soon as possible, but hopefully before April 1
(two weeks) if you have any questions, comments or concerns. Or, if you are
okay with our proposal, let us know that. Thankyou so much everyone for
your time and thought regarding this project.
Warmly,
Ann and Ron
Ronald Zumstein Ann Freeman
101 Arbutus Place
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919-272-8008 (Ron)
919-260-6047 (Ann)
anncfreeman@xxxxxxxxx
