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 FreemanOn 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 PlaceChapel Hill, NC 27517
919-272-8008 (Ron)919-260-6047 (Ann)
anncfreeman@xxxxxxxxx
