Sender ALLOWED

The meeting was called to order by board President Brian Neth at 10:00 am in the Perry Walther Building in Bear Valley, California.

Cash standing good. Dues are back to 2006 level. Largest expense (about $8,800/year) for us is insurance that has to do with the liability of the beach areas. Raffle proceed $1880 half to early learning, half to the school trip to Washington DC.

Report on current projects: Ron Murphy reported only one new home at corner of Avalanche and Snowshoe Road. Several remodel requests and deck additions most of which have been approved.

Ron discussed the approval process for new homes including sending notification to adjacent home owners (within 150 feet of property line).

If multiple lots are purchased, those lots can be merged and a larger home can be built. Once properties are merged, the new parcel has the same set back as an individual lot.

The BVRI Board can change the design standards at will. To make a change to the CC&Rs we must have a vote of all 420 property owners in Bear Valley with a simple majority 50 percent plus 1 yes response. Any non-voter has to be considered a no response. When we sent the survey for house size limitation to all 420 property owners, we received 179 responses (43%). Results of those responses were 105 yes votes in general and 74 no votes. Based on this response the board felt the community would not respond sufficiently to this request to enable approval on a change to the CC&Rs.

Suggestion for tiered ARC review process as home size is increased. Per Ron, our legal firm's consultation on this issue is that the only way to support this is to make the change to the CC&Rs. Per legal council, a change to the Design Standards will not stand up in court and is therefore not enforceable. Another note from legal council is that if we make any formal change to the CC&Rs will require a review of the entire document to bring it all up to current legal standards.

Suggestion for concerned community members to contribute money to support the legal fees (estimated at about $10,000) to support a change to the CC&Rs if such change is approved by the membership.

David Pye read a statement he wrote regarding the Alkema house size, tree removal, grading, and storage of building supplies and damage to surrounding common areas, etc. David Pye requested access to our database to do his own survey about home size limitation. The board will consider this request.

Nick Grace pointed out that, though there are many in this meeting who are in support of home size limitations, that may not represent the feelings of the 420 property owners in Bear Valley and the first step to any change still needs to be a survey of the property owners to determine the degree of support for the initiative.

Dave Morley thanked the many community members who have cleaned up their lots. He also noted that there are a number of lots that still need to be cleaned up. Dave reviewed an article he authored that will be included in the upcoming September BVRI newsletter about lot clearance. The primary message in the letter is the extension of defensible space from 30 feet to 100 feet around all structures. The letter also covers the definition of defensible space.

Dave also reviewed the county ordinance language supporting lot clearance. The ordinance is stated to be enforced by the Sheriff and the court process. They will follow all CDF rules and process in terms of enforcement. Sheriff Rick Stephens (present) indicated they would be publishing the rules to the community. BVRI will publish a copy of those rules attached to our newsletter as soon as it's available.

Per Terry Woodrow, forester Ross Richards just approved permit paperwork from the forest service for Sean's Tree Service to address all the common areas for the next year to clear them of all the dead and dying trees.

Terry reviewed the free chipper program and handed out applications to interested property owners.

Sheriff Stephens reviewed the enforcement process through the sheriff's office and the DA's office.

Terry Woodrow announced a public meeting and workshop scheduled for Saturday September 29th at 10:00 am for the public to provide input to the county council to provide their input for them to make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. Notice of the meeting will go out to all property owners (from the county) in the next week.

BVRI will also include notice of the meeting and a summary of the issue in the newsletter going out this week.

Rick Sanford and Terry Woodrow (both present) will be at the meeting. Gordon Ritter, Eric Jung and Jack Wedgwood are also planning to attend the meeting.

Kathy Bort read a statement about the snow mobile trail across common area near her property.

Discussion about snow mobile traffic and common areas and a suggestion for a transportation plan for the community. The EIR and traffic studies can serve as a foundation for that plan.

Bill Bort read about a dozen response letters/emails regarding the snow mobile trail crossing common area near their property. These responses emphasized the precedent set by allowing this type of encroachment on common area in Bear Valley and the need to follow due process to ensure these types of encroachments include full disclosure and feedback from the community before they are approved and acted on.

This issue will be addressed at the county public meeting noted above. Following this meeting, the BVRI board will take a position on follow up for this issue.

Discussion about the date of the meeting being too soon for people to plan to attend. Terry Woodrow to follow up with county to see if an alternative date can be established to allow for more property owners to attend.

It was noted that some contractors and other people from outside our community have been seen using our dumpsters. Per Terry Woodrow there is a plan in place to install cameras to monitor dumpster use.

Request for meeting in advance of the receipt of the EIR was made. Community would like to be more involved in the process considering some of the issue with transportation, parking, etc. that have already come up as a result of the development. The board will consider this request.

Katherine Aitken-Young
BVRI Board Secretary
225 Fisalia Court, Fremont, CA 94539

phone: 510.623.9625
fax: 510.623.7362
email: kaitken@brynmorgan.com
http://www.bvri.org

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