December 1999

Parking

With the holiday season approaching, many of our residents will have family and friends visiting our beautiful community for extended periods of time. The Parking Rules & Regulations allow for visitors using guest parking two over night stays in a one week period. For those guests who require a longer stay, a parking permit can be issued for up to one week. Parking permits may be obtained by calling Curtis Management. Please be sure to provide the license number of the vehicle as well as the date of your guests visit. A reminder; parking is not permitted on garage aprons or in any curbed area marked in red. Motor homes cannot be parked in guest parking areas. Residents may use guest parking while cleaning a garage or for the purpose of loading or unloading a vehicle. In case of an emergency, such as a broken garage door, permits are available. Parking violations may result in towing without notice.

Landscape Activity

Many of you have expressed concern about the continuing removal of trees and shrubs throughout our area. Some homeowners have commented that the abundance of trees influenced their decisions to buy their homes. We share that love of trees and the beauty and positive environmental impact trees have on our community. Removing a tree is usually the last choice made to resolve a landscaping problem. Some of the major reasons are poor health of the individual tree; the impact of severe overcrowding in a luster of trees; safety consideration for adjacent homes, or problems with roots affecting plumbing or existing concrete placement.

The shrubs and other plantings are equally dear to us. The fact that our landscape maintenance contract consumes almost half of the HOA budget is a clear indication that your Board wants Villa Monterey to remain the show place that it has been. However, that pleasure comes with a price tag that continues to escalate as the costs for labor and materials continue to increase. The most labor intensive items in our budget are the maintenance of many types of shrubbery initially planted around our homes and throughout the greenbelts, and the cost of pruning and thinning trees. Watering requirements for thirsty foliage vary with the type of plantings and the resulting frequency for scheduling sprinklers on and off. Reducing these costs remains a high priority.

During the past several years, many days were spent consulting with arborists and nursery professionals to develop a list of replacement trees and shrubs to use in our community. Test plantings and experimental frontages were developed to determine which items would be best suited to provide the aesthetics and robustness needed to meet our needs of beauty, function and practical expense. The most cost effective way to implement the replanting project was to use the smallest plantings strong enough to meet our requirements. We ask your patience while the new growth is in progress.

Termites

An epidemic of home construction from both drywood and subterranean termites is occurring throughout Southern California. The moderate climate supports these devastating creatures throughout their cycles, without any hibernation time as might occur in more extreme climates. Termites have actually leveled homes. You might think that this will never happen to you, or that only a small amount of evidence indicates that you may have termites. This is the insidious aspect of these pests. They can quite often go unnoticed or ignored until it is too late. home inspection should be made yearly, only by a qualified termite specialist. Then your options must be carefully weighed.

Monthly Fees

Homeowner's monthly fees have been kept below the rate of inflation since 1991. It means we have managed to raise standards, make improvements, boost maintenance, and enjoy significant relative savings, while keeping our monthly dues below what they would be today based on inflation alone.

Based inflation alone, today our monthly dues should be about 10% higher that they actually are. It's a big savings for our homeowners.

With the cost of maintaining Villa Monterey going up each and every year, it is comforting to know that our homeowner's dues have been well below what they would ordinarily be if we have been adding inflation to our dues. Such a practice is accepted practice in tracking costs over time, since inflation reflects the general rising of costs throughout the economy.

Another way to look at this economic benefit, is that we have, in effect, enjoyed a relative reduction in the dues we pay. Looking at the situation this way means that the homeowners here will be collectively be saving about $37,000.00 each year.

Our dues in the early part of this decade were $151.50 per mouth. In 1994, the dues were raised to $155.00 per month. In 1999 the dues were raised to $160.00 which was to cover the cost of earthquake insurance which was prohibitively expensive before this time.