At the HOA meeting held June 7, 2016 we had approximately 35 people in attendance including board members. The meeting started with an abbreviated treasurers report and a social committee update. A food truck was stationed outside the clubhouse to feed those in attendance “free of charge”….translation our assessment dollars are being used to fund this benefit.
There was a projects update which included some of the ongoing improvement projects underway in some form throughout the park.
IMPORTANT!!
The board launched a verbal discussion about the clubhouse and started it with a recap of a special meeting called May 10th where about 60 people were in attendance. The discussion continued indicating that through a good discussion between those in attendance and the board, the board came away with the opinion that the community wanted the current clubhouse demolished and built new, not remodeled.
At the June 7th meeting, the board announced to the audience that the decision had been made to build a new facility and not discuss remodeling any further. This in spite of the June newsletter which hit all our mailboxes about 4 to 5 days earlier and indicated that there had been no decision made and it was still being researched in articles published there. Future meetings would be established for property owners input and feedback.
The board further announced that work was being done to get meetings arranged with the city to establish design criteria for the new build but when asked by audience members, they did not have estimated costs for construction, for the cost and/or placement of temporary or portable buildings while the clubhouse is being built which was something suggested as a means to deal with the clubhouse being demolished. They did know that they wanted to build approximately 8,000 square feet (double what currently exists) with an expanded exercise area, more bathrooms, including bathrooms which opened out to the pool for wet suits to be covered properly, an office which would be moved from the caretaker quarters into the new building, a kids gaming area, a large group meeting area, and small group meeting area, and a new, expanded kitchen (which by the way was just remodeled and upgraded in 2014 with assessment dollars). They also stated they did not have any completed design sketches of how a building might look for the neighborhood to review. Further it was determined that the best placement for the new clubhouse would be in its existing location because of close proximity to the parking lot, etc. It would be a one story build because building a 2 story requires much more ADA requirements in order to be compliant with regulations.
Property owners – this is important to you!! A MAJOR decision is being made which will impact each property owner for which little or no due diligence has been done to date to even begin to prepare the neighborhood to make an informed decision about whether remodeling or building new is the right choice.
No property owner feedback has been sought other than an electronic survey sent out around early May which asked what “Improvements” you might like to see in the clubhouse if they were done (not if you supported demolishing the existing structure and building a new one), along with a meeting held for general discussion where the board repeatedly said there were no decisions made and this would be a long process with lots of feedback asked for by owners as they moved along in the future.
No solid numbers have been provided as to projected total cost of this project for the property owners of Timberwood Park. However, the number tossed out has consistently been around $1 million dollars — documented in a “proposed” 5 year plan developed by the board in 2014 and presented at an HOA meeting through a PowerPoint presentation, but not consistent with the 5 year plan developed by property owners and board members working together in 2012 which was formally approved at that time.
No solid discussion about how that project will be funded. We currently have about $120k in our reserve fund — but that is what it is — a reserve fund. That means it should not be touched and should be set aside without being used for anything else. According to a reserve study commissioned in 2014 and an outside audit done in 2014 that fund should actually be larger to cover the needs of usual wear and tear and wear out of assets. This is without ever considering a new project or improvement, much less building a new clubhouse.
Financing it, which would be the only way to undertake it at this time, means two things: first, financing would have to be sought and approved, and second, each property owner is responsible for that debt collectively. You should take note and get involved in this large decision which impacts the entire neighborhood!
Please forward/send this blog note to your neighbors who might not subscribe to it and let them know that large scale decisions are being made on their behalf by our HOA board. This is important to all of us!