NewsLetterFeb2005

HASLEY HILLS NEWSLETTER

February, 2005

Please note the next open session meeting will be Thursday, February 3, 2005, 7:00 pm. The meeting will be held at the Castaic Union School District office, located at 28131 Livingston Avenue, Valencia, CA.

Website

Annual Election

The annual election for the open seats of the Board of Directors will be held in May, 2005. There will be 2 seats available. The term is a 2 year term. If you are interested in running for a BOD seat, please provide us with a brief history (2 paragraphs) of yourself and indicate why you would like to run for the board. Please forward this information to Ellen Ford at eford@lbprop.com, or fax to Ellen Ford c/o LB Property Management at 818-986-1214. This will appear in the March/April newsletter. The April meeting will include an introduction of the candidates and a question and answer period of the candidates.

Please make sure you have read the CCR’s, By-laws, and are familiar with the Davis-Sterling Act. If you do not have a copy of this information, you can contact Ellen Ford at LB Property Management at 818-986-1214 to purchase these documents.

The current BOD has many challenges. The KB lawsuit requires additional time. Be prepared for occasional weekend or evening meetings.

This is your opportunity to serve the community and begin working on all the changes you would like to see in our community. The Board of Directors does not receive compensation, or a reduction in HOA fees. The position is a volunteer position.

Annexation

A petition regarding the interest of Annexation for Hasley Hills will be circulated in February, 2005. We are looking for volunteers for each block, and volunteers to assist in the coordination with North Bluffs and Live Oak. We will be discussing the Annexation process at our HOA Meeting.

A community meeting has been scheduled for Monday, February 28, 2005, 7:00 pm. , to meet with the City of Santa Clarita. City Representatives will be available to answer questions about the benefits of annexation and the annexation process. The meeting will be held at the Castaic Union School District office.

The Board of Directors has appointed Mitch Green as the Annexation Chairperson and Brian Roney as the Assistant Chairperson. Mitch Green brings his knowledge as one of the founding members of the West Hollywood Annexation process. Brian Roney brings knowledge of governmental entities and is also a longtime Castaic resident and a former resident of City of Santa Clarita.

Important Information to Sellers

As a reminder to any potential seller in Hasley Hills, it is the responsibility of the seller to disclose that the current HOA dues are $139.00 per month. It is also the obligation of the seller to advise any potential buyer that the HOA has a lawsuit pending against the developer for budgetary issues including construction defect for the common areas. There is a class action lawsuit brought on by several homeowners against the developer for the miscalculation of dues.

Neighborhood Watch

The Neighborhood Watch Committee is actively seeking block captains. Please contact John Toungaian at 818-554-0815 or e-mail John at Jtoungaian@comcast.net.

We need Block Captains!! The Block Captains will also serve as a means to distribute immediate communication to their blocks.

Please note, your ACC approval is only approved if you have met and complied with all county requirements. Please check with the county for all code and permit requirements. We are providing an information sheet from the county. Additional information can be obtained at 661-222-2940, or the web-site http://planning.co.la.ca.us/

Please remember to submit your ACC plans prior to construction. The ACC Committee has 45 days to approve your plans.

Please keep tags on your pets. Some dogs are masters of escape, it would be helpful to include your address or phone number on the tag. Petsmart has personalized tags for a couple of dollars .Animal lovers will call you or walk your dog home if they are loose. Please pick up after your pets!!

Boats, trailers, RVs, and commercial vehicles are “prohibited vehicles” that must be kept in fully enclosed garages, except while loading or unloading, for up to 24 hours of any week. Homeowner’s cars shall be parked in garages and driveways. Repairs and restorations are only allowed in garages and cannot be performed as a business or create a nuisance.

Certain streets have more parking problems than others. Please be mindful of your neighbors . Please park in your driveway or garage whenever possible.

While loading, unloading and parking, please exercise courtesy to your neighbors.

Traffic

Please drive carefully and with caution through-out the community. Please remember the speed limit for a residential area is 25 mph.

The Mediation Date has been rescheduled for 3-7-05. As you are aware, we have Budgetary Issues, and many additional issues that need to be resolved with the developer. These issues include but are not limited to, our pump equipment being improperly wired, pump houses needing repair or replacement, 140 Lot Line Adjustments, Easements, Homeowner Pools on HOA Property, KB Wrought Iron Fences, missing components in our reserve study and deeds not being recorded. This list is not all inclusive. We are continually uncovering more items.

The BOD has been working diligently on identifying all the items and issues that otherwise would have gone unnoticed until the developer was long gone.

The BOD on behalf of the HOA, has secured the services of the law firm, Castro and Associates, who specializes in Complex Litigation and Construction Defect to assist in the resolution of our issues. Castro and Associates has filed a lawsuit on our behalf.

The cost of services for this specialty firm are not insignificant. We may have to use our reserve funds to pay for these services. You will be notified if this is required. Ultimately, the cost of these services are recoverable.

KB has acknowledged that they have made an error, and it was not of an insignificant amount in the square footage of our slopes. KB has also acknowledged that they will owe the HOA money, but how much and for how long will be the question to be resolved. An example of KB’s mistake was the number of acres in the maintained slopes included in our development reported to the Department of Real Estate (DRE) the number of maintained slopes contained 668,689 square feet. The actual number is 3.2 million. The fuel modification number reported was 2,278,804 million. The actual number is 3.3 million. The difference between these numbers means the budget has been significantly understated since the inception of our development.

A web-site is available for other developments in which homeowners have issues with KB. The web-site is http://www.KBHomeSucks.com

Mudslides

With the heavy rains we have encountered mudslides. Mud coming from the top of the natural area has come across irrigated land and in some cases damaged homeowner property. In other areas, homes with lots at the top of the hillsides have sustained mudslides below. If you have any questions regarding the stability of your home, please contact the LA County Department of Public Works.

The county representative for the Debris Basins is Ron Edwards, 661-222-2948. The county representative for Street Trees and Streets is Scott Thompson at 661-222-2948. The county representative for the grading is Kevin Petrowski, 661-222-2940.

KB is responsible for cleaning out the Debris Basins. Ron Mertzel is the KB Vice President of our area. The KB office phone number is 661-295-3623. His cellular phone number is 951-232-3935.

Trash Service

It has come to our attention that multiple trash services are serving our community. This causes additional traffic within the community. Waste Management/Blue Barrel Services, 661-259-2398 services the most homes within our community. It is my understanding that 3 separate trucks are sent out on trash day between the hours of 6:00 am to 7:00 pm. The trucks continue in their routes until full. The trucks then empty their loads and return to complete the route. It is my further understanding that it takes 2 trips to complete the route. Each truck accommodates 400-450 trash containers. Therefore, if multiple services are utilized using multiple trucks, and partial loads, it is foreseeable that Hasley Hills could eliminate 3-6 truck trips. Since traffic is a concern for our community, please check your service and see if it is Waste Management/Blue Barrel, if it is Consolidated or Atlas, you may wish to consider changing services to assist with our traffic flow. It would be very helpful to the community if we all utilized the same service.

LB Property Management Company is our management company. The address is 4730 Woodman Avenue, Sherman Oaks, CA. 91423. The phone number is 818-793-2044. The fax number is 818-986-1214. Ellen Ford is our representative. Her e-mail address is Ellen@LBProp.com. If Ellen is not available, please ask for Keila Miramontez, Ellen’s assistant, at extension 221. Her e-mail address is Kmiramontez@lbprop.com. Cameron Geery for the Architectural Desk at extension 226. Her e-mail address is cgeery@lbprop.com.

When calling in or e-mailing a complaint or service request, please leave your name, address, lot number, a brief description of the your concern and phone numbers where you may be reached. This will assist the management company in processing the request.

It frustrates the management company not to be able to take care of a request, because of insufficient information.

Management Contract

Our contract for services with LB Property Management expires this month. We have requested LB to address additional areas of service in proposing a new contract for our community. We are also interviewing other management companies in order to secure the best possible service for our community.

Note from the President

KB has still not responded to any of our correspondence for a subsidy request. Our Mediation Date has been scheduled for 3-7-05.

The newsletter was put on the web-site on February 1, 2005, because we were waiting for the Annexation Meeting date, sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.