ANTIGUA NEWSLETTER
I tried my best to lose a one-horse race, but it seems I’ve been elected to serve as your director for two more years. Thank you, it has been my pleasure. Further, I have agreed to serve as President of our board this year. A big thank you to Mark, our previous President for his impressive leadership. (Trust me, I tried to get him to stay in the position.) I only agreed with serving as President because of our manager Henry, our managers leadership and the staff he is building to support his efforts. I am looking forward to improving procedures and resolving issues here in the Cays.
PIPE LINING PROJECT. We continue to make progress on this project. Thanks to those owners who are allowing crews to finish what is now approximately 12 units remaining. We have seen a massive decline, as we expected, in the failure and flooding of units due to downline sewer pipes.
Unfortunately, we continue to get leaks originating in the upstairs interior plumbing. Most of these have been shower pans, bathtub overflows or the wax rings used to seal toilets or overflows. We have had some refrigerator water lines fail as well as leaking showers.
As you know, these repairs fall outside the HOA’s responsibility to correct. These repairs are paid by the individual owner with the leak. I have sometimes seen these repairs cost covered by the homeowner’s personal insurance and sometimes not. I would encourage every owner to have their unit’s plumbing and connections checked on a regular basis. Just a simple inspection of water heaters, hoses, drains and the sealing rings on toilets and overflows. Lastly, if you are leaving your unit for an extended time, make arrangements to shut off the water while you are gone. This is simple and you can turn off your water at the valve in the trash area.
GARAGE ELECTRICAL. We are still actively working to move this project forward. Still waiting on bids and contractors to respond. With as busy as everyone is right now it has been difficult, but we are progressing.
DOCKS. We are continuing our project of replacing dock moldings and repairing docks in Antigua. Through the efforts of our maintenance staff, we were able to “harvest” items from the old docks being replaced in Kingston. Cleats, dock box parts, support iron, etc. This will allow us to replace and repair a number of items in Antigua at very little cost. As docks represent one of our largest cost components in the Village, ongoing maintenance is critical to extending the lifespan of this asset.
REAR PLANTER LANDSCAPE AND FENCES. Just to be clear, these are the planters, on the waterside, located at the end of the breezeway just before the dock ramp and the small planters that separate the lower units’ patios.
We received a complaint regarding the height of a fence that was installed between units. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, Antigua has never in 50 years had a policy on this matter. In fact, to date, only one fence, trellis or shrub hedge has ever gotten an approval. It was required to be at least 5 feet high by City ordinance for an in-ground jacuzzi and was approved at 5 feet 6 inches. As you may know, CCHOA is made up of 5 separate areas for zoning purposes. We have Condo zone, Custom home zone, Waterfront Villa zone, Village Residence zone and Townhouse zone. Antigua falls into the Waterfront Villa zone. The overall view corridor and set back requirement is: The rear yard of dwellings adjoining either a channel or the bay must be kept sufficiently clear of plants and trees to allow good visibility across that portion of the lot within 10 feet of the bulkhead wall.
The AECC asked that each Village develop some standards and rules which they could use to evaluate these matters. To that end, we organized a committee of 5 Antigua owners. One from each corner of the property, myself, our manager Henry, as well as Renee from CCHOA compliance department. We met and reviewed all the current Cays relevant rules on this matter in the Grand Caribe room. We later met on-site and walked the Village to review specific units and different types of screening.
From these meetings, a proposed minimal standard was developed. It is as follows:
Rear patio fences separating units or separating units from common area for end units can be the following heights within 10 feet of the exterior surface of the bulkhead:
- Solid construction, 48 inches
- Lattice or clear, 66 inches
Trees and hedges in the rear patio area or in the planters located in breezeways within 10 feet of the exterior surface of the bulkhead can be 66 inches in height. Maximum height for trees in the front and rear patio areas is 8 feet.
The reasoning behind the particular heights is to balance privacy with the view along the water and contain plants and trees within the unit’s air space.
These are just the proposed minimal standards, by which the AECC and Code Enforcement will then have some guidelines to use going forward. Most of the lower 54 units will not be affected at all by these, as they currently maintain these areas far under these standards.
As I hope you know by now, my interest is in having neighbors work things out. I have found this to be a very reasonable village. When four families have to use the same narrow walkway to get to their front doors, it behooves everyone to get along and be friendly. Which I have found to be the case in almost all of Antigua.
Please take some time and review these standards and give us your feedback. Without this COVID-19 pandemic, I would have of course held a Village meeting to talk about this matter, instead we are going to have a Zoom meeting in the next few weeks about this, and other subjects. The HOA office will be setting it up and everyone will be notified.
HOA ACCOUNTING. The CCHOA has decided to begin using Walters Management Inc. as outside provider for our basic accounting needs. I’m sure everyone has received the notices. If you are having any problems setting up a new account, please call the HOA office and they will be glad to help. Going to an outside provider just continues our efforts to improve our service to the owners. First, it vastly improves the quality and speed of our accounting product. Our current accounting system program is so old it was not going to be supported any longer. Plus, we won’t need to buy new software and computers. Second, we will receive current, state of the industry processes and information. These companies have access to the latest info in HOA accounting requirements and laws. Third, it offers our management and board access to highly qualified personnel in the HOA accounting field. Walters Management has a large staff, as well as four highly qualified and degreed controllers we can access. Fourth, it gets us in line with virtually all other community associations in the state, all of which use outside firms. And lastly it is far less expensive to the association and owners. Cost savings are a minimum of 50% for just labor cost, not including equipment, IT, etc.
HOA DUES. Despite a minimal reduction, I frequently hear about how much the HOA dues are Coronado Cays. I decided to compare our monthly dues with several other high-end properties in Coronado and San Diego. (These are the current dues for a two-bedroom, two baths at the properties.) Comparison can be difficult. We have docks, sea walls, older buildings, etc. They have elevators, door men, etc. Here’s are the findings:
NAME UNITS MONTHLY DUES
The Shores 140 per 1400 total 1,030.00
The Landing 98 1,320.00
The Point 80 1,302.00
The Harbor Club 201 1,304.00
The Meridian 172 1,701.00
City Front Terrace 320 945.00
These numbers are also available on Trulia, Redfin and other services.
Several of these properties have recently had five-figure special assessments and one is considering or has done a forty some 40,000.00 special assessment. In general, I think the Cays is doing well in producing value to our owners.
LANDSCAPE. We have now replaced (two years early) our irrigation controllers with new, weather-based irrigation systems. This means the irrigation system will adjust its watering depending on our current and future weather. These new controllers offer a number of programming abilities to better water the plants and reduce or eliminate the runoff. They have proven to work very well in other Villages at saving water and improving the overall landscape. We continue our monthly walkthroughs with Park West. They will be replacing several more plants as well as replacing two King Palms as part of their warranty.
GENERAL. We have changed our pest control service. The new company is Knockout Exterminating. 619-434-6636. They will be handling the monthly spraying as well as the rodent control. You can also have them treat your interior space for a separate charge. They have moved the bait stations out from the trash areas, and into the landscape. I have checked these guys now twice, and so far, they are providing what we want.
We’ve been able to remove several old dinghy docks and floats that weren’t wanted or used. If you have one that needs to go, let us know. Just trying to keep things nice and safe on the docks.
There’s nothing I love more than dogs, well I guess I should say my wife, but boy I get a lot of calls on dog poop. It’s certainly better now, and sad for the 99% of responsible dog owners who pick up after their animals, please pick up after your dogs.
Stay safe and keep smiling, even under your mask.
Dennis