Author Archives: Beanie
CALIFORNIA – Seeing Discolored Lawns, California Businesses Apply Dab of Green
LONG BEACH, Calif. — The spray-paint nozzle was aimed carefully at the edge as the painter stood back a few inches from the flat metal shovel meant to protect other surfaces. After laying down a couple of thin coats, he stepped back to admire his work.
The patch of grass had gone from a flat, yellowing green to a Wizard of Oz shade of emerald.
There are few people who see an upside to the record-setting drought in California, but Drew McClellan sees a path to business. Earlier this summer, when a friend began complaining about his browning front lawn, Mr. McClellan thought back to his childhood in Florida, where he often spotted golf courses using sprays to dye their greens. When a brief Internet search failed to show any local business offering a similar service, Mr. McClellan decided it was a prime opportunity. Read more:
FLORIDA – Homeowners take control of MetroWest
Almost 30 years after the 1,800-acre MetroWest community opened, homeowners there will soon control Orlando’s largest development.
At a meeting of the MetroWest Master Association last week, property owners voted in favor of “buying out” developer Carl Shakarian for $2 million. The association voted to borrow the funds, pay the developer in October, and then repay the borrowed money over five years.
“Congratulations, you are now in charge of your own destiny,” said MetroWest Master Association President Jim Drayton after the vote tally. Read more:
FLORIDA – Allegations of bully tactics, misspent money
| Article and Video Courtesy of Local 10 News
By Bob Norman Published August 26, 2014
Local 10 ‘s Bob Norman delves into a Coral Springs community called Glen Walk plagued by homeowners’ association politics and allegations of wrongdoing by a powerful board official. Since Norman began his investigation, police have started one of their one. Read more: |
ARIZONA – Avondale HOA thwarts Boy Scout’s American flag project
Kyle Tucker just wants to plant a flagpole at his Avondale high school on his way to becoming an Eagle Scout. Instead, he’s getting a lesson in bureaucracy. Tucker, 16, belongs to Litchfield Park’s Boy Scout Troop 90. He said the idea for the flagpole at his charter high school, the Arizona Agribusiness and Equine Center, came from the school’s receptionist. He is doing the project as one of the requirements to advance to Eagle Scout.
The Avondale teen obtained the necessary city permits. He raised $400 in cash donations. The American Legion Post 61 in Avondale donated the flag. Tempe-based Adolfson & Peterson Construction and its subcontractors agreed to supply the pole, concrete and labor.
Before work could begin, Tucker needed approval from the Coronado Professional Condominium Association, which sets rules for the commercial complex on Dysart and Osborn roads where the school and four businesses are located. Read more:
CALIFORNIA – Despite drought, Indio development requires grass
While agencies throughout the Coachella Valley and across California are issuing mandatory water restrictions in a desperate response to the state’s historic drought, one homeowners’ association in Indio is moving forward with regulations requiring land owners to install and water grass in undeveloped lots.
The ShadowLake Estates Homeowners Association Board of Directors proposed amendments to its regulations in December. Approved in April, the amendments require that vacant lots be “regularly maintained to ensure that they remain in a neat, clean, sanitary condition.” Read more:
FLORIDA – Weeds, frustration grow at shuttered Land O’Lakes golf community
Nine miles away in Wesley Chapel, golfers mill around Lexington Oaks Golf Club, riding on golf carts and teeing off on the course’s putting greens. Two upscale courses in prosperous neighborhoods, yet one fails. What gives?
In 2011, Mitch Osceola, Jayson Ray and Steve McDonald purchased Plantation Palms under the corporate name MJS Golf Group LLC. At one point, the company owed Pasco County $83,000 in back taxes. According to county records, five liens have been filed against the company this year. Read more:
WASHINGTON – Bank of America settlement likely to benefit few
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bank of America’s record $16.65 billion settlement for its role in selling shoddy mortgage bonds — $7 billion of it geared for consumer relief — offers a glint of hope for desperate homeowners. The settlement requires the second-largest U.S. bank to reduce some homeowners’ loan balances, provide new loans to low-income buyers and address areas of neighborhood blight. But consumer advocates say relatively few people will be helped relative to the devastation triggered by the mortgage bonds, which fueled the worst financial crisis since the 1930s and threw millions of homes into foreclosure.
Only a fraction of homeowners would be eligible for refinancing under the settlement. And the process by which people would qualify and receive aid could drag on for years, with payouts set to be completed as late as 2018. Those who have already lost homes to a foreclosure or a short sale — when a lender accepts less money from a sale than what the borrower owes — wouldn’t likely benefit at all. “It is certainly better than nothing,” said Bruce Marks, chief executive of the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. “But for the millions who lost their homes, it reinforces the appearance that the government has not been on their side. Read more:
WASHINGTON – Washington High Court Must Define ‘Collapse’
SEATTLE (CN) – An insurance dispute involving structural damage to a condominium requires the Washington Supreme Court to define the word “collapse,” the 9th Circuit said Tuesday.
The dispute stems from an insurance claim that the homeowners’ association of a two-building condo called Queen Anne Park filed with State Farm in 2009 after allegedly finding “several areas of hidden decay.”
Saying that the siding on the buildings was leaking, the association claimed that its insurance policy covered “collapse,” which it defined as “a substantial impairment of the structural integrity of any portion or component of the building.”
It filed a federal complaint after State Farm performed its own inspections of the condo and denied the claim.
In denying the association summary judgment in 2012, U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly said that courts in Washington had not directly addressed what exactly defines “collapse” for insurance purposes.
“Even if Washington were to adopt a relaxed standard that is somewhere short of ‘rubble on the ground,’ it would require an insured seeking coverage under a collapse provision to show, in addition to a substantial impairment of structural integrity, an imminent threat of collapse,” Zilly wrote.
Though the judge said that the association could not meet that standard, he did not find in favor of State Farm either because the insurer did not cross-move for judgment regarding the definition of “collapse.” Read more:
CALIFORNIA – East Bay Homeowner Fined by HOA For Replacing Lawn With Drought-Resistant Landscaping
CBS5KPIX: East Bay Homeowner Fined By HOA For Replacing Lawn With Drought-Resistant Landscaping
SAN RAMON (CBS SF) — An East Bay homeowner
is in a battle with her homeowners’ association over her drought-resistant yard after she was fined by the HOA for not having sod.Fran Paxton was trying to be good a citizen when she decided to replace her lawn with the water-saving landscaping.“It’s a variety of mint, it stays close to the ground , it takes very little water and it is green all year,” Paxton said. The newly-planted mint will fill in, she said, giving the appearance of grass in her San Ramon neighborhood of Twin Creeks. It works for the local water district, which gave Paxton a rebate on the landscaping work. Read more:
HOA Reform Coalition 