Emerald Hills Homeowner Association

Planning & Building Department Fee Hikes

EH Admin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:02:39 +0000

As you know the San Mateo County Planning and Building Department is proposing a “5%” fee increase for all building and related permits (See details here). In fact, what they are proposing, is not just a 5% across the board increase but many new fees for items that had not previously not had fees. They are even requesting fees just to meet with them on many items (a pre-fee). This is HUGE and in light of the fact that we are living in the unincorporated areas have been paying much higher fees than our surrounding city neighbors the new increased fees will be an excessive burden to us.

This is not a policy issue where there are two neighborhood competing sides, this is a financial assault on all of us because of where we live in the unincorporated area. For years we have been trying to get the County to let the Community weigh in on what zoning and building regulations we should have in order to ease and streamline the permit process for our neighbors. These new fee increases fly in the face of that.

I met with Don Horsley yesterday and he said he would definitely look into the concerns we have. However, yesterday Planning and Building forged ahead and scheduled a vote on the proposal at the May 8th Supervisor’s meeting.

Gentlemen, this a runaway freight train heading directly at our bank accounts. We need to mobilize our friends and neighbors and let the Supervisors know of our concerns. This is much more that an increase in sewer fees, this is an unfair and an unwarranted attack on all of us and there is little time left mount an offense.

Maria Rutenberg has offered to hold a meeting at her home Wednesday evening of concerned neighbors to discuss the issue and outline a plan of action.

Contact me asap.

Best,

Michael Mangini

Proposed hike in building and planning fees

EH Admin — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:35:43 +0000

Dear fellow homeowners:

As I previously posted, our San Mateo County Board of Supervisors have formed a subcommittee to study proposed increase and additions to building and planning fees.

Now, that we have our Supervisors’ ears, let’s ask them not only to review the new fees proposed, but to look at the exisitng fee structure and code enforcement procedures.

Did you know that now:

1) If you want to replace ONLY a garbage disposal, you must pull a permit and the total permit fee is about $158?

2) If you want to replace ONLY that bathroom fan and nothing else, the county fee is $187?

3) If you decide to replace that front window with one of IDENTICAL SIZE, the fee is at least $352? That is, if you are able to avoid an arbitrary but required “design review exemption fee” that adds another $451 to that window permit, bringing the total to $803 (if you live in a design review district such as North Fair Oaks or Emerald Hills). This total does not include the actual parts and labor, which may cost you the same or less than the permit.

4) If a person you bought a house from did a non-permitted porch railing replacement 12 years ago, that can come back to haunt you (actual 2011 case) since there is no statute of limitation on building code violations. An Inspector from the Planning Department can give you a “stop work notice” now (even though no work is being done) and wants to come inside for an inspection without owing you an explantion. The Inspector does not have to allege health and safety violations to get inside your property.

5) You do not have any basic rights, the Building Code Enforcement Officer does not need a search warrant to come inside your private property. You must let him in upon his request or you get a violation notice issued.

6) You may have only replaced a porch railing, siding, and a window 12 years ago, but the Building Department will not issue you an after-the-fact permit now until you bring in a full set of building plans including minor details of the inside of your home. The County will charge you for the planning, plan checking, building, filing, etc. fees costing you thousands of dollars (actual cases fetched $2,000 to over $5,000 to the county). On top of that, you may be charged a demolition fee of $351 to legalize what you did in your home over 12 years ago.

7) If you violate the building code, the penalty is 10 times the original fee up to $3,000 plus the all the regular building and planning fees. See page 4 of the Building Fee Schedule.

8 ) The word of a building inspector who wrote you up is enough to trigger a lien recordation process, which means that each day your violation remains outstanding is a separate violation, subjecting you to thousands and thousands of dollars in fines that will be recorded against your home. See Section 6593. You cannot refinance the home with such a notice of violation and when selling it you will probably end up selling at a significant discount.

9) If you feel like you and your home have been wronged and violated and you would like to get some justice, you will have to pay an appeal fee of about $520 (filing fee, all surcharges) to take your chances with the Board of Appeal.

10) The current Board of Appeals majority consists of the Building Department Officials, which places you in a unique situation of being tried with the prosecutor and the judge from the same entity. That is why most of the people who became code enforcement victims pony up the cash (the ones who can afford to) and give up their rights.
Read about code enforcement.

San Mateo Building department volume of code enforcement work grew by 41% from 130 cases in 2004 to 183 cases in 2011 with prosecutions significantly intensifying in 2011 and 2012 (San Mateo County online permit center, SWN notice search).

Consider this: not a single employee was laid off in the San Mateo Building and Planning Department since 2005 (Mr.Eggemeyer’s report presented at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting on March 13, 2011), even though new construction volume had decreased during the past 7 years. It seems the Building and Planning department must make up for the revenue decline by walking all over our basic rights.

So, you did not get that permit for that sliding door? Be careful, as now or 10 years from now, the building dept, an agency designed to ensure nothing but our safety, can come knocking on you door, which you are better open without a search warrant. They will make a full inspection of your house and write you up for everything that looks like newer than 40 years and best of luck fighitng it.

Sounds absurd? This is our current system. Let’s tell our supervisors how we feel. Write emails to Supervisors.

Maria Rutenburg
Emerald Hills homeowner
attorney at law & real estate broker
Peninsula Company
(650)5395639 office
(650)7434915 direct
(650)6463122 fax
maria@peninsulacompany.com

Community Meeting 2012

EH Admin — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:00:51 +0000

Registration for the Community Meeting 2012

The Members of Emerald Hills Homeowners Association gathered on Thursday 22nd 2012 evening for their Annual Meeting. More than 30 people came to the Peninsula Covenant Church Fellowship Center and took part in a lively discussion on issue that concern the community.

Michael Mangini, President of the Board of Directors opened the evening by thanking longtime newsletter editor Nancy Mangini for her work in writing and editing the quarterly newsletter for the last 5 years. As a longtime editor she had announced her resignation due to increased constraints on her time at work.

Nancy Mangini being honored for her work as newsletter editor

Two directors, Marline Underwood and Mike Sherman, that had ended their term as directors of the EHHA board were also thanked for their time as active board members. All three received a certificate of appreciation from the board for their commitment and involvement.

The future of the newsletter

Tom Brouchoud explained the newsletter situation

The first main topic of the evening was the situation of the Emerald Hills Review newsletter and the search for a new editor to fill this volunteer position. Tom Brouchoud explained the financial constraints to edit and distribute a printed newsletter to about 1,800 households in the Emerald Hills community.
The newsletter costs in excess of $2000 per issue. These costs are covered by contributions and advertising. But time and labor in producing and mailing the newsletter are not covered and based on a pure volunteer effort. All in all this account for about 50 h per issue. The latest issue of the newsletter can be found here.
A lively discussion ensued about the future of the newsletter and the majority of the members were strongly interested to receive information about local issue in a newsletter format. But this does not necessarily require a printed version. A more frequent information distributed via the online channels of the Emerald Hills.org website and the Big Tent Community Board could act as the medium to distribute the information.
Several suggestions were discussed how to fill the editor position though no direct volunteer for the editing position could be found on the evening. One new idea that surfaced was the involvement of the journalism class at Sequoia Highschool in Redwood City. The newsletter could act as a platform for the students to act as community journalists. The board will look into this possibility in depth on their upcoming meeting in April.

Voting for the Board Members

Board Member Elections

Following Tom’s presentation was a statement from Michael Mangini regarding the necessity to attract additional volunteers for the annual picnic and the backup for the website administration. Next Tim Ferris provided a summary of the boards financials for the fiscal year 2011. The home owners association has a positive account balance of $500 for the year 2011. All expenses regarding the newsletter could be covered by financial contributions from members and ad sales.

The election of the board members followed. Two members, Tom Brouchoud and Santosh Kolhatkar ran for reelection and two new candidates, Sudhi Joshi and Frank Kohlweiss, ran to replace the resigning directors. All four were elected as board members for a two year term with more than 20 votes each. You can find their candidate statements here.

Advocating the Parcel Tax Proposal

Parcel Tax Proposal

Two representatives from the Redwood City School District presented their case for the introduction of a Parcel Tax for Redwood City and Emerald Hills homeowners. The tax would be $67 per year and exclusively designated to boost the education of students in Redwood City’s elementary schools. The members were asked to endorse the tax proposal. In a vote that excluded the board directors nine members of the community supported the proposal of an endorsement, no one was against it. The board will discuss the matter during the next meeting.

Michele and Steve Koop

Sudden Oak Death

Next Steve and Michelle Kopp presented the case of the Sudden Oak Death Campaign before the residents of Emerald Hills. Sudden Oak Death is a serious threat for the oak trees in the community. During a weekend in the beginning of June there should be a drive to collect samples from bay trees and oak trees around Emerald Hills to see whether local trees are already infected. Details of the matter can be found here. Also San Mateo County will grant emergency tree removal permits for infected trees.

Audience Announcements

During the announcements from the audience three speakers stepped forward.

CHP Officer addressing community

Bob Brock informed the community about the Green Towns SunShares Initiative. The Bay Area Climate Collaborative is offering residents in the Towns of Hillsborough, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Portola Valley and Woodside a special solar and energy efficiency group discount program. This program will guide residents through upgrading their homes to reduce utility bills and generate clean energy. You can find the details of his proposal here.

An officer of the San Mateo Highway patrol provided an overview of their activities in the community. Then several traffic hazards in an around Emerald Hills were discussed.

Maria warning about the coming fee hike

A real highlight of the meeting came in the end, when Maria Rutenburg gave a passionate statement regarding the existing building and planning fee structure, code enforcement procedures and proposed new fees in San Mateo County. As an Emerald Hills homeowner and attorney she pointed out that San Mateo Building department’s volume of code enforcement work grew by 41% from 130 cases in 2004 to 183 cases in 2011 with prosecutions significantly intensifying in 2011 and 2012. Many minor additions or repairs like replacing a bathroom fan ramp up huge county fees (in this case $187 just for the permit). Violations to these permit requirements have major repercussions for the home owner. In addition Building Code Enforcement Officers do not need a search warrant to come inside your private property. You must let him in upon his request or you get a violation notice issued. Details and further information can be found here.

A negative surprise about the counties planning department

Notably the community at the meeting was more than surprised hearing about these developments at the county department. The board will discuss actions to bring this disagreement back to the board of supervisors.

SunShares Initiative

EH Admin — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:40:18 +0000

Been thinking about installing a solar energy system but don’t know where to start?

Green Towns SunShares is here to help! The Bay Area Climate Collaborative is offering residents in the Towns of Hillsborough, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Portola Valley and Woodside a special solar and energy efficiency group discount program. This program will guide you through upgrading your home to reduce utility bills and generate clean energy.

The Green Towns SunShares evaluation committee devoted personal time to reading and reviewing proposals and meeting to discuss their rankings.

The committee has completed its scoring and has selected solar and energy efficiency vendors!

For Solar PV, the committee selected REC Solar, who presented a fantastic combination of solid experience and extraordinarily competitive pricing!
For Energy Efficiency, the committee selected SDI Insulation, who is offering generous assessment pricing and incentives to drive group participation.

Base pricing information has been updated on the main program page, and additional, detailed information is posted on the News page.

There are 97 residents who have joined the SunShares program. You can grow that number by spreading the word to your neighbors and fellow residents!

Next Steps: Take a few minutes to complete the short homeowner questionnaire. The SunShares team will forward this information about your home to REC Solar and SDI Insulation, who will use it to prepare for your site evaluation(s).

Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Kevin Armstrong GroupEnergy.

In addition to a great group discount, there are significant savings available through tax credits and state rebates. Join the Green Towns SunShares program and spread the word. The bigger the group the bigger the savings! To learn more and sign up for a free quote please visit: www.mygroupenergy.com/green-towns.

Future of Emerald Hill Review Newsletter

EH Admin — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:05:45 +0000

Dear Emerald Hills Neighbor,

I am writing to you as one of approximately 100 residents who have contributed to the EHHA and have indicated a preference to continue receiving the Emerald Hills Review newsletter. We value and appreciate the support you have shown for this publication.

Unfortunately, the continued publication of the Review is in jeopardy! At a recent Board Meeting our newsletter editor announced her resignation due to increased constraints on her time at work. The Board then began further examination into the cost versus benefit of continuing the publication in it current format. The newsletter costs in excess of $2000 per issue. Contributions and advertising do help in defraying the actual costs but do not account for the time and labor in producing and mailing the newsletter. The newsletter editor spends about 25 hours just in preparing each edition for printing. Members of the Board spend another 25 man-hours preparing the newsletter for mailing. The Board feels that its time would be better spent on dealing directly with issues that affect the Community.

Since only 100 (5 ½%) of us out of almost 1800 households we mail to have contributed, we have to ask ourselves if the Emerald Hills Review is really wanted by the Community?

Recently you received the latest edition of the The Review. In that edition, we made an appeal to our neighbors for help with the newsletter not only for contributions but to help in volunteering with production and by becoming a Board Member.
To date, we have had no responses for actual volunteer help.

This reality will be one of the topics discussed at the Annual Member Meeting to be held on March 22nd.

If you believe as I do, that the Emerald Hills Review is and should continue to be the conduit of information for our community, then please attend and share your concerns and solutions with the Board and Membership.

Sincerely,
Michael J. Mangini – President EHHA

Sudden Oak Death

EH Admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:40:53 +0000

Sudden Oak Death (SOD) is a phenomenon that plagues communities around California now for several years. It is threatening the survival of tanoak and several oak species in California. With the death of several trees in the Emerald Hills area it now has arrived at our doorsteps.

Black growth on oaks was named as a first sign for infection by gardener

Researchers like Matteo Garbelotto, Principal Investigator at U.C. Berkeley Forest Pathology and Mycology Laboratory provide more detailed information: “Phytophthora ramorum, the pathogen that causes SOD, spreads most often on infected California bay laurel leaves. Symptomatic bay leaves are often the first sign that SOD has arrived at a location, and generally precedes oak infections. Some management options are available (sanitation, chemical preventative treatments, bay removal), but they are effective only if implemented before oaks and tanoaks are infected; hence, timely detection of the disease on bay laurel leaves is key for a successful proactive attempt to slow down the SOD epidemic.” Read more about this at his site about SOD.

Bay Tree are a source of infection

To prevent SOD from infecting oaks around the area information is necessary. That is where an SOD-BLITZ comes in: “SOD-blitzes inform and educate the community about Sudden Oak Death, get locals involved in detecting the disease, and produce detailed local maps of disease distribution. The map can then be used to identify those areas where the infestation may be mild enough to justify proactive management.”
Woodside and Los Altos Hills have already schedules SOD-Blitzes for June. On the initiative of EH resident Rochelle Kopp the EHHA board will discuss the opportunity to organize a blitz for Emerald Hills later this year at their monthly meeting in January.
Come back here later this week to learn more about the planned actions.

Painting 8511

EH Admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:47:13 +0000

Painting 8510

EH Admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:46:36 +0000

Painting 8509

EH Admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:45:58 +0000

Painting 8508

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