The Solterra Board of Directors last year tried, in a not so transparent way, to get the Townhome residents to pay for snow removal in the District owned – public – areas of the alleyways and aprons.
The Townhome residents objected and pointed out that, as a matter of law – created by the legal documents establishing the private and public tracts filed with the County – the District as a whole, not the immediate residents, owned and maintained the alleyways and aprons.
The cost of snow removal for the alleyways and aprons belongs to the District as a whole, just like the cost of plowing the snow in the parking lot of the Retreat. Both owned by the District (Solterra). Snow removal for both paid by the District as a whole. The homeowners living closest to the Retreat parking lot don’t pay for the snow removal of the Retreat parking lot.
Last year, in response to the law and the Townhome residents’ objections, the Solterra Board decided, as they should have, that the District as a whole would continue to pay for snow removal for the District property – both the Retreat parking lot and the alleyways and aprons at the Townhome lots.
Now, they are trying to do the same thing again – by ASSUMING the Townhome residents are the ones who must pay for snow removal for the alleyways and aprons and telling them to vote on whether or not they want the snow removed at 8 inches or 4 inches. Clever. But not very transparent. There was a lot of confusion yesterday.
Here is the issue in a nutshell: The District pays for snow removal for the alleyways and aprons because it is public – District (a special district is a government taxing us to pay for public services) – property owned by the District as a whole. The Board is telling the homeowners alone to vote on whether or not they want to increase THEIR FEE to pay for the increased cost of snow remove at 4 inches.
See what they are doing. Now it is not a District wide fee. It is just a Townhome resident fee paid for by the Townhome residents alone. They want the increase for a District wide cost to be paid by just the Townhome residents alone. By having this vote they are getting in through the back door what they couldn’t get in through the side door last year.
This has come up for two reasons.
First, it was clear all along that waiting for 8 inch snowfalls in that area is irresponsible. The manager last year said waiting for 8 inch snow falls would make it near impossible to stay ahead of the snow removal in that area because it is like a box canyon – no where to put large amounts of snow.
Second, the Board did not budget enough money to pay for the snow removal. We had a lot of snows this year and it broke the budget. So they want more money to catch up.
So, they are now saying to the Townhome residents alone – the rest of the community never even received notice of the “workshop” yesterday and the “vote” this Monday June 8 – do you want to double your fee to pay for snow removal at 4 inches instead of 8 inches.
The answer of course is that the District should pay for 4 inch snow removal instead of 8 inch snow removal in that area because technically that is the right thing to do – it is a box canyon in many areas. They should do it for all of Solterra. And since it is District owned property, the cost should be paid by everyone – just like the cost of plowing the parking lot at the Retreat.
But in telling the Townhome residents to make this decision – they are also imposing on the Townhome residents ALONE the burden to pay for public – District expenses.
The District property – the alleyways and aprons were described yesterday during the “workshop” as “private alleyways and aprons”.
That is not true.
They are owned by the District and the District is a special district – a government – who taxes us to pay for government services – in this case snow removal for District owned sidewalks along Indiana, the parking lot for the Retreat and the alleyways and aprons at the Townhomes.
Here is the blog describing the same issue raised May of last year. I explained there and will repeat here why this is a District wide issue, not just a Townhome resident issue.
If we break up the District wide expenses into fees for mini areas – snow removal for the alleyways at the Townhomes, snow removal for sections of sidewalks along Indiana, drainage and landscaping for the gulch areas, maintenance of the children play areas – and charge only those residents most directly affected and benefitting from those services – then we lose the economic efficiencies, generate parochial divisions within the community and very quickly lose the sense of one community. We all benefit as a community from taking care of these areas even though we may not use them at all. Just like I pay for the construction of federal highways in Oregon but will probably never use them.
And there is the legal part – the District owns that property – the alleyways and aprons. They are responsible for the maintenance and snow removal. The decision to Balkanize the fees into mini-fee jurisdictions for snow removal is a District wide decision that raises legal questions as to whether or not it can even be done never mind the public policy question of whether or not it is a good idea.
Here is another option – vote no on June 8 for the enhanced service paid for by the Townhome residents ALONE and go to the Board for an increase in the District wide budget to pay for snow removal at 4 inches for the entire community.
Here again is the blog on the same subject from last year:
(Open “untitled” and click on “view”)
http://solterracommunity.org/index.php/2019/05/05/why-the-entire-solterra-community-needs-to-be-concerned-about-the-current-frmd-campaign-to-have-the-townhome-residents-pay-for-snow-removal/
John Henderson