The following is an excerpt from the June 15th letter, from Jodi Landefeld, Manager of CLPOA, mailed to all members of the Canyon Lakes Homeowner’s Association as an update addressing the McKay Retaining Wall issue and notice of the Board’s intention to restore enforcement of all rules, covenants and bylaws at Canyon Lakes.
“In December we initially wrote to Mr. McKay, notifying him of his violations and asked that he cease and desist further construction. He obliged this request and subsequently, through his attorney, accepted service of our formal civil complaint to enjoin construction until issues regarding his wall and his compliance with our Architectural Review Committee process were properly addressed.
Since that time the Board and Mr. McKay have been in regular communications concerning options for addressing his non-complaince, mitigating the appearance of the wall in question, and addressing safety concerns that a rise out of the manner and method by which the McKay lot has been filled and leveled. These tentative solutions include a landscaping component to block any visual concerns, a reduction in the height of the wall by two feet, a requirement that safety issues be addressed by an engineeering report for the benefit of and satisfactory to the Association; and most importantly, a recognition and agreement by Mr. McKay that all further construction, including landscaping, would be conducted through the appropriate architectural review process in place under our covenants.
While some may suggest we should not tolerate this construction at any level, your Board, in good faith, has determined it preferable to address the issue of sightliness and safety rather than expend Association funds to determine whether or not the McKay wall must comply with the architectural control guidelines; a battle that will invariably call attention to numerous other walls in our community which do not comply with our guidelines.
While unfortunate, this dispute underscores the Board’s current goal of reversing past tolerances, oversights, and failures of enforcement. We cannot go back and fix all the past mistakes. But your Board is committed to reducing future non-complaince. To that end the Board has undertaken a review of our governing documents, and is in the process of making amendments so that obligations of the property owners are clear and easy to follow. This process continues. A comment version will be forwarded prior to a formal meeting but in the end we hope this effort will be approved. By eliminating the numerous documents that property owners must consult in order to determine their responsibilities, it is the Board’s view that violations are less likely to occur and enforcement more predictable when necessary.
Getting back on track is like a big ship, it turns slowly. However, this letter shall serve as notice to all property owners that the Board is committed to restoring consistent, uniform and appropriate enforcement of all rules, covenants and bylaws in order to maintain the high quality community that we all enjoy here at Canyon Lakes.”
By Sharon Warren Your Canyon Lakes Real Estate Agent