HRB MINUTES — October 6, 2015
Present were Hobart Taylor (acting Chair), Sandrine Scherson, Jan Fisher, Catherine Pugel, and Barbara Taborek. ICHA members present were Andrew Herndon and Ron Reid. Victor Van Zandt attended part of the meeting. Residents in attendance were Cynthia French, Sharon and Kiron Burke, and [a resident who asked that his name not appear in the minutes]*.
Cynthia French presented a memo titled Resident’s Eye View for future assessments of acceptable colors for homes in the different phases in University Hills. As residents have repainted their houses, most have stayed within the original colors, with the exception of phase 150, and her phase, 750. She feels that non-standard colors degrade the overall appearance of the neighborhood. She reported that a neighbor had selected a color not only outside of the prevalent palette, but outside the tone, and that although the color card looked greyish, the net effect was more violet, so ICHA shouldn’t have approved it since that wasn’t a color that was already in that part of the neighborhood. If someone goes beyond the color scheme, she suggested a designer be consulted. She also suggested that a person planning on painting should get the neighbors to the rear and in front of the house to sign off in addition to the current requirement of having neighbors on either side approve.
Victor showed color renderings of the new 1 acre park on Coltrane. It will include a lap pool, wading pool and Jacuzzi, as well as have a bbq, a shaded seating area, and separate restrooms accessible from inside and outside the pool area. The original design of the trellis was going to accommodate solar thermal, but was reduced in size when photovoltaic panels proved more economical. It’s apparently too temperate here to use solar thermal heating effectively without an array the same size as the pool.
The homes along Coltrane and Cervantes are planted with the lowest water-use plants in University Hills. A wildlife consultant helped choose them. While most phases of University Hills uses 10.2 ccf/mo, the usage in phase 10 is less than 8 ccf/mo. The city of Irvine averages 13.
Construction will begin on a new phase 11 next fall. It will use the remaining land bordered by California, Anteater, and Bonita Canyon. There will be a total of 300 units, 160 cluster homes and 140 rentals. This is to accommodate as many as possible of the 500 new faculty UCI plans to hire between now and 2021. When phase 11 is finished, 30% of all University Hills residents will live in phases 10 and 11.
Residents Sharon and Kiron Burke have found that their back yard has been invaded by surface roots from the acacia trees in the green space beyond their fence. ICHA policy is that homeowners need to maintain their yards, and in this case, probably needed to put in a root barrier, though this may not have been apparent before now. It was agreed that ICHA would remove the acacia trees if the Burkes obtained approval from the neighbors. In most requests for tree removal, the resident is asked to contribute to the cost of replacement trees. That may be waived in this instance.
Hobart introduced the Community and police relations topic by suggesting that the community exhibits its dysfunction in its lack of common civility on the listserv, on the tennis courts, and with the ongoing problem of non-residents on the soccer field. He thinks more community-building events should happen, like the Harvest Moon Festival the HRB failed to approve; he noted that 200 people came up to the Community Center on September 27th to watch the lunar eclipse, and it could have been the HRB out in front of that. Unfortunately, in the original proposal, it was unclear that free moon cakes would have broad appeal, and there hadn't been any mention of the fact that a total lunar eclipse would be occurring.
Hobart met with Michael Arias, Assistant Chancellor in charge of Employee Relations, to discuss the community meeting with police. He said that since there’s an independent investigation taking place, the events of September 1st will be off limits for discussion. Rather than the Police Department host this, he suggested that the HRB do it as part of a series of community fora with the police to understand their procedures and policies. A professional facilitator will be asked to help run it. The new police chief was surprised that this hadn’t been happening already. Due to schedules, this will most likely take place in November at the earliest.
The Rummage Sale and Recycling Day was very successful. The UCI Police Department collected prescription medicine, and took in 165 lbs. (This is more than was gathered by the whole City of Irvine.) The Large Item Bin and Salvation Army truck were filled, 2/3 of the electronics truck was filled, and 25 x 55 gallon drums of paper was shredded. There were some last minute cancellations of booths for the Rummage Sale, so it didn’t appear to be as large as last year. This was the first time we had held this event in Fall, instead of Spring.
The movie Alex and the Terrible, Horrible, No good Very Bad Day had about 250 people in attendance. The crowd seemed to enjoy it.
Resident [*] came to observe the meeting. He was not on the Agenda, and didn’t ask to speak, but was asked some questions based on assertions that appeared on the listserv regarding a family member who no longer lives in the neighborhood but is authorized by ICHA to teach lessons to residents on our courts. It had been implied on the listserv that the instructor was teaching non-residents on the tennis courts. [*] acknowledged this to be true, but believed the students involved to be former residents. It was noted that the level of rancor in some listserv posts, and in some behavior at the courts, had been uncivil. One resident reportedly interfered with a lesson to the extent that the clients went home ½ hour early. The HRB stressed the importance of instructors absolutely following all the rules. Sandrine witnessed an instance of an instructor playing with someone on the courts with an expired meter, and when he saw her, they came out and started the timer. This is a common complaint. [*] asked about how the instructor should respond to a Uhills client’s request that he teach one of his colleagues at the Uhills court early in the morning. This person (the colleague) is not a resident of our community. The Board thought this was absolutely clear – that lesson should be held elsewhere. The larger issue of building more tennis courts is unlikely to happen in the next development; the courts take up an equivalent space of 4 houses, and the University is pressing ICHA to fit 300 homes into the available area for phase 11, which will leave little room for additional amenities.
A resident complained about the smell of pesticides near Murasaki, Shubert and Twain streets, with no flags marking any area. Andrew thought that the grounds people always put the flags up and that this may have been ant spraying. He will remind them.
The Fall Fiesta takes place Sunday, October 18th. The Hal Moore Band will be on the Basketball court, games along the sidewalk of the field. The Girl Scouts and some Boy Scouts and their leaders have volunteered to help, as has a person to do crafts with the children. There will be a face painter, a balloon sculptor, a bounce house, hamster balls, and Tacos and Co. food.
The Holiday Bazaar is on 12/12, and is almost full. It costs $35/ spot and is refundable until 11/30.
The Dedication of Bill Parker Vista is by invitation only, and will take place on 10/13. Space is limited by the size.
On Friday, October 30th, the Community Center will host the Halloween movie Monsters, Inc. at 6:30pm.
The missing bars on the Gabrielino Pool fence were repaired, but within one week had been vandalized again.
[*] Minutes revised at request of homeowner requesting anonymity.