The meeting was called to order at 7:04 PM by President Cynthia Esselman. Board members present: Cynthia Esselman, Jason Barth, Mary Ruhlman, Maggie Taber, Bruce Vincent, Steve Johnston and David Fosmire.
Meeting minutes from the March Board meeting were approved.
PRESIDENT, Cynthia Esselman –
We are hoping to hold Board meetings in person again soon. The Board will keep you posted on
when that may occur.
Vice President/ Legal Affairs, prepared by Omar Nur, presented by Cynthia Esselman –
Swim Club Lease
We have received all requested documents from the Innis Arden Swim Club and provided them to our counsel for review. IASC and IAC signed a letter of intent to do year round operations, and enter a new lease agreement. Next step, counsel and the board will discuss formulating proper terms to protect the interests of IAC, and allow the IASC to best serve the needs of the community and their members.
With respect to the question of whether the decision to enter a loan guarantee on behalf of IASC was in compliance with the Nonprofit Corporation Act, the answer is: Yes. The board’s action was in compliance with the Nonprofit Corporation Act (see RCW 24.03.035), as well as the Homeowners Association Act (see RCW 64.38.020).
Executive Session Motion, Bruce Vincent–
The following motion was made, seconded, and approved unanimously by the Board.
“I move to hold one, or two, Executive Sessions in the month of April or early May discuss ongoing IASC lease amendments and revisions, and outstanding view compliance issues.”
COMPLIANCE, Bruce Vincent, Acting Chair–
Another reminder that it’s the time of year for vegetation trimming. Please take photos to help illustrate and discuss kindly with your neighbors. Any vegetation that blocks views of the sound and mountains, from anywhere on a neighboring property, must be trimmed low enough that it does not block those views on a year-round basis.
Members of the Compliance Committee and IAC Counsel are continuing to focus on gaining compliance on all properties that the board has received a Compliance Request Form of merit on. The Committee greatly appreciates the efforts of all members that are continually working with their neighbors and keeping all the vegetation on their properties from blocking any of their neighbor’s views of the sound and mountains.
There are 13 petitioned (CRF) properties with unresolved compliance issues as follows:
• 18760 Ridgefield Rd. NW (Schuler): At the 11/16/2021 Compliance Hearing this property was found to be non-compliant. A more detailed written decision by the IAC Board, consistent with its votes at the hearings, is pending. The Schuler’s recently listed their property for sale. If a sale occurs the new owners will assume the responsibilities for non-compliance, including fines.
• 915 NW RB Road (Yu): At the 11/16/2021 Compliance Hearing this property was found to be non-compliant. On 2/23/2022 the IAC issued a Written Decision concerning the vegetation compliance on this property. The decision notes the owner’s failure to submit a compliance plan for review and approval by the IAC along with fines of $50 per day accruing from the 11/16/2021 Compliance Hearing and up until full compliance has been achieved. There has been no response from the owner’s to-date.
• 1001 NW Richmond Beach Road (Zawtkowski): –no update-
• 17727 17th Ave NW (Lawson): At the 11/30/2021 Compliance Hearing this property was found to be non-compliant. A more detailed written decision by the IAC Board, consistent with its votes at the hearings, is pending.
• 18029 13th Ave NW (Hjelle): IAC counsel is assembling results of outside consultants vegetation review. The IAC subsequently will be scheduling another hearing on this property in the near future. The forecast timing of the new hearing will be updated by IAC counsel.
• 18770 Ridgefield Rd. NW (McHugh): Omar has contacted the McHugh’s and followed up with some discussions of the POV photos and impact to neighboring properties. Based on these discussions, the Compliance Committee will hold a compliance hearing on this property to help better define the potentially view blocking vegetation.
The following motion was made, seconded, and passed unanimously by the Board: “I move to hold a Compliance Hearing for 18770 Ridgefield Road NW, in the next two months on a date yet to be set by the Compliance Committee”.
• 18742 Ridgefield Rd. NW (Gesinger): The Board has delayed holding a Vegetation Compliance Hearing, pending courtesy site visits with the owners to directly discuss the potentially view blocking vegetation noted in now assembled photo support. Omar has contacted the Gesinger’s and is following up on a Board site visit & discussion this month. The Compliance Committee hopes to gain the full cooperation of the owners.
• 17732 17th Ave NW (Bargreen): At the 11/30/2021 Compliance Hearing this property was found to be non-compliant. A more detailed written decision by the IAC Board, consistent with its votes at the hearings, is pending.
• 933 NW Richmond Beach Road (Shen, formerly Knauer): On 2/25/2022 the IAC submitted a written request to the owners for a Compliance Update. A prompt response was received by the IAC, from the Shens, that will be reviewed with those effected properties to confirm full compliance. The Cindy & Bruce met onsite with Grace Shen on 3/17/2022 to review the vegetation identified in the 5/4/2021 written decision and whether it is all in full compliance. Based on that site visit, it appeared that about 90% of the vegetation is in compliance, but that will be reviewed with IAC Counsel.
• 1250 NW 175th St. (Sullivan): A CRF was received on 8/10/2020 for this property. Cindy and Bruce are coordinating a site visit with the owner this month to directly discuss the potentially view blocking vegetation.
• 17770 14th Ave NW (Tynan): A CRF dated 2/12/2022 was received on this property. This will be evaluated to determine if it has merit and then a Compliance Committee member will contact them directly. There is a previous written decision in July of 2017 that found the property not in compliance.
• 17037 14th Ave NW (Kirkness): A CRF dated 3/24/2022 was received on this property. On 3/29/2022 the Compliance Committee requested more specific information from the Petitioner’s before the schedules a site visit with the owners.
• 17128 13th Ave NW (Nelson): A CRF dated 4/8/2022 was received on this property. The Nelson’s immediately responded and are cooperatively working with their neighbors to trim the vegetation low enough that it is in compliance.
The following property is now officially in full compliance:
• 1213 NW 175th St. (Glascock): A CRF was received on 8/10/2020 for this property. The owner, working with a Landscape Architect, recently performed onsite work that has eliminated the view blocking vegetation. Thank you, Ms. Glascock!
The Board received written notice on 9/22/21 about potential compliance issues with the following property:
• 1408 NW 186th St. and/or Blue Heron Reserve: The location of the potentially view blocking tree is unclear and no documents have been provided to the Board to support. Existing site property line survey data will be reviewed.
The Compliance Committee wants all IAC property owners to know the following:
• Your protected views of the Sound and Mountains are from your property (upper floor, lower floor, patio, yard, etc.….), or your Point-Of-View (POV).
• The IAC applies the following provisions: The View Preservation Amendment, Covenant #10. Fences, Hedges, and Covenant #11. Noxious Use of Property: Spite Fences. These are cumulative and complementary in their application to view obstructing vegetation, restoration of views, and preservation of views. Therefore, trimming to a height below the average roof height maybe required to comply, especially in areas of your property where there are not structures.
• Your property may have longstanding view compliance issues that were present, or not disclosed to you, prior to purchase. These issues are now yours to resolve.
• It’s your responsibility to pay all costs to maintain the vegetation on your property in compliance, regardless of the property’s size and location.
• Vegetation must be trimmed low enough to not block views year-round. Revised planting selections (i.e. smaller and/or slower growing) may help reduce annual trimming costs.
• Vegetation most likely will have to be trimmed annually, if the desired height is to be kept near the maximum allowed.
• If a neighbor has requested that you trim your view blocking vegetation, please get it done as quickly as is possible (30 to 60 days).
• Get to know your immediate neighbors that have views over your property. Look at your view blocking vegetation from their POV,and with some empathy.
• The IA Board will not look favorably on any failure to voluntarily comply with your neighbor’s requests. Fines for non-compliance can be up to $50 per day.
ROW, Bruce Vincent –
Right-of-Way Trees/Vegetation:
• No ROW tree permitting, or work, is scheduled or pending to-date.
• Walking Safety & Landscaping Trimming Reminder: Since IA does not have sidewalks, we are encouraging all property owners to trim back vegetation on the street side of their properties to ground level, at least 3 to 4 feet from the edge of the paved roadway. This helps provide a safe location for pedestrians to step out of the way of on-coming traffic. Thank you to all property owners that have done so and continue to do so!
SECURITY, Bruce Vincent –
2022 Off-Duty Shoreline Police/KCSO Deputy Officers Patrolling IA
A total of 20 hours of Deputy time was logged for March, with Deputies patrolling on random days and at random times. Patrol vehicles are both “marked” and “unmarked”. All roadways will be patrolled during IAC duty hours. You may see Deputies at reserve entrances, or even walking some trails in the reserves. They may be also checking license plates of vehicles parked at reserve entrances for non-residents.
Detectives Paula Kieland and Erik Soderstrom were able to secure overtime to provide additional officers to patrol City of Shoreline Innis Arden Reserve Park on April 20th. They will have 6 uniformed officers over a varying time frame, starting at noon that day and ending between 8pm and 9pm. The focus for this time frame will be to quell juvenile gatherings and provide direct attention to the two trail heads. This overtime will be paid for by the City of Shoreline Police Department.
Call Data for 2021 (-updated to include Car Prowls-)
• Auto Thefts: between January and June there were 3, between July and December there was 1. Two of these were at one address and the vehicle was taken by a person known to the victim.
• Car Prowls: Just 3 car prowls were reported in 2021. One in January, one in March, and one in October. This stat is extremely low compared to other areas of Shoreline and maybe due to “under reporting”. Please report any car prowl.
• Residential Alarms: between January -June there were 21, between July and December there were 30 . It should be noted that there were about 5-7 addresses that had multiple calls to the same address meaning the alarm went off on different days, or multiple times in a day. This number is a bit higher than my first pull of statistics. It should be noted that the first time this data was pulled it included all of 2020. Lots of people were home during that time and it resulted in less residential alarms.
• Residential Burglary: Between January-June there was 1, between July-December there was 1, for a total of 2
• Suspicious Circumstances: Between January – June there were 17, between July-December there were 14 for a total of 29.
• Vandalism: Between January-June there were 3, between July and December there were 3, 6 total. Up by two from the previous data pull.
Detectives Paula Kieland and Erik Soderstrom again noted that car prowls are an ongoing issue in Shoreline and advise to leave nothing of value in your vehicle because it can be easily stolen in seconds. They also emphasized the continued need to REPORT, REPORT,REPORT. If you don’t report an incident, no matter how minor, your KCSO Police will not know about it.
Please continue to report activities to the Shoreline Police (KCSO) using these Guidelines:
· If it is an emergency CALL 911
· If it is not an emergency, you can call 911 and tell them “It’s not an emergency” and then you will be routed to a Non-Emergency Call Receiver.
· Alternately, you can call the KCSO Non-Emergency phone at 206-296-3311 and you will also be routed to a Non-Emergency Call Receiver.
· A Call Receiver will ask you many questions to triage the call. When they ask, “Do you want contact?”, always answer “Yes”, if you want an officer to respond onsite. If you answer “No”, an officer/s will not be dispatched.
· Please tell the Call Receiver you “I saw this ______, and I’m willing to assist with being a witness for prosecution.”
BUILDING AND REMODEL, Jason Barth –
Vu/Liem
18014 15th Ave NW
Project: Adding a skylight
The following motion was made, seconded, and passed with six approvals and one abstention.
Approve the addition of a skylight as presented for the Liem/Vu property located at 18014 15th Ave NW.
Christal
17405 14th Ave NW
Project: Solar Panel
The following motion was made, seconded and passed unanimously by the Board.
Approve the solar panels as presented for the Christal property located at 17405 14th Ave NW.
May Meeting agenda to include:
Rosenburg/Wurmbrand
1574 NW 190th Street
Project: Remodel/Addition
TREASURER, Jennifer Mace –
At the close of March, our Operating Checking was $222,752, Collections Savings was $10,174, and the Asset Reserves Savings was $441,186.
CLUBHOUSE, Mary Ruhlman –
There were no rentals in the month of March. For the month of April, we have four rentals: two of which are sponsored by the Activities Committee.
If you have questions about renting the clubhouse, please contact Cheryl Malone at 206-542-5558 or communications@innisarden.org.
NATURAL RESERVES, Steve Johnston –
Invasive Control
Spring Planting is underway. Invasive control is too.
Trail Maintenance
Some graveling was spread on needy trail sections. Weed whacking has begun.
Debris and an old chain link fence were removed from the top of Bear Reserve
Eagle Reserve/Storm Creek Project
City design engineers are to begin actual work onsite in 1 week on Storm Creek project. They have submitted the access forms our protocol requires.
Blue Heron Broken Pipe and Erosion
The City Surface water lead engineer is arranging a meeting with the Board and affected neighbors concerning the broken concrete drainage pipe which is causing erosion off 15th Ave NW in Blue Heron.
ACTIVITIES, Maggie Taber –
Save the Dates:
2022 Rummage Sale on hold due to covid
Egg Scramble – Saturday, April 16, 10AM-12PM
Nature Event – Sunday, April 24th – Arbor Day, 12PM-2PM
Petanque Night with the Edmonds Petanque Club – TBD June
Salmon BBQ – Wednesday, July 20th, 5PM-8PM
4Corners Brewfest – TBD August
Overnight Family Camp Out – Saturday, August 27th
Wine Tasting – Thursday, September 8th
We are looking for 8 volunteers to host individual tables & games at the Egg Scramble. Each table is a station with a children’s activity to gather an egg with a hidden surprise. Other activities include a Scavenger hunt and bean toss. Contact Mike Konopinski with questions or to volunteer.
The Nature Discovery Event in the Innis Arden Reserves is coming up on Sunday, April 24th. The Discovery Tour will be Noon-3pm. A Botanical Bonus – Plant Expert, Arthur Lee Jacobson will be available from 2-3pm to answer your plant questions. We are looking for additional volunteers to help as trail guides. Contact Brian Branagan and Rissa Sanchez with questions.
Activities will be sending out an email requesting info so we can recognize the 2022 high school and college graduates.
Our next meeting: Monday, May 2nd, 7 PM at the clubhouse. Please join us and check out what Activities is all about!
Meeting was adjourned at 7:35pm.
If you are new or have changed your phone number and/or email address, please email updates to communications@innisarden.org and be sure to include your address!