The meeting was called to order at 7:02 PM by Cynthia Esselman. Board members in attendance: Cynthia Esselman, Omar Nur, Bruce Vincent, Steve Johnston, Jason Barth, David Fosmire,
Jennifer Mace and Maggie Taber.
PRESIDENT, Cindy Esselman –
Since masks mandates will be lifted soon, we will be reviewing when to resume in person Board
Meetings. We will keep everyone posted when they will begin.
Vice President/ Legal Affairs, Report Omar Nur –
HB-1660 is Dead
As you may recall, HB1660 was a bill proposing to do away with single family residence zoning
and force existing HOA’s to allow accessory dwelling units (ADU’s). After employing our
government affairs counsel, Dylan Doty to help advocate on behalf of Innis Arden, we were
successfully able to get to get an amendment to HB1660 grandfathering in existing HOA. The
bill passed in the house with this amendment and went to the Senate. While in the Senate, a
number of Senators proposed additional amendments to the bill which ultimately resulted in the
bill not being brought to the floor for a vote. The bill is dead.
Other good news from this episode, we made good connections with our local representatives
and really showed them that our voice matters. Should something like this come up again next
year, we anticipate being in a strong position to address any challenges.
Swim Club Lease
Between many competing interests, we were unable to get to the lease agreement with the Innis
Arden Swim Club (IASC) revised last year. Therefore, Cindy and I began working on gathering
the relevant documents to get to our counsel for review and advice on how to proceed with
revisions to ensure that IAC is not over exposed and properly protected in our working
relationship with the IASC. In addition to revising the lease agreement, the Board is also
reviewing the IASC financials to ensure they are keeping up with loan payments and maintaining
financial viability. So far, the financials look good but we will be doing a more in depth review of
the IASC financials.
In meetings with the IASC board, they are committed to working with the IAC to modify and
revise the lease agreement as needed. IASC has been very forthcoming in providing us with the
documents and records we need to proceed with that. IASC asked for our blessings to move
forward with another year of summer and winter operations, allowing IASC to contact with
Shorewood to use the pool.
The following motion was made seconded and unanimously approved.
Approve the Swim Club to operate a year-round program for 2022/2223 and allow Shorewood
High School, use of the pool.
The board will consult with counsel on whether the decision to enter a loan guarantee on behalf
of IASC was in compliance with the Nonprofit Corporation Act. Documents are available to
view upon request of IA owners and residents.
COMPLIANCE, Bruce Vincent, Acting Chair–
EXECUTIVE SESSION MOTION
The following motion was made, seconded, and passed unanimously by the Board.
“I move to hold one, or two, Executive Sessions in the month of March & early April to discuss ongoing IASC lease amendments and revisions, and outstanding view compliance issues.”
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 neighbors views of the sound and mountains.
There are 12 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.
*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): 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 McHugh’s and is following up on a Board site visit & discussion. The Compliance Committee hopes to gain the full cooperation of the owners.
*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, and perhaps other board members will meet with the Shen’s directly to discuss onsite.
*1250 NW 175th St. (Sullivan): A CRF was received on 8/10/2020 for this property. The Board has yet to schedule a site visit with the owners to directly discuss the potentially view blocking vegetation noted in photo support.
*1213 NW 175th St. (Glascock): A CRF was received on 8/10/2020 for this property. The owner has been contacted by the Board and is cooperatively working on full compliance.
*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.
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 neighbors’ 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 will help 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 February, 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 uniform 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
• 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: -pending-
• 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 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 a 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 –
March Agenda:
Aric Christal – Solar Panels
Brian Liem – Sky Light Revision
TREASURER, Jennifer Mace –
At the close of February, our Operating Checking was $ 168,643, Collections Savings was $10,174, and the Asset Reserves Savings was $441,183.
CLUBHOUSE, Mary Ruhlman –
There were no rentals in the month of February and we do not have anything scheduled until April.
If you have questions about renting the clubhouse, please contact Cheryl Malone at 206-542-5558 or communications@innisarden.org.
NATURAL RESERVES, Steve Johnston –
Trail Maintenance
Handrails were fixed, gravel spread on the trails as needed, cleanup started at the top of Bear Reserve to remove and old chain link fence and dumped laurel trimmings, and mud was cleaned up west of the Ronald Sewer bridge on the maintenance trail boardwalk where a minor dirt slough-off occurred a few feet down the trail.
Native Plants and Invasive Control
Our native plant crew has been working this month in Blue Heron, planting a variety of new plants and cutting back Blackberry cane.
Fallen Tree in Blue Heron
A large multi-stemmed Alder fell onto the trail in mid Blue Heron. Luckily no one was injured. The tree was cut away from the trail the same day. This tree is one of several hazardous trees reported to the City 7 weeks ago. So far, no response.
Broken City Drainage Pipe
On 15th Ave NW at the dead-end adjacent to Blue Heron a concrete City surface water drainage pipe has broken and is causing damage to property due to erosion. We have been attempting to get action from the City to fix it before further damage occurs.
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
Salmon BBQ – Wednesday, July 20th, 5PM-8PM
Overnight Family Camp Out – Saturday, August 27th
Wine Tasting – Thursday, September 8th
We are looking for some volunteers to host individual tables & games at the Egg Scramble. Please contact Mike Konopinski with questions.
Next meeting: Monday, April 4th, 7PM at the clubhouse
Meeting was adjourned at 8:05pm.
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!