Common Area and Trails

It came to the attention of our Board of Directors that some tree trimming and removal was to be conducted on the city trail adjacent and behind Lynwood Drive. You may not be aware that the trail in this area is was deeded to the city by the association when Encinitas Ranch was developed and the city has been and is responsible for all maintenance of the trial in this area. It was done so because the city felt very strongly about the trees, the trail and having control over their maintenance. They wanted to maintain the overall atmosphere of what had been originally developed.

All of us on the board are very strong advocates of the adjoining trails in our community. As stewards of the community we hear constantly from both homeowners who reside within Encinitas Ranch as well as from neighbors about the beauty of the trails and the trees. They are one of the major draws to our community. The trees have a long and storied history that merits close monitoring and preservation. When the community was originally designed, the city Planning Department mandated that the treees along this trail remain in place for aesthetic and historical reasons.

We have known since the early part of December that some work was to take place. In fact, the president and another board member specifically met with Chris Hazeltine, the city Director of Parks and Recreation on this very matter on December 3rd and at that time the board was told that only about three trees needed to be removed.

Signs were posted at entrances to this trail last week indicated the specific details of the tree removal and trimming plan. The details of the plan include removing 24 Eucalyptus and 2 Torrey Pines. Since the plan had changed significantly from what was originally communicated and seemed to be overly aggressive in terms of tree removal the president scheduled a meeting with Chris Hazeltine and Phil Cotton, the City Manager, to discuss our concerns. The president and another board member met with them last Thursday afternoon and walked the Lynwood trail back and forth. It was a good substantive discussion. I think that the board learned a lot as did they. None of us are arborists so, it was not perfectly clear why particular trees were marked to be removed. Neither the city nor the homeowners association want or like to see trees removed. However, we all understand that health and safety are of paramount concern and have to be taken into account in designing the appropriate tree removal and trimming plan. It is a fine balance between health, safety and aesthetics.

The city will also be trimming trees to remove branches that are attached to trees below the six foot level and also removing branches between trees where they are closely located together.

The board does not necessarily accept or agree with all aspects of the proposed plan but, we do understand it. We do agree that the city has the right and obligation to maintain the trees and that it should be done so in a very prudent and conservative manner. In general, trees that are marked to be removed were done for fire safety (too close to structures or other trees), safety related to structural defects (leaning, unbalanced structure or forked main branches that could case the tree to fall causing property or personal injury) or for health reasons (crowding, rot, disease or dead). Although we are not expert arborists we feel that the city has taken an aggressive approach in evaluating trees for removal.

The board made a request to the city to take a more conservative approach and not remove trees with minor problems. The city agreed to have Mike Wells, their lead arborist, and his team take another close look at each tree and see if they must remove them.

They also indicated that they will replant trees at a ratio somewhere between 1:1 and 2:1. Their philosophy in the past has been to replace two trees for each one they remove but, budget constrains may moderate that philosophy a bit. They will work with our landscaping team as soon as time permits to agree on the right species and locations. We will likely prioritize replanting trees particularly in those areas where they currently are no trees. There are at least three or four areas like that.

We welcome feedback and comments. You are free to express your own personal concerns to the city and Chris Hazeltine at chazeltine@ci.encinitas.ca.us.

Crime Prevention - Monthly Neighbor Watch Newsletter

Here is a copy of the most recent Neighborhood Watch Monthly Newsletter- September 2009 edition. I suggest that you print off and read. This is produced monthly by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

http://encinitasranch.org/nc_sept09.pdf

Fire Sprinklers

Several residents on Ranch Road have had trouble with the releasevalue on the fire sprinkler system. This valve is set to release at180psi, to prevent overpressure from entering the system and causingwater damage to the inside of the house. After several years, thevalve may fail and begin to dump water outside the garage at a drainpipe. In one case, a sudden increase in water pressure caused thevalve to partly trip and made a very loud continuous squeal that theowner mistook for an alarm. The pressure on Ranch Road isparticularly high, much higher than necessary to run the firesprinklers. The correct fix to this problem is to regulate theincoming pressure just like is done for the drinking water enteringthe home. There is no building code that requires such a regulator,so our builder did not install them. If a number of residentsinstall from the same provider, a reduction in cost may be possible.Todd at Symons Fire Protection Inc is very fair and was the originalinstaller at Ranch Road. His company can be reached at619-588-6364, see http://www.symonsfp.com/aboutus.html

Architectural Improvements

I have posted a blog on the topic of architectural improvements. This would include discussions on items related to landscaping, painting and other related architectural improvements in the community.

Traffic Control and Speeding

Speeding through many parts of the community particularly in the South Mesa (those streets that can be accessed from either Paseo de las Flores or Paseo de las Verdes) continues to be a problem. All homeowners need to be aware and reminded that the speed limit in the community is 20 MPH. We have many children in the community and everyone needs to exercise caution with their vehicles.

In the past few years, we have taken a number of steps to focus on this area:
1. In 2007 we hired a professional traffic engineer to conduct a thorough assessment of our entire community and provide us with a number of recommendations.
2. Many of these recommendations have been already implemented. These include adding numerous STOP signs at various intersections including the folllowing:
A. Cascadia and Paloma Court
B. Paseo de las Verdes and Cypress Hills Drive
C. Samuel Court, Shasta Drive and Cypress Hills Drive
D. Paloma Court and Cypress Hills Drive
3. We have added small 20 MPH signs on many streets in the middle islands
4. We have hired a security company to conduct speed enforcement on the private streets and we are tracking vehicles that are speeding well in excesss of 20 MPH. We may call those individuals who appear to be chronic violators to a Due Process Hearing where they could receive a fine.
5. We have explored use of speed bumps but the traffic engineer opposed this approach and the City of Encinitas is also opposed. Few if any homeowners want speed bumps in front of their own house and they can create considerable noise as well as cause accidents by forcing cars to veer off the street into a yard or house.
6. We have attempted to add a four way STOP at the intersection of Paseo de las Flores and Cypress Hills. However, that intersection is owned by the city and they are opposed to a four way STOP there. We requested that the city approve these STOP signs in 2008 through the Traffic Commission. It was approved by the commission but denied by the City Council who is asked to approve every four way STOP in the city. We are pursuing other options to address the need for STOP signs at this intersection and will keep you posted on our progress.

We welcome other ideas.

Crime Prevention

Recently several homeowners expresssed concern over crimes that have occurred in our community. I scheduled and held a meeting with Heather Clark, who is one of two crime prevention specialists in the local Encintas branch of the San Diego Sheriff's Department on August 18th.

Here is the key points from the meeting:
1. Heather had been kind enough to have one of their crime analysts develop a report of crimes in the South Mesa. She was not quite sure of the boundaries of our community but I had brought with me a copy of our community map that I left with her. I have attached a copy of the crime report for the South Mesa for your review. She is going to get the crime analyst to re-run the report to include neighbors like Devonshire and those north of Leucadia Boulevard.

2. There have been 23 incidents in the past two years. She indicated that 75 - 80% of these are quite preventable by having homeowners close garage doors, lock cars, lock house doors and keep valuables out of plain sight. Residential burglary is the most serious crime we have encountered and there have been three instances of those this year. She offered us some background on each. Having real data can help with potential mis-information that may be spreading about this subject. She felt that the crime rate was not that high but it is hard to make comparisons.

3. She offered to hold a 'town hall' type of meeting where she would come and present and the homeowners can ask questions to her. We are in the process of determining how many homeowners are interested in attending such a meeting so we can schedule a date and proper venue.

4. Heather creates and distributes a monthly newsletter on crime prevention that she started in May. We will post these on our Encinitas Ranch HOA website: at .http://www.encinitasranch.org/index.html.
We are very interested in finding someone in the community to serve as a Neighbor Watch coordinator. This individual will serve as the liaison to the Sheriff's office and receve the newsletters. These coordinators also meet periodically with other neighborhood watch coordinators and the Sheriff's department. Let me know if you or a neighbor is interested in serving in this capacity.

5. The crime prevention unit offers free residential security consultations where they go out to a house and do a free inspection and tell the homeowner about any potential issues they may have. I received a number of flyers and brochures from the sheriff's office on crime prevention. Let me know if you are interested in any of these.

6. Heather also gave us two web sites that can be used to look up crime statistics; http://www.arjis.com/ and http://www.sdsheriff.net/