Nearly six month ago Landscape Maintenance District (LMD) issues were brought to the attention of the West Ranch Town Council. The issues included deteriorating landscape conditions, broken sprinklers, dead or dying vegetation, among others, on the common areas and slopes in the Sunset Pointe sub-division of West Ranch.

When these problems were brought to light the Town Council formed a committee tasked with gathering information on the extent of the problems and formulating a long term solution. The committee was made up of Sunset Pointe residents and chaired by Chuck O’Connell, the Sunset Pointe liaison to the West Ranch Town Council. The committee met regularly with LMD and County representatives, including Rosalind Wayman, Senior Deputy to Supervisor Antonovich.

The committee Chair reported back to the Town Council at the monthly council meetings regarding the progress in rectifying the situation. At the regular September Town Council meeting, the committee requested that the Council send a letter to Supervisor Antonovich outlining the issues and the recommended solutions. The recommendations included the County baring a portion of the financial responsibility.

At last night’s, Wednesday October 3^rd, West Ranch Town Council meeting Chuck O’Connell announced that the County would commit $681,000 to help remedy the LMD deficiencies in Sunset Pointe. Mr. O’Connell went on to state that thanks Supervisor Antonovich and his staff, especially Field Deputy Rosalind Wayman that the landscaping issues were going to be rectified quickly. Committee members were exceedingly pleased with the County’s financial participation.

Town council members praised Chuck O’Connell, Committee members and Field Deputy Rosalind Wayman for their outstanding commitment to resolving this matter. All received a round of applause by those present.

The following is the complete letter that was send to the Supervisor on September 12, 2007:

Re: Sunset Pointe LMD Issues

Dear Supervisor Antonovich,

I am writing to you on behalf of the entire West Ranch Town Council regarding a horrific Landscape Maintenance District (LMD) matter that came to light a number of months ago. It appears that the LMD and residents of Sunset Pointe allowed the landscaping on the slopes and common areas around the neighborhood to decline for many years.

The crux of the issue is that as maintenance costs continued to rise each year and the LMD fees remained constant. This resulted in the reduction of landscape services to the community and the deterioration of the landscaping year over year. That coupled with the inequitable distribution of the annual fees between the residents of Sunset Pointe and the businesses that share the slopes along The Old Road has produced a situation that needs an immediate long term solution.

When this matter first came to light the West Ranch Town Council formed a committee made up of Sunset Pointe residents to investigate this matter with your Field Deputy Rosalind Wayman. The committee is chaired by the Sunset Pointe liaison to the West Ranch Town Council Chuck O’Connell. Mr. O’Connell, along with the committee, has diligently pursued this matter by working with various County representatives and has updated the Town Council monthly.

The updates revealed that there have been encroachments by a number of residents into common areas that have easements to the LMD. These included pools, pool decking material extending into slope areas; several residents usurping water off of LMD irrigation lines; gazebos and other structures erected on easement property.

Based on those updates, the West Ranch Town Council has come to the conclusion that culpability for the severe LMD situation in Sunset Pointe lies squarely with the County, the homeowners and the businesses along The Old Road. Most importantly, the County LMD mismanaged this particular landscape district so poorly that it will take hundreds of thousands of dollars to just bring it back to a basic level of standard.

It should also be noted that the Sunset Pointe residents have never had an HOA in place which would have acted as a check mechanism. The result was that there was no entity neither reviewing the LMD services nor determining that annual fees needed to keep pace with rising costs. Also, the businesses along The Old Road that share slopes with the community appear to be paying a disproportionately lower fee compared to what would be considered fare and appropriate.

From our perspective the Council feels that:

1) The residents of Sunset Pointe would probably need a onetime special assessment and their annual fees adjusted. The fee adjustment would also need some sort of annual inflation increase component included so that this situation does not repeat.

2) The businesses along The Old Road that share common areas and slopes with Sunset Pointe must pay a fair share of maintenance costs. This would mean that a fair and equitable increase be made in the LMD fees that those businesses are currently paying.

3) We would request that the County expedite investigating and resolving the cases of encroachment into the common property and ensure that preventative measures are put into place to prevent these issues in the future.

4) Finally, the County LMD needs to take responsibility for not managing this district properly. What that means to the community is that the County must bare part of the financial burden in order to remedy this situation.

We trust that Field Deputy Wayman will be able to further elaborate on the details of this matter and clarify any points that may still be partially opaque. It is our desire to see that this matter reaches a fair and evenhanded solution in the very near future.

Should you have any questions or wish to personally discuss this matter with me please do not hesitate to call me. Thank you in advance for your time on this important community matter.

Sincerely,David A. Bossert                                                                                                                     President, West Ranch Town CouncilCC: West Ranch Town  Council                                                                                                                  Chuck O’Connell, Sunset Pointe Liaison                                                                                     Rosalind Wayman, 5^th District Field Deputy