Board Meeting Minutes

Chinquapin Homeowners Association

Saturday, November 13, 2021, 9:30 AM

Carriage House, Chinquapin

3600 North Lake Blvd - Tahoe City, CA 96145

Directors Present
Steve Giacomi, President
Terry Sarvas, Vice President
Chuck Lanham, Secretary
Carl Bertelsen
Anthony Miles
Haley Packard

Directors Present (by phone)
Annie Mitchell, Treasurer

Staff Present
Mitch Packard, General Manager
Aidan Miles, WMC

Homeowners Present
None

Homeowners Present (by phone)
Robin Kelly, #162
Lisa Kelley #33
Colleen Crowley, #51
Alf Merriweather, prospective owner, #112

9:30  -  Call to Order and Welcoming Remarks
Approval of the meeting minutes of the 09/04/2021 Board Meeting and the 09/04/2021 Executive Meeting.

Motion to approve the meeting minutes passed unanimously

Open Session  -  Homeowners
Colleen Crowley, Unit #51, has had trouble finding past board meeting minutes on the association’s website.  Haley Packard will follow up with Colleen, the minutes are posted but sometimes are hard to find due to the ordering on the website.  Haley will also research if the website presentation of these minutes can be improved.

Robin Kelly, Unit #162, had a recent incident with a contractor’s dog that was off lease and injured her dog.  She also reviewed incidents she has had with an owner’s dog that is allowed to run off leash near their unit and an owner’s guest that had a dog off leash.  She requested regular reminders about leash requirements be sent to owners, violators should be contacted by the GM and fines should be levied.  The GM has been contacting each violator at the time of reported incidents and the Board will continue to review HOA policies and their implementation along with periodic reminders to the HOA ownership.

Alf Merriweather, Unit #112, had questions about how the replacement cost of the building shells which are covered by the HOA Master Insurance Policy are arrived at. This was addressed during the Insurance Committee report.  In regard to the dog policy, he also suggested that renters be reminded of the HOA no dog policy for renters at the time that they make a reservation.

President’s Report  -  Steve Giacomi
In addition to the discussion on dogs during the Homeowners session, the HOA has relaxed the rule for contractor’s having dogs onsite in the interest of homeowners being able to get contractors to work in a very tight construction market.  Contractors can have dogs onsite but they must be in the unit, in the contractor’s work vehicle or they must be on leash at all times.  One strike rule, any violation and the contractor will be required to remove the dog from the site.

The March 19th, 2022 regular board meeting has been rescheduled to March 12, 2022.

Yesterday the new committees for the Dollar House Remodel and Firewise met.

Committee and Staff Reports

Architectural Review Committee  -  Haley Packard
Unit #154, gas line change, fast track was approved at its meeting on 11/12/2021.

Unit #11, second proposal was approved pending an engineering report at its meeting on 11/12/2021.

Unit #162, proposed window insert on the side of the building to match the neighbors window was approved at the ARC meeting on 11/12/2021 pending a redraw and engineer report.

Motion to approve the ARC recommendations was approved unanimously

Homeowners Relations  -  Haley Packard
The second quarterly homeowners newsletter will be going out before Thanksgiving and will include a reminder on the dog leash rules.

The Chinquapin 50th Anniversary celebration has  been moved to July or August of 2022, planning to invite Don Williams, the original developer of Chinquapin to speak.

Building Committee  -  Carl Bertelsen
Fall painting is complete and several decks have been completed.  The beach bathroom painting is complete which completes the bathroom remodel project.

The designer for the Dollar House remodel will be doing a site inspection today.

Jon Valdez of The Genesis Group gave a detailed presentation of a conceptual Spa Project that would be located between the Tennis office and the Bocce Court.  The presentation gave multiple options that can be added or deleted as desired.  The Spa Project committee will review and provide the Board with recommendations.  This project is to be funded by volunteer donations.

Grounds Committee  -  Terry Sarvas
Reviewed some of the recommendations from the Firewise Risk Assessment that was conducted on Friday.  Will focus on the defensible space requirements around buildings in the 0 - 5 ft, 5 -30 ft and 30 - 100 ft defined areas.  Tree limbing will increase from 10ft to 15ft and will focus on clearing brush and shrubs near buildings, decreasing shrub height and checker boarding shrubs. 

A fuel reduction project is set for early December to masticate approximately one and a half acres behind Buildings 9 - 20.  WMC is doing small tree and brush removal.

The site irrigation system has been shut down for the winter.  Buoy removal has been delayed due to weather but based on new information the buoys will not need to be removed and the chains dropped to the lake floor each fall due to California Fish & Game concerns on the disruption to fish habitat and so buoys will remain installed year round.

Jeremiah Tree Service will be removing some crane trees over units 94 -97 starting the week of 11/22/21.  TRPA has marked additional trees for spring removal.  WMC crew will continue to remove brush site wide.

The Board wants to remind all homeowners that any trees that are removed on site are marked by the TRPA forester based on the health of the tree and recommendations from North Tahoe Fire Protection District for defensible space requirements along with Placer County code requirements, please don’t interfere with the contractor crews that are doing this work.

WMC will be working on the beach path and shore zone to clear kayaks, inflatables and miscellaneous shore debris.  Additional retaining wall work will be done along the beach path.  Snow removal is ready to go, stakes are in and the tractor/snow blower has been repaired.

The Lift Station project with removal of the existing pumps and replacing with a self contained modular unit is scheduled for the first week of December with Tim Longo Construction.  Existing utility lines in the area have been marked. Waiting for additional fittings from the manufacturer for some tank modifications that will be done onsite.  Will be notifying the affected homeowners prior to the installation which will require a four day water shutoff.  With the water shutoff will be able to pump down approximately 600 ft of incoming sewer line  and perform camera inspections that are not normally accessible.

The final version of the CA State Lands Lease for the piers and buoy field was received last week.  The first draft quoted $54k and was reduced by $11k in the final version to $43k.  This lease will run for the next ten years.

Insurance Committee  -  Anthony Miles
The HOA Master Insurance policy is currently projected to renew 12/15/2021 at $1.125M.

Motion was made and unanimously approved to accept the renewal premium up to $1.2 M.

The current Master Policy coverage amount of $75M is based on best guess estimates for the current rebuilding cost for the building shells.  This amount was reviewed by the HOA’s Brokers and their Underwriters as an adequate amount based on current costs.

Pool, Racquet Sports and Bocce Committee  -  Chuck Lanham
Sierra Woodwork will be starting on repairs to the fence on the west end of the pool  and around the children’s play area.  Meeting with the GM and WMC this coming week to inspect tennis courts 1 - 3 to determine if they can be resurfaced or if the asphalt needs to be removed and replaced.  Will be getting bids shortly for the Board to review at the January meeting so that the work can be scheduled for late spring or summer.

Firewise Committee  -  Chuck Lanham
Defensible Space Inspectors from North Tahoe Fire Protection District conducted the on-site inspection portion of the Firewise Risk Assessment.  The site walk around provided a great deal of information for improving the defensible space around the site buildings and also for decreasing fuel loads on the property.  The District will complete the Risk Assessment and then forward to the Firewise Committee to formulate a three year action plan.

Treasurer’s Report  -  Annie Mitchell
As of November 1, 2021, we have

  • $669,307.23 cash in Operating Fund at Bank of West

  • 1.18M in Reserve Fund. ($916,279.00 Schwab and $263,674.15 at Plumas.)

We are currently within budget and operating under calendar cycle.

Delinquencies: only 1 past due owner

Financial Statements for August and September were approved by the Financial Committee.  Motion to approve passed unanimously. 

MOTION
The Association’s replacement reserves are currently less than 25% funded.  The Association’s goal is to increase the funding of replacement reserves over time from regular quarterly assessments rather than from special assessments.  After review of our 2021 estimated actual results, it appears that there will be an estimated surplus for 2021 of $175,000 after making the 2021 budgeted allocation of dues to the replacement reserve fund.

Motion to amend the 2021 budget by increasing the dues allocated to the replacement fund by $175,000.  The amended 2021 budget will be included in the mailing of the 2022 budget package.  The board instructs the treasurer to make the cash transfer prior to December 31, 2021. Motion approved unanimously. 

Budget Review

Reviewed the 2022 budget

Motion to approve the budget as presented.  Motion was approved unanimously.

Motion to approve a 16% increase in dues and set the quarterly assessment at $4,350 per unit.  Motion was approved unanimously.

General Manager Report  -  Mitch Packard
In addition to items reported in the committee reports, the Browning Reserve Study that was to be done this year will not be completed until next year.  Browning has reduced their fee by $1k due to the delay.

WMC Report  -  Aidan Miles
Chimney inspections and sweeps of the wood burning fireplaces are complete.  The contractor will be submitting a full report.  Fall unit inspections are approximately 20% complete which include replacing furnace filters, checking furnace operation, freeze alert checks and replacing smoke detectors as needed.

Deck replacement on unit #28 is complete.  New railings for the path way to units 164/165 will be started shortly.  Some minor dry rot in unit #74 will be repaired.  With the heavy rain in late October have had a couple of minor roof leaks. 

1:45 PM  -   President Giacomi adjourned the meeting and moved to executive session.

Architectural Review Committee Meeting Dates

Members may submit their improvement projects for the meetings listed below. Please see the Architectural Review Committee (ARC) Chinquapin Homeowners Checklist for Approval for pertinent information about ARC submittals.

All meetings are held at the Chinquapin Carriage House unless otherwise specified. Members will be able to call in to attend.

ARC meeting schedule

Friday, November 10th 2023 | 9:30 am 

Friday, January 19th, 2024 | 9:30 am 

Friday, March 22nd, 2024 | 9:30 am

Friday, May 24th, 2024 | 9:30 am

Friday, July 12th, 2024 | 9:30 am 

Friday, August 30th, 2024 | 9:30 am