Cinnamon Woods Homes Association, Inc

Cinnamon Woods Homes Association, Inc.

Board Of Directors Meeting Minutes

January 21st 2010

18400 Cinnamon Drive

Germantown, MD20874

Attendees: Jim Oltmann, Rick Blanton, Steve Traylor, Ron Komara, Leighton Meek, Ben Nerud, Kenya SmithMary Inniss

Jim Oltmann, President called the meeting to order at 7:35pm.

1.) Presentation on Redevelopment Plans for GermantownPark

Jim Oltmann opened the meeting by introducing CindyBar of Holland & Knight andDavid Fink of Finmarc Management, Inc. He stated that the Board of Directors had met with them last week and invited them to attend the meeting to share the revised plans with the community and answer any questions. Also in attendance with them was Kevin Foster, Land Planner for the project. David Fink introduced himself as one of the principle owners of Finmarc Management, owners of the shopping center. He stated that they were a MontgomeryCounty based company with many developments in and around the area. He stated that when they purchased the property in 2005, they purchased it with the intent to expand the center. He stated that they have faced several challenges in accomplishing that. He stated that there is no frontage to the center from Clopper Road. He also stated that it was not viable as a grocery store anchored center because of the numerous grocers in close proximity. He stated that they had invited several large chain stores to the center, but none were interested, including Food Lion and Trader Joes. He stated that they considered other uses for the site including office space and warehouse space. They found that those options were not viable either, so they looked to residential. They met with a number of developers and found several national homebuilders who were interested. He projected that adding a quality new home development would potentially increase the value of the surrounding homes. He stated that they had done everything they could to save the shopping center. The Grand Mart store operator was losing money on this site and turned it over to another person. Several months of rent were forgiven in an attempt to convince the Grand Mart to stay but that did not work. The new tenant is delinquent now. There is another tenant in the center who is nine months delinquent in rent. He does not want to let the center site vacant. Potential developers would be looking to build now and not wait for the market to turn. If this redevelopment application did not pass, then they would have to wait 3 years to re-apply. The center would potentially sit vacant should that happen.

Kevin Foster spoke about the layout of the plan, using a map of the potential community. He described the types of homes, the use of the green space, the parking and vehicle movements through the community. He stated that the community would average about 4 spaces per home, slightly higher than both Stoneridge and CWHA.

A homeowner in attendance asked if there were any plans to expand Clopper road to handle the additional traffic that the community would bring. Edgar Morris introduced himself as the Traffic Advisor with the firm who completed the traffic study for the community. He stated that based on their study of the area and including all approved projects, the impact of the current project would be less than if the center were viable in its current use. He stated that there were two entrances to the community on Mateny and one on Cinnamon. By eliminating the entrance directly onto Clopper Road, it pushes the majority of the traffic onto Mateny Road where the light is. Another homeowner stated that it was already difficult to enter Clopper Road from Cinnamon Drive now. Edgar stated that the majority of the traffic from the community would be pushed to the two Mateny exits because of the layout of the community. Only 30 homes of the 105 potential will have direct access to the Cinnamon Drive exit. Leighton Meek and Rick Blanton added that the traffic along Clopper was difficult anyway and that by removing the existing entrance to Clopper would be a benefit. Group discussions continued. Jim Oltmann offered that the Shopping Center was going to be boarded up any way and asked did we want to live next to an abandoned center. Leighton Meek added that the empty center would become a potential for crime. David Fink stated that every traffic study they had done showed a minimal effect.

Ron Komara asked how the homes would be deeded and would there be an HOA. CindyBar stated that they would be fee simple and would have an HOA.

Another homeowner in attendance asked what the price range would be for the homes. David Fink stated that while he did not set the pricing, he anticipated it to be in the mid-$300,000’s. The homebuilder would determine the pricing. The homeowner also asked about construction damage to Cinnamon Drive as the project was being built. Leighton Meek interjected that construction would build their own roads to prevent damage. Leighton stated that he was speaking from experience because he works in construction.

Another question from the audience was how the project would affect the local schools. CindyBar stated that she thought it would add 14 elementary school aged children, 14 middle school and less than that at the high school level. She also stated that the county had just approved funding for the Northwest cluster of which the affected schools were a part of.

An additional question was whether a crosswalk or crossing light would be added a Cinnamon and Clopper Road. The answer was that was a county/state issue.

It was asked if the site would be graded down to street level. The answer was that it would be graded down in some areas to meet the existing roads.

What kind of border would there be between the new project and CWHA? There will be trees and landscaping in some areas, but a wrought-iron fence would be the primary border about 30 feet from the townhomes.

This revised redevelopment plan reduced the density from 112 homes to 105 homes and if approved cannot be changed.

After all questions, Jim Oltmann stated that the Board of Directors had met with the redevelopment group during the prior week and the BoD would like to offer the support of the community for the project. The BoD felt the project would be beneficial. He stated that they wanted the feedback of those in attendance as to how they felt about supporting the project. The BoD feels like it will be a win-win for the community and the development will increase property values. The homeowners in attendance did not give resistance to supporting the redevelopment plans.

2.)Approval of Minutes

All in BoD attendance agreed December 2009 Minutes were tabled until the next meeting.

3.)Crime Initiative Update

Chuck Martinez was not in attendance to present at this meeting.

4.)Architectural Review Committee Report

Leighton Meek stated that there were no ARC requests for this period. There was a question from the audience about window replacement and whether an ARC request is necessary. Leighton stated that it was safer to put it in writing and have it approved.

5.)Treasurer’s Report

Presented by Steve Traylor, the financial reports are attached. We have two-thirds of the money for the renovations project set aside. He stated that delinquency was still high, but that they started 2009 with about 45% of the community behind in assessments, and it was now down to about 31%. This year we collected about $30,000 more than we budgeted to collect due to increased collection efforts on past due assessments. He stated that we opted to go with sheriff sale on delinquent homes as opposed to a standard foreclosure due to the increased cost, the timeline and to allow homeowners a better opportunity to save their homes up to the time of the sale. An audience member asked how long the auction after foreclosure process was. Steve stated that it depended the courts and the parties involved, but he guessed two to three months. He stated that he anticipated as many as 77 homes could potentially be foreclosed on by CWHA based on the number of delinquent accounts.

Jim and Kenya added that there were 4 homes that had sold this week that 3 of the 4 were rentals. Discussions continued on lowered property values and concerns about an increased number of rentals.

Rick Blanton stated that while he was originally opposed to the development plan for the shopping center, but that he had changed his mind because the center was failing. He stated that it would be boarded up and would be a haven for crime. Because it is located at the entrance to our community, people passing by and coming into the community would have a negative impression. He also stated that the new development would increase our property values and help prevent the large number of investors. He said that the rental properties changed the environment of the community and increased crime.

Back to the finances, Steve stated that we had saved $230,000 to the reserve account in 2009 and he is hopeful that we would be able to again in 2010.

Jim asked that everyone make sure their contact info and email addresses are updated with the office as it is an important means of communicating important info to the community.

6.)Operating Reports

Kenya Smith presented the Management and grounds reports. She added to Jim’s statement about updating contact info and explained to everyone how to update their info on the CWHA website.

She stated that the focus for the past 30 days had been the compiling info and surveys for the county to partner with the community to assist homeowners during the renovations program by paying for their siding. She stated that they were targeting Curry Powder, Mustard Seed and Thyme Courts currently. We have to compile new scopes of work and obtain bids.

Bill Davis asked why we changed the renovations schedule of the order of the courts to be done. Jim answered that the courts for this year were chosen based on those that had the best chance of homes qualifying for the county assistance. Steve added that they were chosen with the county based on the least percentage of rentals within the court based on rental info prided by the county rental license records.

7.)Open Forum

Complements from the audience that the trash program was doing well on Mustard Seed Court and it was looking better.

Several homeowners commented that John O’Meara did a great job on the snow removal.

A new homeowner in attendance asked for clarification on the parking policy. His major issue was the start time of 6pm for the towing. Jim stated that originally towing was all day, but realtors and other people doing business were towed. They decided to change it to 6pm because that is when people begin to come home from work. Rick added that while you are technically allowed to have three cars with a permit plus one visitor, there are less than two spaces per home and there are a varied number of spaces per court. Some courts have abundant parking while others have little to no extra parking. Rick offered if there was anyone with a better idea to bring it to the BoD. Everyone spent a lot of time developing this policy and while it was not perfect, it was the best thus far.

8.)Old Business

There was no old business.

9.)New Business

• Kenya stated that the Montgomery county Police asked to use the community center as drop-in site once the shopping center closed. All on the BoD in attendance felt it was a good idea.

Jim Oltmann adjourned the meeting at 9:00pm.