Guilford Association Board-March 2012 Meeting Minutes

Guilford Association Board-March 2012 Meeting Minutes

March 14, 2012

7:00 PM

Westcott Room, Second Presbyterian Church

Board Members Present: Bruce Barnett, Cathy Boyne, Elizabeth Comer, Heather Fones, Howard Friedel, Ann Giroux, Tom Hobbs, Jeremy Hoffman, Geoff Lord, Larry La Motte, Lynda Riley, Bernie Shutty, Dee Smith, Tim Chriss, Peter Smith, Ann Tyler and Sharon Smith

Board Members Absent: Margaret Alton and Felix Dawson

Presiding: Tom Hobbs, Guilford Association President, welcomed attendees and called the meeting to order.

Howard Friedel made a motion to accept the minutes of the December Board Meeting. Ann Giroux seconded the motion.

Tom Hobbs indicated the need through Board adopted resolution to notify the State of a change in the principal office and the resident agent for both the Guilford Association, Inc. and Stratford Green. He proposed that Tim Chris be designated as the resident agent.

Guilford Association- Bruce Barnett made a motion to designate Tim Chriss as Resident Agent and to change the address for the Association to 4200 St. Paul Street. Ann Giroux seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Strafford Green – Tom Hobbs made a motion to designate Tim Chriss as Resident Agent and to change the address for Stratford Green to 4200 St. Paul Street. Lynda Riley seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Tom and Lynda – Greenmount Avenue – Need to contact the City and to organize a group of residents to plan a clean up of the area of Greenmount Avenue within Guilford. The littering and condition of some of the properties adversely affects the immediate area and impacts Juniper and Newland Roads and property values in the area. Consideration might be given to moving bus stops. Meetings have been held with the York Road Partnership and Greater Homewood. Greenmount Avenue from Southway north to Old Coldspring Lane is part of the Guilford community and it needs to be given greater attention.

Financial Report - Heather Fones: The Association is in a better financial situation than in previous years. 60 people have not paid Association dues. They will again be notified followed by the filing of a lien.

If Mandatory Maintenance Charges are not paid by January 30, property owners are assessed the greater of $15 or 10% of the required maintenance charge. Lynda proposed that the late fee be waived if Mandatory/Voluntary dues are paid.

Tom reminded the Board members that if insufficient funds are collected for Guilford Security membership patrols will have to be reduced. There was discussion about the identification of members of the GSP and the group was reminded that the contract with Securitas was to renew.

Felix reported that as of February 2012 there was 46% resident participation in the GSP. Guidance is needed on the Securitas contract – keep/don’t renewal/reduce hours. How do they compare price wise?

It was concluded that the Security Committee should consider options and take appropriate action or report back to the Board.

Stratford Green –Water charges are a concern. There is a minimum bill of $300 whether water is used or not.

Guilford Reservoir: Cathy Boyne: The Guilford Reservoir Committee has had 3 recent meetings with the City and consultants to review the proposal and landscape plan. The discussions have extended over 2 years. In the most recent sessions the Committee talked with a “PR” firm not to the City or City contractors. Committee has submitted a Freedom of Information request for all technical emails. No progress yet with the City, City contractors or the PR firm. Corp of Engineers could possibly trigger federal involvement. A CHAP hearing is tentatively scheduled on April 12th on the Reservoir.

Architectural Committee – First Quarter 2012 – Tom Hobbs

22 applications were received in the first 2 months of the year, an increase in the number of proposals and major projects. Applications fell into the following categories:

·  Major addition to house – 3 (6 E. Bishops; 10 Overhill; 4411 Bedford)

·  Complete house renovation – 1 (4005 N. Charles)

·  Minor house additions – 2

·  Roof replacement – 4 (3 Bretton Pl. – slate; 310 Suffolk – lead coated copper)

·  Change in house color and painting of house wood trim – 2

·  Driveway alteration/reconstruction and re-landscaping – 3

·  Window replacement – 1

·  Swimming pool and major related landscaping – 2 (4300 Rugby; 4411 Bedford)

·  Shutter replacement and window restoration - 1

·  Fence installation – 1

·  Lot use request – 1 (4003 St. Paul)

·  Guilford reservoir – 1

Most of the applications were approved but many with conditions or negotiated alteration of the original proposal. Of the applications received this quarter:

·  3 were not approved

·  6 were deferred for more information or changes

·  13 were approved

Several properties with covenant violations required committee attention:

·  4304 Saint Paul St. – Several letters have been issued to the Mitchells, initially offering our assistance in explaining to the insurance company the restoration requirements of the Deed and Agreement. Tim Chris and Tom have spoken with the agent that the Mitchells engaged to negotiate for them. The Association now has sent a demand letter. The City Housing Department has issued code violation notices.

·  403 Bretton Place – Owner agreed to remove aluminum application over wood trim. Owner has not complied with required removal. A suit is being prepared.

·  3538 Greenmount – violation of consent decree

·  4418 Eastway – covenant violations; property for sale

·  3504 Newland – covenant violations; property for sale

·  18 York Ct. – covenant violations; property for sale

·  11 York Ct. – covenant violations; property being foreclosed

·  Several other Greenmount properties – covenant violations

A proposal was received from Jim and Mary Miller, the new owners of 4003 St. Paul St., to use the vacant parcel as tennis court. The Architectural Committee rejected the request for a review of the development plan and determined that this required Board discussion since there is an issue related to the use requirement contained in the Deed and Agreement.

Sub-Division III of the Deed and Agreement requires that land in the Guilford tract be used “for private residence purposes only and no building of any kind whatsoever shall be erected or maintained thereon except private dwelling houses...... and private garages..." The Association has allowed tennis courts but only ancillary to a dwelling on the site. The Millers principal property and dwelling is a block away on Greenway, not adjacent to the St. Paul St. site. The Millers agree to landscape the site, receive adjacent neighbor approval, and remove the court at the end of an agreed term of 5 years.

Because the proposal is not an ancillary use the response with advice from the Association’s attorney is that we could not grant an exception to the use restriction of the Deed and Agreement. Tom and Howard agreed that we have never made an exception to the single family dwelling use. Howard noted that the covenant does not directly speak to the use of a vacant parcel.

To gauge the Board opinion a vote was called to consider use of the parcel for a tennis court. 15 voted “no” based on the use restriction; 2 Board members voted “yes”.

Parks - Margaret Alton:

The 39th Street tree project headed up by Seth Stevens is on schedule for this Spring according to the City, including the planting of a new catalpa tree in Gateway Park to replace the one erroneously removed.

Despite draconian budget cuts to Recreation and Parks we were able to get the City to clean up the overgrown slope on the West side of St Paul St. from St. Martins to University Place. Also, we have reached out to our neighbors, The Diocese, UM and Loyola, with some success,to have them regularly clean Guilford areas their constituents use. We have had much less success with our residents who did not respond to the general email to keep their streets clean of detritus, leaves and otherwise. We will keep at it.

We are on track for regular maintenance of our common areasincluding the planting of one or two new trees in Bedford Square and Gateway Park in the Fall. However, because of price increasesfornon-contractual maintenance, such as the St Paul median Spring clean up,if we need to pay for watering wemay not be able to afford anything new or unexpected and may need to postpone needed tree pruning.

Sherwood Gardens Report – Bruce Barnett

Spring is coming early to SG. The tulips are coming up, being typically a few inches tall now. Several of the plots show serious damage due to squirrels.

A tree near plot 24 had a large broken limb that required removal. Since the tree workers were needed for this removal it was decided to prune out the other dead wood too.

13 new azaleas have been ordered for the northern border of plot 26.

Adopt A Plot parents are beginning to be organized. Although the recent Newsletter featured Adopt A Plot on the back page no new volunteers appeared.

The Gardeners of Guilford will do Plot 26 near Highfield instead of Plot 12 this summer.

Larry LaMotte is leading the effort to get sponsors for the Tulip Beds and also for the unadopted Adopt A Plot Beds. Ann Giroux is assisting him.

Because of the Guilford Centennial, when the tulips for 2013 are ordered in June we will attempt to order some tulips that are representative of plantings utilized long ago following advice from Ann Giroux.

The general responsibilities for SG oversight: Bruce Barnett looking after the tulips and Adopt A Plot and Geoff Lord looking after everything else, i.e. water, trees, azaleas, grass, etc.

Submitted: Bruce Barnett (In January Bruce will retire and Geoff Lord will take over the Sherwood Gardens Committee)

Events Report – Ann Tyler:

Easter Egg hunt, in the gardens is set for Sunday, April 1st. An invitation will be sent to residents shortly. Dinner at Dusk will follow in early June. Three homes are being sought for the fall wine tasting. If anyone has any suggestions, please Ann know.

Guilford Centennial Committee Report – Ann Giroux:

Preparation for Guilford’s centennial year continues. Centennial activities fall into four main categories: Publications, Events and PR, Fundraising and Other. Following is a brief outline of the progress that has been made since the December 2011 Board Meeting.

Centennial Publications

We are continuing to gather together historic archival material including photographs, drawings, artwork, newspaper articles and other items of interest. We expect some of this material to prove useful to the book planned on documenting Guilford. Since December 2011 we have uncovered:

·  The existence of additional Abell family photographs.

·  The location of two more Abell estate lions which we plan to photograph.

·  Many newspaper clippings, advertising pieces, and considerable correspondence of interest and relevance to Guilford in the Roland Park Company collection at the Eisenhower Library.

·  Many historic articles dating to Guilford’s early years in a number of architecture-related publications.

·  A large collection of archival material documenting the early years of Sherwood Gardens and the Sherwood Mansion.

·  Several photographs of the architect Edward L. Palmer, Jr. and of other architects who made important contributions to Guilford.

·  The plans, and photographs and associated material for several important homes in Guilford including the Ogden Nash house on Rugby Road, the Guilford House by Palmer on Greenway and many others.

We have also met and spoken with a local expert on the architects Palmer and Lambdin.

We continue to work on obtaining the following:

·  Remaining materials from the Maryland Historical Society

·  Remaining materials from the Fowler Collection

·  Remaining materials from the Roland Park Company Collection

·  Remaining materials from Baltimore Museum of Industry.

·  Original score and recording of “The Earth Sings.”

·  Copy of “Maytime in Sherwood Gardens,” a film about Sherwood Gardens we know to exist from articles as early as 1942.

·  Forest Hills Gardens material.

Centennial Events

The Guilford Centennial Events Committee is working to finalize the calendar. Those which are in bold are definitely on the schedule. Those in italics are being considered, are in progress, or are waiting for approval.

May 2013 Gala Event (Benefit for Stratford Green)

April 28, 2013 Maryland Home and Garden Pilgrimage (Benefit for Stratford Green)

Ann Giroux and Pam Hindsley

May 2013 Parade and Family-Friendly Ice Cream Social in Gateway Park

Jim Williams

June 9, 2013 Fun Run/Dinner at Dusk (Benefit for Stratford Green)

September 15, 2013 Community Wide Estate Sale (Benefit for Stratford Green)

Lisa Garten

September 22, 2013 History Walking Tour with Baltimore Heritage

Ann Giroux

December 2013 Holiday Tree Lighting and Caroling in Sherwood Gardens

April 2014 Free Concert Series Concert dedicated to Guilford Centennial

April 2014 Exhibit of Sherwood Gardens Images (Benefit for Stratford Green)

May 2014 Flower Arranging Workshop with Tulips by Dutch Floral Garden

Pam Hindsley, Gardeners of Guilford

May 2014 Luncheon for Centennial Year Contributors to Stratford Green