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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Input - Ben Savillparking spaces for guest, visitor and temporary owner parking in the community. Based on this review, the Board will not be implementing a parking permit program." E-mails obtained through a Public Records Act request in 2022 revealed that between June 2019 and October 2021, two members of the HOA's Board of Directors, Nancy Bosch and Stephen Palm, participated in a series of e-mail. communications and meetings with then City planners Scott Reekstin and Samantha Beier to try to get their own parking permit plan approved by the City and then by homeowners. The Board tried and failed to get "formal" approval by the City. In early 2022, the Board informed homeowners of their proposed changes to the parking rules that would include a parking permit program. They mailed information to all homeowners and agreed to hold a Question & Answer session for homeowners. Homeowners offered a number of suggestions for improving the parking situation in the community without having to adopt such a restrictive plan. The Board then conducted an informal poll of homeowners, which showed a large majority opposed to the Board's proposed changes, and those changes were dropped. In July 2023, the current Board quietly put up a Notice of Proposed Parking Rule Changes on the clubhouse notice board which almost nobody ever looks at. No a -mails or mail were sent out. Homeowners were not given an opportunity to ask questions or vote on the matter. The Board and its chosen contractor OC Patrol would not answer questions at the subsequent Board meeting on August 17th 2023, and the Board completely ignored the overwhelming opposition to the plan and voted by 3 votes to 1 to adopt its proposed rule changes, with the 5th Board member not even present. The OC Patrol CEO admitted in the meeting that the parking rules and parking permit program were not something he had specifically tailored for Tustin Field 1, but was a template he had used in other communities. The CC&Rs recorded on September 21 st 2004 give typically broad powers to the Board of the Tustin Field 1. Homeowners Association, but are based on the assumption that the Board is elected which it has not been for as Long as anyone in the community can remember. Article IX Section 13 deals with Parking. Paragraph (a) states: "Any unassigned open parking spaces shall be available on a first -come, first -served basis to all guests, visitors and temporary parking for Owners ... The Corporation shall maintain a minimum of 151 unassigned guest parking spaces, at least 22 feet in length, and the allocation or assignment of parking spaces as may be provided in this Declaration, including but not limited to paragraph (f) below, shall not diminish or reduce the number of available unassigned guest parking below the 151 spaces required herein." So what does paragraph (f) say? "Any Owner having three (3) or more vehicles registered to such Owner, or to the members of his family, may apply to the Corporation for special parking permits to park vehicles in any unassigned parking spaces, subject to such reasonable Rules and Regulations as may be adopted by the Board." This is subject to the stipulation in paragraph (a) above. Article VI Section 12 deals with Corporation Rules and Regulations. "The Board shall also have the power to adopt, amend and repeal Rules and Regulation, as it deems reasonable... provided, however, that the Rules and Regulations may not discriminate among Owners and shall not be inconsistent with this Declaration, the Articles or By -Laws." Article XX Section 18 deals with. the Enforcement Rights of the City. Paragraph (a) states: "The City shall have the right, but not the obligation, to enforce all of the Protective Covenants now or hereafter imposed by this Declaration in favor of the City or in which the City has an interest." I would argue that the City of Tustin has a very real interest in the impacts of the parking plan recently adopted by the unelected Tustin Field 1 HOA Board of Directors, because of its Affordable Housing Covenants, the displacement of parking into neighboring communities and onto nearby streets, and the discrimination — however unintentional — against the following groups: i. owners of the affordable housing units which were designed as multiple family units and often have multiple drivers; ii. multi -generational families in which two or even three generations of adults live together in the same house, which is especially common among Asian families; iii. extended families which have multiple family members of the same generation living together; iv. families with elderly and/or disabled adults living in the same home who may also require in -home carers; V. owners of rental units and their renters who often have to 4, 5 or even 6 drivers living in their units; vi. persons with disabilities who often have to use part of their garage for physical therapy equipment and even for sleeping if they are temporarily or permanently unable to get up the stairs of their condominium units, and who will no longer be able to park their vehicle on the street outside their units; vii. persons with disabilities and who are victims of violent crime or domestic abuse who now have to submit person & confidential information to the HOA Board and the OC Patrol company to plead a "special circumstance" warranting an exception to the parking permit program; viii. those seeking to apply for planning permission to convert their attached garages into ADUs or JADUs; ix. small businesses who will no longer be able to park their car on the street or in their driveway if it displays any advertising or signage for their business; X. owners of smaller commercial vehicles who will no longer be able to park on the street or even in their driveways; A. owners of retired government service vehicles who will no longer be able to park on the street or in their driveways; xii. owners of valuable and collectible vehicles or any other owners wanting to protect their vehicles from the elements, wildfire ash and bird droppings who will no longer be allowed to park on the street if they have a protective car cover over their vehicles; xiii. friends or family members or in -home carers who wish to or need to stay more than 5 nights in a 30-day rolling period or more than 15 nights in a 180-day period who now have to provide their personal information to, and get approval from, the Board of Directors; xiv. those living in or adjacent to units which do not have enough parking permits for all their drivers and where one or more drivers (who do not have parking permits) work Late or otherwise stay out late, thus requiring the garage to be opened and possibly cars moved in and out, with the potential to disturb the sleep of residents and neighbors; xv. those who wish to maintain good relations with fellow residents and neighbors and live in a harmonious community, but who now find themselves under a DUTY to report any violation of the rules. As Scott Reekstin, then Principal Planner at the City of Tustin, wrote in an e-mail to Tustin Field 1 HOA Board member Nancy Bosch on June 18t" 2019, enforcing the existing Rules and Regulations in Tustin Field 1 should alleviate the parking problems in our community and make new rules unnecessary. Had the unelected Board of Directors done that, it would have avoided all the additional harm and discrimination being caused by these new rules.