You would think the Board and committee members would have learned an expensive lesson from the carbon treatment plant being built in a wet lands without permits and required documentation. Apparently they didn't, or worse yet, deliberately violated an ordinance to advance their personal vindictive agenda. That agenda is killing and removing trees.
What we now have is a violation of the County Ordinance involving CARL. It is an ordinance for the protection of shore lines. Under this ordinance, if you have preciously maintained property to the shore line, you can continue that specific property, but not add or do new. This applies to our canal and lake shores. In certain instances, you can obtain a variance and obtain a permit.
As with all County ordinances, the wording is long and full of legal descriptions. Here is just a brief part of the wording regarding enforcement...
" The CARL Ordinance contains provisions allowing the exemption of many common activities from the requirements of this ordinance. All exempted activities shall use reasonable methods to avoid potential impacts to critical areas and resource lands. Exemption from this Ordinance does not give permission to degrade a critical area or ignore risk from natural hazards. Any incidental damage to, or alteration of, a critical area that is not a necessary outcome of the exempted activity shall be restored, rehabilitated or replaced at the responsible parties expense"
This once again could cost the association thousands of dollars. The association has now spent over 7,000.00 of our money to hire a contractor to remove trees around Seabreeze Lake on Association owned property. We could face fines and restoration costs. The County is aware of these violations.
How we got here:
Most of Seabreeze lake is owned by the association, but in some of the bordering property, the property lines extend into the water. In some of the other areas, a portion of the land extends into the lake area owned by the association. Some of those land areas contain trees and vegetation that has never been maintained. These are small portions of land owned by the association. You may recall that recently, the association removed trees that turned out to be on private property, because there had been no land survey. This information was covered up.
The Tree Committee in their zeal to "trim", which means top or better yet remove, used the Lands and Buildings Committee to hire a contractor to remove everything from the shoreline of Seabreeze Lake on hopefully, association property. This is a clear violation of CARL. In the picture of before and after, you will see some neighboring property and across the lake, where the trees and vegetation are cleared to the water. This is allowed because it was done before the new ordinance. The Tree Committee is aware of all this. They can't say "I didn't know". They did
On the pictures below, you will see the obvious before and after and during clearing.
Click on each picture for a larger view:
25 comments:
This dirty, rotten, good for nothing imbiciles!!! I want to use other words really badly!!!
Do you Trustees want to play?
By play, I mean continue to condider yourself above the law, continue to ignore external regulatory entities, thereby treating our community assets as your playground.
When we received the HOA letter requesting permission to access our property we said no, our neighbor to the south also denied access. Never the less Arvor Care hired by the HOA
trespassed on my neighbors lot and cut willows but left lower branches that reached over the water. A few years back Kim Patton gave a presentation to the HOA on shoreline vegetation and explained the advantages of leaving vegetation which provided shade to the lake, thereby keeping the water cooler in the summer. Which would aid in keeping the fish healthy and alive.
I wish you could see the damage they have done to the shore line on my lot. This tree committee has no sense of right and wrong all they think about is cut, cut cut. It's time to make a change to this HOA.
Oh this is priceless! We’ve been wondering about the bare shore line on various lots when we drive to town! Been wondering how it could be handled, but we were so caught up with trying to correct our lighting complaint since July that we put it on the back burner! Why the necessity to cut everything down? We live on the beach! Green trees should just be a part of our neighborhood. So happy now maybe they can call a timeout and give it a break!
Sue them.
I hope the county does something.
I'll contact the county and tell them about this.
Crying shame is what it is. They should be forced to replace the trees with native ones to benefit the Eco system. Unfortunately, I fear the world as we know is doomed. Seems the environment and habitat are not a priority. I'm starting to feel bad for anyone with children and grandchildren but happy I have none because they will be living in a cesspool of an earth and its a sad sad day when trees are the villain.
Through a county public records request I now know what SHOA property owner stopped the county redesign and improvement of the SHOA lake and canal outfall system in late 2015.
I'll try to find out if there is anything happening on that issue now.
I too decided not have children.
Within a 100 years, or less possibly, half the penonsula with be under water. Some think that's a Chinese hoax.
The tree committee should pay for this out of their own pockets. When will they be shut down and shut the hell up? They don't give a damn about anything but their fat ass selves. Disgusting.
There needs to be an immediate moratorium on all tree cutting! Too much damage has already been done
Is there a difference between privately owned lakes and state owned waters? The state is working on cleaning up a lot of state owned lakes. They have been deeply compromised by development.. I am just wondering if privately owned lakes are under the same Dept. of Ecology guidelines.
Once again more misinformation put out and knee jerk reactions from the usual people.
I was at the board meetings back when this was first being discussed. A complaint was made against some trees. It was determined that yes indeed the complaint was valid and the trees were above the covenant height. So, if you want to blame someone blame whoever wrote the complaint, not the tree committee.
What was in question was if the trees were on the HOA property or on a members property. It should be noted here that a sitting Trustee who was on the L & B Comm wanted to get an expensive survey done. I HEARD THIS FIRST HAND. Of course when word of that got out the usual folks blamed the Tree Comm which wasn't true, just the usual bashing from the usual people. It was determined after a process that the trees were on the HOA property so since if you are going to hold members accountable for following covenants then the HOA has to be accountable also so Arbor care was hired to take care of the issue. Also, from what I hear while they were there some of the members that property there had their trees cut because they wanted them to be so they could see the lake. Again, the Tree Comm not to blame there.
The topic title is misleading. There are no county violations. Saying this is a clear violation of CARL is only one persons opinion who is obviously quite bias.
Sad sad day when trees are considered villains. Sad sad day when some people get a brief moment of guilt and feel the need to defend whatever it is they think they heard or saw. Sad sad day when some people think these comments come from the "usual" people. I'm sure it would be another sad sad day for many when they find out how many of the commentators here are not the "usual" people.
If the BOT really wants to sink their teeth into something, it should be protecting Surfside's environment. I would love to see more consideration given to native habitats and preservation.
Awww, but that would be another sad sad day to stop thinking about profit. Basically, people suck.
I agree 9:43 The pictures of the trees cut at the waters edge are just an opinion. The CARL restrictions are just a County opinion also. Thanks for sharing the truth with the rest of us uninformed. We need to stop believing our own eyes.
Indeed, we should stop believing our own eyes! I just found out, if you believe the crime you are committing is for the good of the nation or in this case, the HOA, you are not committing a crime!
There is NO CRIME if you believe!
Yep, it's the new way of thinking. It's on the same shelf as greed, lies, smoke and mirrors. It's going to take a few minutes to wrap my brain around this "new thinking". Probably as long as it's taking for me to accept the "new math". >>heavysigh<< >>headshaking<<
Well said 01/31 10:34 PM. Sad indeed.
Very well said 01/31 10:51 PM. Very sad, twisted, insincere, unethical, immoral, deranged, lawless, indeed.
The Tree Comm. is extremely quick to dismiss any criticism with hostile remarks toward those who disapprove of their heavy-handed destruction of the community, and covering-up the generation of fake complaints. The Chair of the Tree Comm. has stated that she would like to see the Shorepines designated as invasive plants so they could ALL be cut down.
This person has no grip on the fact that the Shorepines ARE native here on the peninsula. She also has no understanding that each tree absorbs vast amounts of water, helping to prevent flooding, help stabilize the landscape with their roots, create wildlife habitat, generate vast amounts of oxygen, remove pollutants from the air, and if left unmolested, create beauty in the landscape.
I agree that a moratorium on tree cutting should be agreed to. So much damage has been done that most of the existing trees should be removed and replaced with new trees by the HOA. They should begin a program of rebuilding our landscape, using dollars they plan to squander on legal costs wasted on Tree Policy enforcement.
And just who is going to agree with a moratorium on tree butchering? The J Place board? Everyone should just agree that they will not top another tree, regardless of a complaint. Let the totals build up to the hundreds and see what happens. There should also be a moratorium on the tree committee. They should be made inactive. They are costing the members thousands of dollars and subject the members to violation fines by the county and court costs.
Even better, a moratorium on the whole HOA.
First agenda item at the opposition meeting.
Putting a dissolution measure on the Annual meeting ballot will assure failure of ALL of the measures. It is delusioonal to think that owners would approve a measure for which there is no clear pathway beyond prescribing chaos without a plan for implementation. Any such effort requires a designated board or committee tasked with making the transition happen. So designated by who ?
geez people, they are just trees, cut them down, they will grow back quickly
With all the trees that have been topped and cut down between I St. and G St., it is no wonder The HOA of J Place has started trying to make everyone turn off their lights. They can see clearly now and they don't like it. So what the hell? They want to make I through G pay more to subsidize their view properties on J Place by replacing their lights or getting rid of them. I St gets great views...of the roofs of houses, so not sure why the trees have to be lower than on G St. I think the tree height limits need to be revisited or start charging view properties in order to pay back all the people who have been run by the HOA of J Place.
It takes at least 6 years for a seedling to reach 6 ft. in height. 25 year old trees cannot be replaced. Deforestation plays a huge part in global warming. These days, it should be well understood that many factors in natural cycles work together, and when in balance, work to the benefit of a healthy planet and the living things upon it.
Calculations are also done these days, to determine the cost in human lives as a result of pollution of all kinds. Trees sequester pollutants - pull them from the air we breathe, and create oxygen. So humans greatly underestimate the significance of trees to our lives. Whatever your intention 4:20, this community supports the slaughter of healthy trees, and supports an institutional ignorance toward the natural forces that can make shape our lives for the better, or in this case, for the worse.
There are no reasonable explanations, just lame excuses.
Post a Comment