By
a show of hands, how many of you have read the association’s Strategic
Plan? What? No?
Why not? Well, I’m guessing if
you haven’t read the plan it’s because, like me, most people groan at the
thought of reading a strategic document and quickly find something else to
do. However, this plan is very straight
forward, illustrated in bullet points and doesn’t spend too much time with
history of the association, etc. that we, as owners, probably already know for
the most part. As of this morning the
document had only been viewed 26 times on the website. And two of those 26 are me! Now, many owners bemoan the lack of
communication to property owners, but don’t take time to review the materials
that are broadcasted. To view the
document; log into the www.coosawattee.net
property owner’s site, click on ‘Documents’ and then click on ‘Strategic Plan’. It’s only 29 pages and a quick read. Today I’m going to discuss some of the finer
points of the plan and give my opinion and recommendations on the action items.
First,
let’s take a look at the name of the association. The plan recommends changing the name to
Coosawattee River Community Association.
I don’t think I’m against this.
The term ‘resort’ has long been begging for a definition and means
something different to everyone. I also
feel that the new name is more formal and not as ‘elitist’ in nature.
The
second topic I would like to address is that of vacant land consolidation and
green space production. The weekly e-mail
updates sent by Jeff are marketing the recent acquisition of vacant lots by the
association. While I think this is great
for the association I feel we must act now in terms of long range population
planning. As most know, CRR is made up
of approximately 7000 individual lots.
Now, think if there was even anywhere near that number of homes? Yikes!
I believe the last census of developed properties in CRR was somewhere
in the number of 2200-2500, and that number seems to suit as far as I’m
concerned. I would like to see
management actively contacting owners whose properties are contiguous to the
CRR owned properties and negotiating sales.
I also feel the association should be willing to transfer deed of these
properties for nominal fees under the conditions that they will be replatted
with existing lots – thus inhibiting future growth in the community. This is the best way to ‘right size’ our
community. Perhaps set two prices on
lots. One price is the retail price and
the other is the homeowner discounted price under terms of replatting. It’s a win-win for the association as well
for owners that want a little more elbow room.
This should pertain to the campground section as well. These lots have not been generating revenue
for the association, so we need to move them quickly off the books into the
hands of the owners where they will.
As
I previously recommended in my post titled Coosawattee Campground: Why It Is
Important To CRR, we should have a buy-back program to acquire some of the
distressed properties, improve them, and resell them. By ‘improve’ I mean stripping the lot,
updating the power and electrical, re-graveling, and getting on the market. We should also be encouraging owners to
purchase contiguous lots for replatting.
This will relieve stress on the water and septic systems as well as
provide additional parking and storage capacity for campground owners. Many of the lots are quite small making
construction of storage buildings difficult.
Storage = tidy properties. These
improvements will further increase the real estate value of campground lots,
drive sales to higher bidding owners and reintroduce a high level of
investors into the area. All these
things will continue the trend of improvement in the area and will improve the
lives of the current owners.
As
for lots that don’t sell or are undesirable/unbuildable they should be offered at fire
sale prices to the public and deed restricted from construction and sold as ‘amenity’
lots. These deed restricted lots could
have slightly lower dues rate. I’m not
sure how all that would work out – but some food for thought.
One
of the recommendations in the plan was to eliminate the structure of the rec
center pool and eliminate the miniature golf course. First – yes, eliminate the current golf
course, but replace it with something that would appear to have been built in
the last century. Better yet, move it to
the general store so it could be an ‘upsell’ for folks coming for tubing,
Pickin’ on the Porch, etc. There really
aren’t a lot of options for quality mini-golf in this area. Quite frankly, I really enjoy playing. While I don’t think we’ll ever have a course
comparable to some of the mega courses you would see along the tourist areas in
South Carolina, we could certainly have something that would be a real draw to
the center. Second – leave the structure
over the pool. The plan states that it
is reaching the end of its useful life.
I disagree. This is an aluminum
structure. Its useful life is just
beginning. The clear panels on the
structure can be easily replaced if need be.
The expense of tearing down a perfectly good structure only to build
another one simply does not make sound, financial sense.
I
do agree with some of the plan in regards to the general store. While the ‘trailers’ don’t offend me, I have
long thought that this facility could be a bigger revenue generator for the
community. Pickin’ On the Porch seems
pretty popular. This could be a lot
better, however, if a designated audience area was created with a proper stage,
sound and light riggings. This should be
a covered area that could be used for other events. It should also be made available for rental to
the general public. It should be
designed as a multi-use facility for meetings, parties, receptions, etc.. Expanded food and drink options would also
generate more revenue (along with quality miniature golf).
I
also believe that it would be wise to have an area (possibly behind the shops
near the POA office) to offer homeowners storage facilities. I would love to get a boat to tour Carter’s
Lake, Lake Blue Ridge, Chatuge, Nottely, etc……but I simply would not be able to
navigate and store a boat and trailer with the configuration of my
driveway. Let’s just say I would be able
to get it UP to the house, but would never be able to turn around and come back
DOWN! A covered and secured area for
boats, utility trailers, RV’s, motorhomes and anything else that needs stored
would generate revenue and, in my opinion, a self-funded amenity for
homeowners.
I
also agree with the reduction of the number of BOD members. We need clear policy in place as to the
role of the BOD and the role of paid management. The BOD should be providing support and
guidance to management, not managing them.
The Board is not the supreme being. The property owners as a whole run the show. Board meetings sometimes take the appearance of a legislative session on
Capitol Hill. Management and homeowners
should be providing the content of the board meetings with the board members
facilitating official voting to solidify new policy, generate public discussion
of issues and most importantly – represent their constituents. Boards are developed to hold management
accountable, not influence topics for personal desires. I could go on for days about structure and
content of boards, but it really isn’t very interesting.
Lastly,
and most important: communication,
communication, communication. By large,
the majority of issues that persist in CRR are due to lack of, or poorly
executed communication. Lack of
transparency creates hysteria, rumors and conspiracy theories that run rampant
on several known message boards….including our own, and create a horrible image of our community and owners. Communication is never easy and I can certainly give
new management a bit of a pass on this until they get fully acclimated to our
community. However, December was the
last month a newsletter was published.
The newsletter, in my opinion, should be first and foremost in regards
to communications. The effort and
creativity it takes to produce shows goodwill toward to the stakeholders of the
community. The weekly e-mails are great,
but they simply don’t have the personal touch or ‘feel’ that the newsletter
does. Furthermore, the newsletter
creates a sense of community. Another
focus should be on timely posting of board AND committee (yes, I said committee) minutes on our
website. Several months can pass before
minutes are posted (committees seem to feel they are exempt from this) and by
that time new agendas and issues have come up that need to be dealt with. It sometimes feels like we’re living in the
past! Open note to committee chairs –
you are doing work on behalf of the full board.
Your actions influence the board.
You must post your minutes in a timely fashion. Again, full policy should be created that
all board and committee members will be required to adhere to.
Whew…..I’m
tired. So I’ve given you a few things to
think about. What are your
thoughts? Let me know in the comments
section or you can e-mail me directly at chrisgoodson37@gmail.com if you don’t
wish to publicly post here – though you can post under ‘anonymous’.
Well,
that’s it for now. Lots to think about
for us that live along the Coosawattee River.
Til next time,
Chris
