========= UPDATE ========= UPDATE ========= UPDATE =======

At the bottom, I’ve reprinted an e-mail I received Feb. 2 from George McFadden’s wife, Agnieszka McFadden.

First, the original post:

The homeowners in the Woodmoor Improvement Association east of Monument have spoken.

Or at least about 1,000 of the 3,000 who live there have spoken. And the king is dead. Long live the king.

The dead king, in the words of Woodmoor’s residents, is George McFadden, who was president of the WIA. The new king is Chuck Maher.

 The emotional election featured dueling Web sites, like this one below.

Here’s a look at the Woodmoor Fact Check site, scrubbed of most of its campaign literature, post-election:

McFadden was kicked off the throne in a coup orchestrated by residents who spent several thousands of dollars and countless hours campaigning against him and his slate of candidates in the homeowners association’s recent annual election.

McFadden wasn’t up for re-election. But he needed his three candidates to win to retain power.

Instead, the “Save Woodmoor” crowd prevailed in a landslide. He’re’s a look at the vote totals:

Save Woodmoor slate:

Nick Oakley – 657
Paul Lambert – 656
Jim Hale – 648

McFadden slate:

Bill Brendemuhl – 466
Gary Marner – 437
George Labesky – 364

I’ve written a couple columns and blogs about Woodmoor.

There’s a good lesson in what transpired at Woodmoor. If a group can unite and energize a community as large as Woodmoor, throw out the incumbents and take control, then it can happen in any homeowners association.

======= Here’s the UPDATE:

From: Agnieszka McFadden

Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 6:36 PM
Subject: SIDE STREETS: HOA election produces ‘Woodmoor Miracle’

WOODMOOR MIRACLE — coup tosses out HOA board is a post from: Side Streets

Folks in Rockrimmon are not convinced the Pure Medical storefront that opened in December is anything more than a drug dealer in the neighborhood.

Pure Medical dispenses medical marijuana and has two stores in Colorado Springs — it’s store in the shopping center at Rockrimmon Boulevard and Delmonico Drive and another downton on Tejon Street.

Here’s a look at the area from FlashEarth:

 Even though access to the windowless store is restricted to people with official medical marijuana cards, folks in Rockrimmon are upset about its existence in the same shopping center where neighborhood kids get candy and soda at the convenience store, or doughnuts, deli and sub sandwiches and pizzas.

Some residents have reached out to their homeowners associations.

The Comstock Village Homeowners Association sent out a survey to its 540 homeowners to get a sense of the feeling toward Pure Medical. Their survey was a response to a group of homeowners who spoke at a recent board meeting.

The Council of Neighbors and Organizations, or CONO, which represents the HOAs in the city, also is concerned.

It’s unclear what, if anything, anyone can do about the dispensaries until the Colorado General Assembly acts on proposals to regulate the budding industry.

The problem has been 10 years in the making. In 2000, voters decided to amend the Colorado Constitution in 2000 to legalize medical marijuana for “persons suffering from debilitating medical conditions.”

The issue erupted in 2009 after the U.S. Justice Department announced it would not actively prosecute medical marijuana businesses. Didn’t matter that marijuana remains an illegal drug under federal law. Dispensaries blossomed.

Check out these two Web sites catering to folks seeking dispensaries. One is the WeedMaps.com and the other is DispensaryDigest.com :

In fact, Sheriff Terry Maketa recently said there are about 38 medical-marijuana dispensaries in El Paso County but only about three in unincorporated areas.

Colorado Springs has a task force studying what to do with the dispensaries.

And the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which maintains a medical marijuana registery, is lobbying state lawmakers for laws to allow better regulation.

For example, it doesn’t want doctors to be able to profit from recommending people to the medical marijuana registry. And it wants tools to ensure doctors have not had their registrations revoked or suspended by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Besides being a political issue, it’s a legal question being played out in state courts. Marijuana dispensary owners are suing for the right to sell pot, arguing communities can’t ban the dispensaries.

Some cities, including the Denver suburb of Centennial, counter that cities can prohibit businesses that violate federal law.

Fourteen states permit medical marijuana, but pot remains illegal under U.S. law.

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MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY OR DRUG DEALER? is a post from: Side Streets

The Colorado General Assembly is back in session and no doubt someone will bring up homeowners associations. It’s become an annual topic of legislative action.

Maybe lawmakers should look to Nevada for ideas on how to rein in rogue HOA boards and protect homeowners from arbitrary covenant enforcement, rigged elections, unfair dues increases and other activities that generate tons of complaints.

It’s a big issue because an estimated 1.6 million live in 12,000 neighborhood associations –  townhome, condominium and timeshare – in Colorado.

Consider these nationwide statistics about HOAs from the Community Associations Institute:

=========================================================================================  Estimates for the number of association-governed communities and individual housing units and residents within those communities:

            Year         Communities      Housing Units     Residents

            1970             10,000                  701,000                  2.1 million

            1980             36,000                  3.6 million              9.6 million

            1990             130,000                11.6 million            29.6 million                

            2000            222,500                 17.8 million           45.2 million

      2002            240,000                19.2 million            48.0 million

            2004            260,000                20.8 million            51.8 million

            2006            286,000                23.1 million             57.0 million

            2008            300,800                24.1 million            59.5 million

Association-governed communities include homeowners associations, condominiums, cooperatives and other planned communities. Homeowners associations and other planned communities currently account for 52-55% of the totals above, condominiums for 38-42% and cooperatives for 5-7%. 

·         Estimated number of community association managers:  60,000.

      ·         Estimated number of management companies: 10,000.

        ·         More than 1.7 million people serve on community association governing boards. Another 400,000 serve as committee members.  

·        Since 2000, nearly 4 out 5 housing starts have been in association-governed communities, including condos converted from rental units.

        ·        The value of the homes in community associations is estimated at $4 trillion, or about 20 percent of the value of all U.S. residential real estate.

        ·         Estimated annual operating revenue for U.S. community associations is more than $41 billion. Community and condominium association boards also maintain investment accounts of more than $35 billion for the long-term maintenance and replacement of common property, e.g., roads, swimming pools, structures and elevators.

 =============================================================================

So you can see why some states are getting serious about HOA regulation. 

One of the pioneers is Nevada. where lawmakers created an ombudsman office in 1997, and later expanded it and created a five-member commission to give that state’s HOA residents a place to appeal for help.

 And check out the commission’s Web site.

In 2004, Florida joined Nevada by creating an ombudsman for community associations. Virginia, New Jersey, California also have debated creating HOA oversight agencies.

The CAI opposes state HOA oversight. The group believes the government should not interfere in HOAs, which are voluntary, private associations governed by their members. People who don’t like them can get elected to the governing boards or move away from them.

 But other groups argue a government agency is needed to protect the interests of homeowners.

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TIME TO STEAL A PAGE FROM NEVADA? is a post from: Side Streets

=======  UPDATE   ======   UPDATE   =====   UPDATE =======

At the end, I’ve posted an e-mail I received from Morgan Wood, daughter of Jeffrey Wood. It is a response to my column.

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Raul Acosta has given up hope and plans to move from the house where he and his wife have raised their nine children since 1998 in the Woodside at Briargate neighborhood in northern Colorado Springs.

Acosta is hopeless that things will ever improve between him and his neighbor, Jeffrey Wood. The two have been in a feud for months and it is escalating.

They live across the street from each other. Acosta lives on Gracewood Drive behind Wood, whose address is on Ramblewood Drive. The issues between them are numerous. Here’s a look at their properties from FlashEarth.

Acosta claims he and his family are being harassed by Wood. He said Wood objects when he parks in the street along the side of Wood’s house.

Wood declined to talk to me about the situation.

Acosta said Wood criticizes his children when they use the sidewalks that run along his corner lot. Other neighbors confirm Acosta’s allegation that Wood is very protective of the public street and sidewalks. They describe Wood as frequently videotaping neighbors and confronting them.

Problems escalated in 2009 when Wood started accusing Acosta’s 17-year-old son, Joseph, of harassment.

Wood called police nine times last year to report eggs thrown at his house, kids hanging around, a property sign stolen, kids taunting him, cussing him, harassing them.

In July, it was Acosta’s turn to call police when his white truck was sprayed with red paint by Wood’s son, Corey, a college student who was painting a backyard fence. Acosta eventually sued Wood in Small Claims Court and on Jan. 4 he was awarded nearly $600 in damages and court costs.

Guess what happened in September . . .  Wood accused Acosta’s son of calling him a “faggot” and called police. They cited Joseph and a friend with criminal harassment.

Wood told authorities he was in his backyard looking through his telescope when one of the boys uttered the slur.

 The misdemeanor charge was dropped this week, city prosecutor Kenny Hodge says, because harassment requires “repeated insults, taunts or challenges.”

Authorities have urged the two sides to go to mediation. But Acosta said Wood refuses. Police routinely send warring neighbors to the Neighborhood Justice Center for help.

Police also have flagged Wood’s address requiring a police supervisor to respond with an officer whenever he calls now.

Wood has called so often that Sgt. Craig Simpson of the Stetson Hills police substation immediately recognized the address when I mentioned it.

“It is one of those situations where we do have a notice on the address,” Simpson said. “There are ongoing problems there. It needs a little extra attention. We’re trying to keep a handle on things over there.”

Acosta is tired of the problems and has lost hope the situation will calm down. So he has made a decision.

“We’re putting our house on the market,” he said. “It’s gotten so bad we’re going to move.”

===== Morgan Wood responds to the column:

Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 2:27 PM
To: Bill Vogrin
Subject: Rebuttal to your article
 
Mr. Vogrin,
     Today, I read your article concerning a person very important to
me; my father. It was incredibly disturbing to read how negatively my
father is being portrayed to this community that we have called home
for nearly a decade now.

     I understand that my father declined to comment on this issue, but what this does reveal is the true nature of my father in his personal life. He is no more a child harasser than you or I and this situation has been blown out of proportion.

     I am writing to you in  an attempt to set the record straight. As a result of my
parents honorable career in the United States Air Force, of which they
each served 20 years, we just recently moved back to the springs from
the United Kingdom. Needless to say our first few months here were not
as welcoming as we had hoped.

     From the beginning, my brother was the victim of taunting remarks from Acosta’s older children. As a result of the surprising lack of adult supervision, these remarks continued and on several occasions many of the younger children would block the
street with their skateboarding and portable ramps.

     In addition, trash and skateboard wax made its way into our yard along with the occasional children running around on our lawn and damaging our property.

     One incident that was particularly upsetting occurred on a summer’s day in August. My parents decided to have a backyard BBQ for my friends and I to celebrate the day. As we all sat in the backyard enjoying some music, Joseph Acosta and his friend decided to park their car near our fence and blast rap music to exercise their teenage rebellion. In order to ease the tensions rising, two of my friends went to kindly ask the
boys to turn down the music because we couldn’t have a conversation over the blaring noise.

       Instead of respectfully complying, the two boys began to shout obscenities at my two friends . After this my father decided to call the police to settle this issue. I don’t know how many children you know whose behavior brinks on criminality, but this is not a common occurrence in my world Mr. Vogrin.

     I find it absolutely ridiculous that these children are being painted as little angels when 90% of the time they are unsupervised. In response to the argument that my father used a camera to harass Mr. Acosta’s children, he was only complying with
the directions of the police officer who dealt with many of these issues.

     Also, the issue of the paint on the car. Raoul Acosta has grossly inflated the details of this incident in the fact that my brother maliciously sprayed paint of his son’s new car. In reality, the condition of this said car is far from new and is in fact brinking on
not even being acceptable for the road. This multicolored “jalopy”  has more paint smears than it has quality features.

     The truth of the matter is that my brother was not using a sprayer nor was he anywhere near the car in question. Also the paint that had supposedly damaged
this vehicle was not even the same color as our fence stain. The fact is, this man is singling out my 19 year old brother, a young adult just out of high school, to pay $600 for a car not even worth $400.

      Is this the characteristic behavior of a neighborly man?  My father is one of the most good humored and intelligent men I know and I cannot sit by and see his reputation tarnished by this hypocritical “neighborly man”.

     If you have any desire to speak to me I would gladly do so under the pretense that a fair non biased article will be published. I do not want my family painted as this offensive image of a uncivilized and “redneck” family. I think it is sad that the protection that my father has tried to give his property and family is so
negatively portrayed in your article.

     Thank you for your time and concideration of this issue. I hope to hear back from you about this as it is affecting my family greatly and needs to be addressed.

    Morgan Wood
================================================

NEIGHBORHOOD FEUD leaves one combatant hopeless is a post from: Side Streets

  Holger and Sally Christiansen started building this wall around their home at 1221 N. Cascade Ave. in 2007. It sits unfinished while they battle the city over zoning codes, permits, variances and encroachments.

Eventually, the city sued the Christiansens to force compliance with codes. The couple countersued and the whole mess comes to trial Tuesday. 

There’s more at stake than just the $200,000-plus wall, built of red brick they had shipped from Virginia and which towers over Cascade just north of Unitah Street.

The trial, before  Fourth Judicial District Judge Timothy Simmons, left, will be a test of Colorado Springs’ zoning codes and the Historic Preservation Board and its rules for construction in the Old North End Historic District.

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   The city says the Christiansens built the wall without necessary permits. The wall ranges from nearly 7 feet to 11 feet tall at the top of its decorative finials, shown below.

In fact, it far exceeds the 6 feet maximum for fences and walls built without permits or variances. It’s so large the city classifies it as an “accessory structure” meaning it must sit back 25 feet from property lines.

 Worse, the city says, it encroaches into a city alley by 2 feet, flush against a city utility pole, as you can see below. 

I wrote this column in September 2008. This is the blog that accompanied the story.

 A few months earlier, in May, I wrote about it for the first time.

 It’s a beautiful wall, as you can see. But the city said the process the Christiansens’ followed violates the integrity of the zoning codes and planning process, as well as defies the Historic Preservation Board, which rejected the wall as inappropriate in the district.

=========================================

THE BERLIN WALL CAME DOWN, will Holger’s? is a post from: Side Streets

It’s silly season, I mean election time again. New homeowners association boards are being elected all over the Pikes Peak region.

An especially contentious race is for three seats on the Woodmoor Improvement Association board.

 The nine-member board governs the sprawling, wooded and affluent golf-course community of Woodmoor, which has 3,000 homes on 2,000 acres east of Monument.

It oversees $1.3 million in assets, income and spending and enforces covenants.

One of the big issues this election is a recent decision by the board to spend $20,000 to build a 10-space parking lot and trails on a 13.7-acre marsh on community property in Woodmoor. The marsh is in the middle of this photo from FlashEarth.

Here’s a look at the planned trails and parking lot under construction on the site.

Critics say the board should have gone to greater lengths to inform the community about the project, gathering neighbor input and holding public meetings before spending such a large amount of money.

They also criticize the board for spending thousands on beer and food for neighborhood parties. Critics say the board spent $9,000 last year. The board says it was $5,300 and a justifiable expense because so many homeowners attended.

The board has been in turmoil for a couple years. Critics say the conflict erupted with the rise to power of George McFadden, the current WIA board president. He is a polarizing figure in Woodmoor.

Although McFadden is not up for re-election on Jan. 25, three allies are on the ballot. And his name always comes up in conversations about the board, the election and the issues facing the community.

McFadden, however, declined to talk to me about it. He did the same thing a year ago when I wrote about a string of resignations from the board. At that time, as now, his name came up over and over. But he didn’t want to talk. Instead, he ripped me in emails and letters after the column ran.

Check it out my Feb. 11, 2009 column at this link. And here’s the blog I wrote, with his flaming rebuttal attached.

McFadden did write me Tuesday, pointing me to the Web sites of the competing camps: one for his allies:

The other is for the opposition group: 

And here’s McFadden’s e-mail to me on Tuesday:

Mr. Vogrin,

I have no desire to become more involved in the WIA Elections as I am not one of the candidates running, so I offer “no comment”.  I would advise all interested in the elections to review the various campaign websites.

George Labesky, Gary Marner, Bill Brendemuhl – www.woodmoorfacts.org
Jim Hale, Nick Oakley, Paul Lambert – www.savewoodmoor.org
Ed Miller is the other candidate.

I would also point out that both Nick Oakley and Jim Hale were appointed, by the “so called Majority”, to committees with the purpose of looking at our rules and regulations and design standards manual and suggest changes to the board.  George Labesky was appointed to the Legal Audit committee by the board to review our governing documents (Declaration, Articles, and bylaws) and to bring them into compliance with the various state statutes (they are woefully out of date).

I think any and and all of the candidates running for election will serve the owners well, but the two incumbents have the experience and proven track record that the others do not.

All the info you need is either on the websites mentioned above or on the WIA webpage at www.woodmoor.org. 

I hope this article will be more balanced than your last one on Woodmoor.  I regret that the Gazette did not cover the very successful WIA Community Events, attended by over 1000 owners this year.  If you want to review what was provided in terms of recreation (which is the first listed use of Assessments per the WIA Declaration) the newsletters which provided announcements for the events are available in PDF form on the WIA website.

Thanks,
George McFadden

====================================================

WOODMOOR ELECTION — who do you believe? is a post from: Side Streets

Some folks grow up in mansions. Others in modest houses. And some grow up in little more than a hole in the ground.

That was the case for Marvin Baskett and his sister, Esther Redington.

Their childhood home was a concrete block basement house in the modest Knob Hill neighborhood, east of downtown Colorado Springs. Here they are in front of their old home: 

 The house is barely taller than the 4-foot-high chain link fence surrounding the yard.

It sits at the southwest corner of Iowa Avenue and Yampa Street, just east of Queen Palmer Elementary School. Here is a map from FlashEarth showing the area: 

It was built in 1947 by their father, Raymond Baskett, and home for years to the Baskett family: Raymond and his wife Beulah and their three children, Esther, Leatha and Marvin.

It looks like the house was swallowed by the ground. Protruding from the back of the roof is a covered doorway that leads down into the house. Here’s Marvin at the “front door” to his childhood home.

Originally, there was no covered doorway, just an open stairwell down into the two-bedroom house. It had a living room and kitchen, running water and electricity.

But it was heated by a pot-bellied stove and they cooked on a wood-burning iron stove. The bathroom was an outhouse in the backyard. Ice was delivered every other day until 1951 when the family got a refrigerator and buried a natural gas line and installed a furnace.

Raymond was in construction and built several of the small bungaloes in the area of Iowa Avenue and Yampa Street. He planned to build an entire house above the basement. But he cut off a finger during construction. The resulting medical bills drained the family’s savings so the house was never finished, Marvin Baskett said.

It really wasn’t out-of-place in Knob Hill  a working-class neighborhood east of downtown Colorado Springs and the intersection of Platte Avenue and Union Boulevard.

 It’s one of those places the developed after World War II without much in the way of building codes. It was unincorporated El Paso County and home to folks of modest means.

Some oldtimers say Knob Hill‘s major artery, Platte Avenue (a.k.a. U.S. Highway 24) resembed the two ends of Nevada Avenue, where small motels and shops were built on the outskirts of the city. 

In recent years, residents and business owners formed the Platte Avenue Business & Neighborhood Association, which has worked to improve the area with new medians, sidewalks, curbs and gutters among other projects.

Here are a couple more photos of the Baskett family home.

Here’s a look at a couple other nearby basement houses.

This one is on the northwest corner of Alexander Road and Cache La Poudre Street. For decades, it had a free-standing door at the back, visible on the left, leading down to the house. A few years ago, a house was built atop the basement.

The building below is just down Iowa in Otis Park and has served as a community center.

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IT MAY BE JUST A HOLE IN THE GROUND, but it’s still home sweet home is a post from: Side Streets

South Face is an upper-middle-class neighborhood of about 250 houses built in Rockrimmon beginning in 1993. They are nice houses, multi-level with fancy street lights and well-kept landscaping. 

 South Face sits on the north side of Vindicator Drive, across from Ute Valley Park.  

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Folks there were surprised a month or so ago when a new sign appeared attached to a city traffic sign. Here’s the sign:

The sign sure looks official.

And it was attached to a city traffic sign at the entrance to the neighborhood. Check it out below:

The signs were erected by the South Face Community Association board. The board is determined to enforce covenants that prohibit parking on city streets overnight. Cars must be in driveways. Or else.

Some neighbors were shocked. Some called the Colorado Springs Police Department. Some called Side Streets.

The common question: Can an HOA tow away a car parked legally on a public street?

Neighboring Eagle’s Nest neighborhood has a similar warning attached to a stop sign:

 If both neighborhoods are doing it, it must be legal . . . right?

 Actually . . . no.

CSPD Sgt. Lonnie Spanswick, the parking enforcement guru, said police are the only agency authorized to tow cars from public streets. Absent a court order from a judge, any HOA board calling  a tow truck to enforce covenants about parking on city streets is asking for trouble.

Specifically, they are asking for a criminal charge of motor vehicle theft.

Spanswick said covenants are not law. And HOA boards are not police. They can NOT simply call a tow truck and haul off a car parked in violation of covenants.

Attorney Lenard Rioth said South Face has not towed any cars and would not do so without a court order — a lengthy process in civil court.

He said the signs were erected because some in the neighborhood simply won’t follow the rules they promised to honor when they bought their homes.

Rioth said the streets are narrow, creating safety issues if they are lined with cars at night. They become difficult to plow in snowy weather.

Then there’s the principle involved. Covenants are not dictated to residents. They are self-imposed. Why, Rioth asked, do people move into covenant-protected neighborhoods only to ignore the rules?

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HOA BOARDS BETTER THINK TWICE BEFORE TOWING CARS is a post from: Side Streets

Have we heard the last of Jan Jackson, Colorado’s leading activist in the fight against homeowners associations and assorted other anti-government, anti-Obama, Tea Party, “patriot resistance“ causes?

Jackson spent much of the decade fighting HOAs, as they are known. She has engaged in intensely personal attacks on her own HOA board and her neighbors at the B Lazy M Ranch south of Florissant in Teller County. And she carried on a statewide, even national crusade.

For years, she was a prolific anti-HOA crusader, writing hundreds of articles and Web postings like the one below.

Last spring, in the wake of a major legal victory in which an appellate court lifted a lower court-imposed gag order on Jackson, she disappeared.

Turns out, Jackson had fallen ill and was hospitalized. Then, she suffered the loss of her husband, Richard Thomas, who died July 3 leaving her a widow after 27 years of marriage. The personal tragedy clearly changed her. She has quit her Web radio blog and stopped posting on state and national anti-HOA Web sites. And she has given up efforts to amend the Colorado Constitution to abolish HOAs.

Jackson said she thinks she has done her part, warning the nation about the evils of HOAs. And she intends to remain on the sidelines of future HOA wars unless she really feels the need to get involved.

Here is a link to a previous blog I wrote about Jackson. I’ve written several columns about Jackson over the years. Here is my March 19, 2009, column. Before that, I profiled her on Nov. 12, 2007.

Here’s a link to Jackson’s HOA radio blog site where you can listen to past broadcasts. This takes you directly to an archived broadcast.

 Here’s Jackson’s page on ResistNet, a site for gun owners and the patriotic resistance.

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HAVE WE HEARD THE LAST OF THIS ANTI-HOA ZEALOT? is a post from: Side Streets