Sea Pines Homeowners Association Newsletter

May 4, 2013

Dear Neighbors,

This summer is looking to be somewhat different on the beach, as Mother Nature has done of bit of reconfiguration. It appears to me that a portion of the beach has been scooped up and deposited several feet closer to and on top of the beach grass and dunes. The end result, as of this date anyway, is that there is now a steeper slope to/from the beach. If you recall from last year, when you left the beach path and walked onto the beach, it was a fairly reasonable, smooth, gradual decline down to the water. Right now, it is a series of "sand humps". There is a slight rise as you leave the beach path landing and step onto the sand, followed by a steeper decline into a "trough", another milder rise and then a decline to the water. I suspect this means that, at high tide, water will cross that low hump and settle into the "trough". But who knows - it's only been like this since February as the result of a storm and perhaps another storm before summer will smooth it all out.

The Landing Land residing project quickly approaches completion. It is expected to be complete by mid-May with punch-list items done before the Memorial Day weekend. It surely looks good and the REAL benefit has been the stuff you cannot see - the substantial rot repair in most units (new sills, new underlayment, etc.) Consider this: the average cost per unit for rot repair on the Bluff residing project was around $750/unit. For this Landing Lane residing project, it's about $2,700/unit (!) (unit, not cluster/building.) This sounds bad and some of it has been, but why the big difference? The Bluff units are 5 years newer than Landing Lane units but they are also pummeled by off-season storms and blown sand, something Landing Lane does not suffer. It's the style of siding that makes the difference and is a huge advantage shingle siding (what the Bluff units always had) has over vertical barnboard - it sheds the water (and prevents the rot) much more effectively.

Now the FMB is considering how and when to tackle the residing of Grove, Friendship, Hollow, Knoll and Overlook, using the experiences of the residing projects on the Bluff and Landing Lane to guide them. It is expected that more information about these efforts will be presented at the Annual Meeting on Sunday May 26 starting at 9:30am at the Brewster Ladies Library.

Another change this summer on the beach will be an effort to reduce the often-complained-about issue of non-owners on the beach. On random days of the week throughout July and August, an off-duty police officer will be stationed near the foot shower at the top of the beach path and will be checking names and addresses of everyone trying to get onto the beach. More information about this effort will be presented at the Annual Meeting.

Parking at Sea Pines can be difficult in the summer. Use your garage and your driveway. If you don't have a garage, you have an assigned space dictated by the title to your unit. If you don't have a driveway then you have one additional unassigned space anywhere in Sea Pines. That's it. If your garage is full of stuff and cannot be used to store a car, that does not give you the right to some other spot - you have lost one of your reserved parking spots by doing this. Do not have your family, guests and friends park their cars around your unit, since this means that you are essentially taking spots used by other unit owners who have rights to these spots, which your family/guests/friends do not. Instead, have these folks park at the Clubhouse or at the tennis court by the graveyard.

Did you know that Mercantile offers the option of having your monthly condo fee automatically withdrawn from your bank account? Doing so saves Sea Pines money since the cost of printing the monthly coupons and mailing them to you is eliminated. It saves you a bit of money also since you don't have to pay postage (which just went up again in January!) to mail it in every month. All it takes to get this done is filling out a form and supplying a voided check. Contact Mercantile for information and the form.

The approved minutes of the previous FMB are always posted on the Clubhouse bulletin board. If you would like these minutes emailed to you, please send me your name, Sea Pines address and email address. To be added to the minutes email list, your email address must be the same as the one published for you in the Sea Pines homeowner directory.

If you want to make improvements to your unit, please read the rules posted on http://SeaPinesBrewster.com under "Interior/Exterior Improvement Rules". Almost any exterior modification requires an approved variance as do many interior modifications. The variance process is not all that hard, but it must be followed. Failure to follow the process could result in you being forced to undo or remedy your modifications, with daily fines imposed until the issues are satisfactorily remedied.

The next FMB is Saturday May 25 at 8:30am. The Annual Meeting will be on Sunday May 26 at 9:30am at The Brewster Ladies Library. Please attend the Annual Meeting - our community works better when more voices are heard.

Sincerely,


19 Landing Lane