1. Parking Request by Neighbor.
Our next door neighbor on Murray Blvd. has requested that we allow him usage of the FSH parking space closest to his house. He has offered to pay FSH a monthly fee for this privilege. The Board will investigate any liability issues, current prices for peninsula parking spaces, and respond to this request in early 2011. The Board would like feedback from Association members. If you have any opinions about this request, please contact a Board member.
2. Budget for 2011.
Please see attached 2011 budget. The Board discussed each line item and agreed on the 2011 budget. Highlights of the discussion:
- We were able to stay within the 2010 budget because we lost one employee and we changed the employee schedules to eliminate any overlap. The Board agreed to keeping the current level of staffing and schedule. If more help is needed, we will hire temps.
- The 2011 budget for Accounting, Elevators, Security, Taxes, Corp. Income Tax, Air Conditioning, Gen. Painting, Lobby, Capital Repairs, and Legal Professional remain the same as last year.
- We reduced the 2011 budget for the following items: Insurance, Janitorial, Office Supplies/Phones,Salaries, Unemployment Insurance, Pool, Building Inspections, Misc., and Plumbing/Electric.
- We increased the 2011 budget for General Repairs/Maintenance, Water/Sewer, and Grounds.
- We added a new line item on the 2011 budget for the Reserve Replacement Account that is needed to reduce the impact of future assessments and to meet mortgage company requirements to contribute a minimum of 10% of regime fee to a reserve replacement account annually. See below for details.
Our income sources are regime fees, and the money generated from laundry machines and the antennae leases. Currently we use all of these funds for our yearly budget and no money is set aside for a reserve replacement account. More and more banks are requiring a funded Reserve Replacement account for mortgage lending. Passage of the Transfer Fee amendment to the Master Deed to help fund a Reserve Replacement account has failed for 3 years. The Board has agreed to an increase of 5% to the 2011 regime fee, specifically to help fund this account. The 5% increase only partially meets the funding requirement. The Board believes we must have a way to fully fund a reserve replacement account other than future regime fee increases and will pursue the following options in 2011:
- We will ask for legal advice regarding the Sections 18 and 19 in the Master Deed that provide for a transfer fee for the original FSH development company. Section 19 allows for the collection of 2 months regime fees for this purpose upon sale of apartment. Is it legal to implement the Section 19 provision now?
- We will try again for passage of an amendment for a Transfer Fee. The Board believes we have not emphasized the importance of this fee previously and that it is not understood clearly by Association members. We will discuss changing the proposed amendment to be similar to Section 19 in the Master Deed (collect 2 months regime fees instead of a percentage of sale price), and again attempt to get this passed in 2011.
3. Building and Maintenance Items.
Discussion focused on:
- The excessive water bills continue to be a concern. Joe is following up with pool company on locating possible pool leaks. He will also ask Cullum if there may be some leakage from the cooling towers. It was noted that there is a leak in the ceiling of the storage room on the 1st floor, but this is not thought to be significant enough to cause the large increase in water usage. Joe is investigating the leak in the storage room. Subsequent to our meeting, we exchanged emails about checking all of the toilets in the building to see if any toilets may be contributing to the leakage. We will discuss this idea further in our next meeting.
- We agree that we need to pressure wash the building in 2011. We think this will cost about $6,000 – $8,000, so we need to anticipate this work.
- The FSH computer has crashed again. It is more than 5 years old and the Board unanimously agreed to purchase a new computer system.
- Estimates on the balcony and railing repairs are in process.
- Dick Donohoe continues his investigation of placing solar panels on the roof. Randy Bates, Jr. (unit 105) has experience with solar energy and has contacted us to assist in this investigation.
4. Amendment to Master Deed – Rental of Apartments.
Pursuant to the discussion at the Annual Meeting about the time period for rental of units, the Board proposes adding the following sentence to the Master Deed Paragraph #17 (i) SALE OR LEASE to clarify the minimum length of time for a rental: “Leases or subleases of Apartments for a period of less than six (6) months are prohibited.”
- The Board agreed to present this amendment to the FSH Association for a vote. A majority of 2/3rds of membership voting “yes” is required to pass this amendment. If you have comments on this, please send us an email.
5. Usage of Commercial Space on 1st Floor.
Pursuant to the discussion at the Annual Meeting about a gourmet market with restrooms in unit #101, the Board discussed changing Exhibit G in the Master Deed to incorporate (1) a restriction in commercial usage on the 1st floor after a unit has been a residential unit for more than 1 year and (2) a restriction to prohibit any food service establishments in the commercial space on the 1st floor.
- For (1): the restriction on commercial use after a unit has been a residential unit is already covered by the paragraphs a – f in the Charleston, South Carolina, Zoning >> Article 1 – General Provisions>>Part 2 – NON-CONFORMING USES section of the zoning ordinances. The Board agreed that there is no need to incorporate such a provision in our Master Deed since it is already covered in the zoning ordinance.
- For (2): a discussion followed about making a Master Deed change to limit usage and prohibit any food service establishments in the commercial space on the 1st floor. It was pointed out that restricting the use of these commercial spaces impacts the property values for those owners. Some units on the first floor have never been used for residential use, and some may not be conducive to such use, due to proximity to the loading dock, for example. Historically, there have been commercial ventures (Festival Club restaurant, gift shop, dress shop) on the 1st floor, all occurring after the changeover from the hotel use to condo use. It was also pointed out that the commercial space on the 1st floor is zoned “General Business” by the City’s Zoning Commission and zoning trumps anything the Association tries to restrict either with an amendment to the Master Deed or by adding an additional rule to the Rules and Regulations. The Board will continue our discussions on this in a future meeting.
Attendees: George Boniface, Beth Dixon, Joy Jarvis, Dick Donohoe, Jay Jacobs, Joe Yetsko
I applaud the BOD’s ongoing efforts to manage the budget. I believe the decision to lease parking spaces to non-owners deserves serious attention. It will create a precedent and precedents often become policy. The parking lots are part of our common areas. As an owners’ association, do we want to do this? I do not think the issue is how many parking spots we have, rather it is whether we are willing to start siphoning off the common area assets.
Thanks, Martha!
We have had comments from other owners that concur with your comments. At our last Board meeting, we discussed this and decided against renting any parking spaces in the Murray Blvd. parking lot. I’ll be posting the summary of our meeting shortly that will give more details about our discussion on this topic. –Beth