HomeMy WebLinkAboutSupplmnt Info - T13008 The Summit RECEIVED
11/13/2014 C'PALM DE5ER��CA �
2014 MOY I 2 AM 9� 5 I
I-�onorable 1Vlayor Tanner and City Council Members:
We are asking you to reject the City's proposal to abandon its drainage
easements for the four concrete drainage channels in the Summit.
If this proposal passes, The Summit HOA will be stripped of any and all
author�ty it has over the four drainage channels. They will revert back to
22 separate concrete areas averaging 800 square feet in 22 different
private backyards and the CC&Rs will not apply. The City's proposal
literally eliminates any oversight or control of a vital part of our
interconnected Summit drainage system.
Let's talk about what will actually happen to the 22 homeowners who
back up to the four drainage channels if the City of 1'a1m l�esert is
allowed to abandon those easements. This is an outrageously
impractical and dangerous notion. A drainage system is by definition
there to protect the lives and property of the people it serves. No one's
safety should be placed in jeopardy by taking a piece of the Summit
�rainage system and forcing nonprofessionals to monitor i�, clean it ,
maintain and repair it.
1 . All of these homes have tract maps that clearly show that the City of
Palm Desert is responsibie for these easements and for the ongoing
maintenance of the Summit drainage system. They see the City Public
Works crew ciea.ning dra.ins at the street every two months. This creates
a reasonable expectation that the City is cleaning and maintaining the
entire drainage system, not just skipping part of it. Whenever there was
an emergency, the City was called and sent their crew to clean the
channels.
2. Most of these homeowners are here only as part time vacationers.
They are not even present to monitor debris that may have stopped
behind their property after a storm. Some occupants are renters who turn
over frequently. Many are senior citizens. Out of the blue, they would
be as�ked to care for their portion of a concrete drainage channel some
sections of which are cracked and leaking already. Would you want to
live on any of these channels?
3. Some backyards have short walls or no wa11s abutting the drainage
channel behind their homes. If their neighbor's debris blocks the
channel, they will be flooded. Other homes have 6 ft walls with
landscaping on top of the walls . Those homeowners don't even see the
dra.inage channels and they don't have access to them. It is neither safe
nor practical to assume they will fulfill this responsibility.
4. All of these homeowners pay the same homeowner association fees
and city taxes but will be treated differently than the rest of the Summit
homeowners. A new and unexpected and undeserved financial burden
will be foisted upon them.
5. If two homes of equal value are for sale in the Summit and one is on
a drainage channel and the owner needs to explain to every prospective
buyer that the home comes with an obligation to maintain a portion of a
concrete drainage ditch, which home will sell first? Which home has
been de facto devalued by the City's abandonment of it's responsibility?
6. �['here is an abundance of law regarding ea.sements. The City's failure
to regularly maintain only the four drainage channels and one other drain
while regularly maintaining the rest of the Summit drainage system
(without notification to the Summit that it was doing so} violated the
rights of the homeowners in the Summit and placed them in danger.
The City attempted via its Staff Report to say that the drainage channels
carried no water, had no further use, had little chance of flooding, and
did not carry water that entered from Bighorn. Every one of these
statements is false according to the attached letters and pictures from
various Summit homeowners whose properties back up to the drainage
channels. Homeowners have verified that the channels carry water, and
serve a purpose and that water enters from Bighorn. The City's failure to
maintain a drain and drainage channel caused one home to be flooded at
48721 North View Dr in the heavy rainstorm of August 2013. Also
atta.ched is a letter from a witness to that flooding and the flooding of the
garage of the home next door. No one wants a repeat of that. We all
want to be safe. The City needs to fulfill its legal obligations and not try
to use a 35 yea.r old clerical error (failure to note each easement as
"accepted") to sidestep their responsibility.
The atta.ched letters and pictures are in addition to the 65 yellow protest
responses from Summit homeowners opposing the City's
recommendation to abandon its drainage channel easements. The City
has the expertise, the staff, and the equipment and they are already on
site in the Summit every two months. The small number of fences, etc
will be removed and it will be easy to walk the full length of the
channels to clean them. Please take the outpouring of homeowner
protests seriously and reject the City's recommendation.
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Donna and Bill Mandelstam � ',
October 10,2014
My name is Alan Kaplan of Alan Kaplan Pooi Service in Paim Desert. I have serviced and maintained pools in
The Sumrriit development for the last 30 years.
t maintained the pool at 48721 North Vew Dr for Rasvan Buhescu and his wife for several years before they
moved out of the area in Feb of 20�4. The prope►ty is now in foreclosure.
I was present when the clogged C'rty of Palm Desert drainage channei behind their home and the City inlet drain
on the City easements on their property overflowed in the big rainstam of August 2013. I saw water pour
through the backyard from the City drainage chan�el dov�m the steps and irtto the Buhescu living room. I aiso
saw the water run through their yard and down hill through their side yard irrto the garage of the Mande(stam
residence at 7269'1 Spyglass Ln. I saw the Mandelstams shoveling mud out of the driveway and cleaning water
out of the garage with brooms. I cleaned the mud out of the Buhescu pool,drained the poof and cleaned the
pool decking following the storm_
Mr Buhescu contacted Flood Tech company to clean up after the flooding but he did not hire them because the
estimate was too high.
t also mai�ain other poots on Spygiass Ln and Valley Vew that back up to the drainage channels.
Over the years I have seen water enter the channei from Bighom through the 10 f�oles in the Summit perimeter
wall behind 4872i North Vew Dr whenever there is a heavy rairrstorm. The holes are almost directly behind the
pool that I maintain and water still comes through them and goes into the channel and the drain when we have
significant rainstorms_
I have also scen City mairrter�ance crews clean up the channels periodicalty over the years. I saw them clean the
drainage channets several fimes in the 1980's and the 1990's but not in recent years
Alan Kaplan
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760=2y9-5809
Subject: Re: City of Palm Desert's proposal to abandon their drainage channel easements
From: C. Gerald King (cgking3@yahoo.com)
To: dm515@sbcglobal.net;
Date: Tuesday, October 28, 20141:05 PM
Donna & Bill,
Water does run in the channel on the backside of my property at 48-601 Valley View Dr. In last years
heavy rain, the channel would not handle all the water and the area where that channel drains in to the
large channel on the North side of the property washed out. Not being there at that time of the year, I
don't know if the area washed out was caused by the city not maintaining the channel at the back of
the property or that the channel was not sufficient to handle all the water caused by the flood
conditions in August 2013.
When we first moved in in 1998, it appeared the city was not keeping the channeis clear, and after
considerable rain that winter, my wife called the city, they quickly came and cleaned both channels
and have done an adequate job since except maybe for the back channel last year.
The channel on the west side of my property drains a lot of runoff from the condominium complex
west of ine as does the large channel on the north side.
I personally believe it is irresponsible for the city of Palm Desert not to maintain these channels and
their entry into the city's storm drain system.
Please let me know if I can be of further help. I regret we won't be in Palm Desert at the time of the
meeting.
Gerald King
360-681-8747
SubJect: Re: Ciiy of Palm Desert plans to abandon Summit drainage channels
From: Kathy Bjork (kbjo67@yahoo.com)
To: dm515@sbcglobal.net;
Date: Sunday, October 19, 2014 222 PM
Donna,
I have attached a letter for Paim Desert along with photographs of our drainage hole.
I hope this helps. Let me know how this complaint progresses.
Kathy Bjork
October 19, 2014
City of Palm Desert:
Palm Desert is a city to be proud of. This is due, in part, to the excellent care
from the maintenance crews that work to see that the vegetation is trimmed, the
streets are paved and the public areas kept free of clutter.
When we moved to the desert many years ago we chose to buy a home in Palm
Desert. We were attracted by its neat appearance, parks and
shopping, the lack of contention among the city council and willingness to listen
to citizen concerns. My husband and I have been residents since 1977 and have
resided in our current home in The Summit since1986.
When we bought our house it had a cement drainage channel that ran the length
of our backyard at the top of our embankment. We were told it was part of a flood
control easement owned by the city and they would be responsible for its
maintenance. In the twenty-eight years we have lived here we recall only two
instances where we saw evidence that someone from the city had cleaned the
channel, and this was in the late 1980's.
We, ourselves, have worked to keep the area clean of leaves, mud and other
debris that accumulates in the channe{. This has been quite an investment of our
time and effort, especially since our property is the highest point and apex to#he
channel.
To add to our labors, Big Horn Development dug a hole in our fence, authorized
by�the city, to let water and debris drain from their neighborhood. Every time
there is even a moderate amount of rain, or when they water extensively, we are
left with a muddy mess next to the hole. We were told the opening would be
upgraded; we were even shown drawings of a structure that would be instailed to
help channel the water. This has never been built.
It is disturbing that Palm Desert has not lived up to their responsibility. They were
quick to grant an expensive development permission to drill a hole in our wall to
permit water and mud to flow from their property into our yard_ Yet they do not
appear to care how it affects the homeowners whose yard it broaches.
I offer my support to the homeowners in The Summit who have brought their
concerns about this problem to the City.
Kathy Bjork HYPERLINK "mailto:kbjo67@yahoo.com" 'V'���`;-���?,�_�:`�:���:����
72631 Spyglass Lane
Palm Desert