Letter from City of La Quinta

The City of La Quinta recently sent all Property Owners/Residents a letter. Come to think of it, they may have mailed to all property addresses so a tenant may receive a letter that an Owner/Landlord is not aware of.

The letter is an advance notification of Neighborhood Survey of Code Violations. The letter intimates that they've used numerous means to gather information and it's apparent there are many Code Violations throughout the City resulting in their need to commence identifying and addressing all code violations. One would assume the information is from the violations called in, surveys received, etc. including but not limited to personal observations of employees. This mass effort would seem extraordinary if we did not know how funding and employee numbers have been reduced over the years. In better times, there were more employees to handle these issues without a massive effort, that I remember anyway.

You might think that they should be doing something else with their time however there are many problems this will address. Staying on the positive, you should expect to see and hear less and less of vermin problems, insect/bee/wasp problems, stored materials which may hold water leading to mosquito problems (Zika issues), or stored materials which may hide a burglar snooping about and it  certainly should clean up the frontage of certain homes and ultimately providing us a higher quality of life to enjoy our ownership/residency which leads to property appreciation.

The clock is ticking so if you think you may have an issue call and ask (760) 777-7000. If the city gets involved with notices, citations and corrections it can only mean a more expensive scenario for you.

Attempted Burglary

Recently one of our neighbors had their doorbell rung at 3:00 in the morning. She turned all her lights on and yelled at them through the door. Peeking out the window disclosed no one so it is apparent that someone has developed a new process ... waiting for someone to "not answer or respond" then expecting that it's a snowbird's home or maybe someone on vacation. This is a real good reminder to remain alert, take some time to consider what you would do if this happened to you and re-consider how your security is serving you.  Think about keeping your car keys next to your bed ... you can always push the button and get the alarm going. Much better to apologize to the neighbors the next morning when you and your property are safe.

The Desert Pride Story

To all Desert Pride residents including current members of North La Quinta Next Door Neighbor residing in Desert Pride,

So where do you live? Desert Pride ... Where's that? ...

Desert Pride is defined as the property bordered by Adams to the East, Miles to the North, the dog parks, etc. to the West and the Wash to the South. With no signage on any of the three entrances, one on Miles and two on Adams, it suffers an identity crisis. Of the 25 defined developments involving Real Estate ownership in North La Quinta, Desert Pride is one. It is also the largest un-gated development ... 

The original Builder was Spanos Development and after a bit gave way to Inco homes. Inco built approximately 1/3 of the the development. Inco was the one who brought forth the "Desert Pride' name on their Homeowners manuals and related paperwork. 'Century Homes' completed construction which constituted approximately 60% of the homes (They also built the 'Marbella' development right across Adams which they started first). Many early Desert Pride owners became accustomed to the name 'Marbella II' because that was showing on the CCR's  they all signed as potential purchasers. Since no one developer completed the entire build out, no official name was assigned to the development and no signs placed at the entrances..

Desert Pride started out being known as and is still referenced at City Hall as 'Reunion' as we saw in the Maintenance Assessment proposals that have thankfully been tabled by the City. The Police Department calls it 4OC1 or 'Four Oh Charlie One'. Owners of Century built homes call it Marbella II. Real Estate Agents picked up 'Desert Pride' as the development started to get off the ground and that is what has carried on in the community, including official designation as such in the local Multiple Listing Service; again, most City of La Quinta residents have no idea of what it is called since there is no signage ...

A number of years ago several people met to discuss and implement a Neighborhood Watch. This was productive as several meetings occurred in our park with City of La Quinta officials and Police representatives. Our identity started to come forth. New Neighborhood Watch signs were installed by the City at each of the entrances however the expense was picked up by the Neighborhood Watch. We then encountered a setback in the Real Estate market wherein there was no significant activity and growth in the Neighborhood watch effort stagnated. In the recent come back period, Neighborhood Watch was able to entice the city to place Speed Limit Legends on numerous streets (an effort commenced in 2013). Conversations with the City of La Quinta and Neighborhood Watch have ensued to get a new slurry on our streets, of course, with the speed limit legends being added back on. We've found these legends to be helpful however it is an ongoing process to educate residents of the safety benefits and other important topics ...

There have been a few attempts to publicize Next Door Neighbor. Many of our fellow residents have checked it out and signed up. We have seen a good percentage of our residents join Next Door Neighbor, in fact, 20% of the active members in North La Quinta and anticipate may more in the near future. Admittedly, this is a better response than Neighborhood Watch had ever received to date. Finally, the background is established and we are getting of the gist of this writing ... It's all about Desert Pride.

Of the 25 developments in North La Quinta only Esplanade (the largest gated development) has it's own Next Door Neighborhood set up. They can correspond solely with not only the residents of their community but also with everyone in the surrounding neighborhoods they choose to. The balance of the developments are lumped into one large Neighborhood called North La Quinta. This was at a decision of one person in the community who is known as the Founding Member. This person made the decision for us all because that's the way the website works and being based in San Mateo, CA they have no idea how our neighborhoods work as opposed to those urbans areas.   The issue with the Founding Member making that choice was and is not aware of the identity problem we here in Desert Pride are burdened with. It would be optimal to be able to disseminate Desert Pride information (such as speed limit legends, etc.) solely to our development to increase the benefit of ownership and further to advise of garage sales, warn of car break-ins, burglaries, plus take further steps to establish our identity and we can do this without losing the posted information by other local neighbors that we see each day. This won't change ...

It would seem that if we can secede from North La Quinta and establish our own "Desert Pride" Next Door Neighborhood, we can do a much better job of information sharing in the development for Neighborhood Watch issues (All of which has been and continues to be at no obligation to any individual Owners). We can take a better role in improving the quality of life in Desert Pride and increase property values. We can take a more active role in establishing our identity which can also lead to better property values. We can continue to take advantage of all the information that is currently shared; and when we choose to keep things within the confines of our development it's a snap. Residents may reply here or if you are already a member of Next Door Neighbor, please respond to the Private Message you received and share your thoughts. It would be nice to have a record of this right within Next Door Neighbor for the Website's review if they like  ...

The Federal Reserve raise their Key Interest rate ...

 The Federal Reserve raised the key interest rate (Fed Funds) from 0.25% to 0.50%. It's been a long time since this has occurred however they feel You will see that this sill start to cost you more for nearly everything you do ... Read the full story from the Associated Press ...



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FEDERAL_RESERVE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-12-16-14-01-26

CVWD increases conservation programs, drought penalties

If you are like me at all, I have not been following the printed materials in my water bills recently because I switched to Desertscape. This was obviously a bad move because of several things. Check out this article from CVWD of November 10th ...

The Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) Board of Directors today committed additional money for rebate programs, adopted a ban on irrigation on certain days of the week, and increased drought penalties.
The new measures were adopted to help CVWD meet its state water conservation mandate. The state is requiring CVWD customers to reduce overall domestic water use by 36% when compared to the same month in 2013 or face penalties of up to $10,000 per day.

The board approved $2 million in additional conservation funding with most of it going to CVWD’s conservation rebate programs. In addition, a consultant will be hired to perform comprehensive water audits for some of the district’s largest water users, and academic consultants would be hired to perform targeted research and public education messaging to promote reduced water use.
The board approved new day-of-use restrictions for irrigation. Starting Dec. 1 and through March 31, outdoor irrigation for CVWD domestic customers will be prohibited on Mondays and Thursdays.
Drought penalties were increased for water use in tiers 3-5. The increased drought penalties will go into effect with December water use for bills produced in January. 

Under the increased drought penalties, residents who do not limit their outdoor water use to 36% below their monthly budget are subject to drought penalties structured as follows:

Water use in Tier 1:                             No Penalty
Water use in Tier 2, up to 64%            No Penalty
Water use in Tier 2, above 64%          Regular rate + $2.51/unit
Water use in Tier 3                              Regular rate + $5/unit
Water use in Tier 4                              Regular rate + $10/unit
Water use in Tier 5:                             Regular rate + $20/unit

About 76% of CVWD customers currently are meeting the drought budgets. As a result, about 5 billion gallons of water have been saved by CVWD domestic customers compared to water use in 2013.
Statewide mandatory water-use restrictions remain in effect, including prohibiting water runoff and irrigation during and 48 hours following rain. In addition, CVWD requires sprinklers to be fixed within 24 hours and leaks to be fixed as soon as possible.

CVWD continues to strongly discourage overseeding during the drought.

The state considers a month-to-month rolling average when considering a district’s conservation efforts. CVWD customers saved 21.3% in June, 40.6% in July, 26.5% in August, 16.4% less water in September, and 27.7%  less water in October. The average over the five-month period is 27%.

For conservation rebate programs, tips and additional information, visit  www.cvwd.org
The Coachella Valley Water District is a public agency governed by a five-member board of directors. The district provides domestic and irrigation water, agricultural drainage, wastewater treatment and reclamation services, regional storm water protection, groundwater management and water conservation.

El Nino follow up ...

While you are thinking about the possibilities, check out this Red Cross site of checklists for numerous situations, in particular:  Winter Storms, Thunderstorms, Power Outage, Earthquake and when you think you are done, check again for your littlest members of the family - Pet Safety ...

http://www.redcross.org/prepare/disaster-safety-library

Everyone is warning us that this is an El Nino year ... Are you ready?

Don't say that nobody warned you ... We've been hearing it for weeks and a great article appeared in the LA Times about a month ago which I include for your review ...

http://www.latimes.com//home/la-hm-el-nino-20151017-story.html