Subdivision Newtork Group Draws Full House

More than 45 subdivision trustees from south county to north county met this past Monday, March 30. Attendees were enthusiastic with the program voicing strong support. As one attendee stated, "The networking provided to trustees through this program is the only independent source for training, news and information."

Lt. Troy Doyle of the St. Louis County Police Department was the first of three speakers. He urged subdivisions to focus on Neighborhood Watch programs stressing this is one of the best ways to avoid crime in subdivisions.

Joe Hunt from St. Louis County discussed the County's trash program. While few attendees present participated in the countys trash district program, all voiced full satisfaction.

John O'Connell with the Neighborhood Preservation Department with St. Louis County presented a comprehensive overview of county rules and regulations which cover all subdivisions. Major problems noted by county inspectors included trash stored on property, safety hazards, homes in need of repair, unlicensed cars and other vehicles, number of people living in a home and others.

The Subdivision Networking Group is tentatively planning their next program for October.

Subdivision In Need of Help

We received the following e-mail asking for some help and advice. This situation may not be as unusual as one may think as many builders often start a subdivision and do not end up finishing it. What are your thoughts about this situation? Drop us a note at: subtrustees@swbell.net and we will publish and forward your suggestions. Or you can click on COMMENTS below to post your thoughts. Thanks.

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I own a home in a subdivision where the builder has gone out of business, not bankrupt just closed the doors, with 9 homes occupied out of 44 lots. We do not have a homeowners association at this time as the builder still had control.

The builder also built villas in a development next to our subdivision under a different name where we share amenities such as a pool, part of this development is still active. At this point we are looking for advice as to whether we should be trying to form an association?

Under our covenants there is a successor clause where the builder can transfer the rights to another builder or whoever owns the vacant lots. At this point we do not know who owns the vacant lots, the bank or if the builder has retained title under a different name, but they now need to be mowed. Accurate information is hard to come by so if you have any suggestions as to where we can find answers let me know.

The homeowners all in our subdivision all want to protect our investment but we need advice as to what we should be doing.

Does St. Louis County Do a Good Job Helping Trustees?

We recently did a quickie, non-scientific survey asking the question, “Do you feel St. Louis County is doing a good job in helping trustees maintain the general appearance of their subdivisions?” We provided three answers of YES, NO and NO OPINION.

Nineteen trustees took time to respond. Ten (52%) said “Yes” while eight (42%) said “No.” One person said “No Opinion” (5%).

While the majority was supportive of the efforts of St. Louis County, 4 out of 10 trustees do not. Not a good record. Maybe St. Louis County officials are aware of this and that’s why they recently undertook a series of meetings to connect back with trustees. Or maybe they were just getting ready to do battle regarding the county wide trash pick-up proposal. County officials need to be much more proactive regarding subdivision needs rather than reactive.