Meeting Minutes (December 1st, 2003)

December 1st, 2003

Present

• Robert Butler - Committee Chairperson
• Dawn Moss (attending for Tres Moss)
• John Omdahl
• Patrick Brady

Not Present

The following members of the committee were not present:

• Cecilia Hillman
• Cynthia Smith
• David Smith
• Frank Wolk
• Gary Holman
• Kelly Wilson
• Kim Wong-Smith
• Jeana Boddy
• Joel Parker
• Jerry Phillips
• Lisa Dobrucki
• Michael White
• Michelle Blocker

Items discussed

• Introduction
• There were only four persons present at the meeting last night, so it looks like we'll have to conduct most of this vote electronically. If necessary, we can hold another in-person meeting next week.
• Discuss complaints, approval and restriction on homeowner flagpoles.
• The first item of discussion concerned the policy for flag poles, and as I expected there was some heated debate. I've mentioned this before, but feel the need to reinforce it again -- the presence or absence of a flag POLE in no way impacts the display of a FLAG. However, at least one person on the committee sees the disapproval of flag poles as inherently unpatriotic, perceiving that removal of a pole amounts to removal of a flag (specifically the U.S. flag).
• There are four options going forward (I came up with 1b after a discussion with a neighbor last night, which is why it was not discussed during the meeting).
  1. Allow any / all residents to have flag poles in their yard.
  2. Same as 1, except limit to a specific set of specifications (ie, all poles must have the same composition, height, diameter, installation, etc.)
  3. Disallow any future flag poles, grandfather the two existing.
  4. Disallow all flag poles, and require the two existing poles to be removed.
• Discuss complaints, and whether to limit holiday decorations.
• The second item of discussion was the display of holiday decorations. A good point brought up last night was that if we are going to require removal of displays thirty days after a holiday, that we should also consider prohibiting display thirty days prior to a holiday (for example, displaying Christmas decorations around Halloween). So, the options are:
  1. No restrictions on holiday displays (no change).
  2. Removal of displays thirty days after.
  3. Same as 2, additionally prohibit displays thirty days prior.

Action Items

• Robert Butler: Revise current wording on amendments to the Community Beautification Standards
• Get further input and votes from committee members.