Notes

6/9/08

My name is Don Slaughter. My wife and I have owned our home in Eastbluff since 1984. We live on Aralia Street. We do not have a view. I was a member of the 1995 Eastbluff Governing Documents Committee for three years and a member of the Board of Directors of the Eastbluff Homeowner's Association on two separate occasions. I am a lawyer and practice law here in Newport Beach.

As you may know, the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (the "CC&Rs") for Eastbluff set forth limits on tree heights (no higher than the height of the house) and require that new construction be approved by the Architectural Committee as in "harmony of external design and location in relation to surrounding structures and topography." Based on this language, the Board of Directors of Eastbluff has adopted Architectural Guidelines which it follows in considering approval of new construction. The current guidelines are based upon the theme of "neighbor notification" as they pertain to new construction. As can be seen from the wide variety of construction in Eastbluff, the powers of the Architecural Committee are quite limited.

Pursuant to Article IV of the CC&Rs, the "powers and duties" of the Architectural Committee expire on January 13, 2011. After that date, there will be limits on tree heights and no architecural controls in Eastbluff for new construction. The CC&Rs also provide that a majority of the homeowners can vote to extend the powers of the Architectural Committee which shall "thereafter exercise the same powers previously exercised by said committee."

There will soon be a community wide vote about the extension of the architectural and tree height controls in Eastbluff. If the majority votes in favor of extension of the controls, the powers and duties of the Architectural Committee will continue and vice versa. I personally would be in favor of extending the existing architectural controls but will abide by whatever the majority decides. Elimination of the controls will significantly reduce the work load of the homeowners association as an inordinate amount of time is spent by the Board on disputes over tree heights and new construction.

The Board has appointed a new Governing Documents Committee to advise on the extension.

The reason I have started this website is to keep the Eastbluff community informed as to the activities of certain view homeowners. I am concerned these view homeowners may attempt to use the extension of the architectural and tree height controls as a way to impose the long sought after View Protection in Eastbluff.

Some view homeowners want to limit contruction on neighboring lots so as to protect their view. The proper way to accomplish this goal is to amend the CC&Rs to provide for view protection. The problem for the view protection advocates is that an amendment to the CC&Rs requires a 75% approval of the homeowners. Given that the view homeowners are a minority of the homes in Eastbluff, an amendment to the CC&R's imposing view protection is deemed virtually impossible to obtain.

Despite the supermajority requirement for a vote to amend the CC&Rs, I am aware of 4 separate proposals to impose view control in Eastbluff, none of which have succeeded. I call the varuiys attempts:

1. Majority vote and then sue to declare the supermajority invalid.

2. The bylaw solution.

3. Judicially imposed view protection.

4. Self-Imposed view protection.

Each of these were an attempt to "end run" the CC&Rs and are more completely detailed in the "View Protection Attempts" tab up to the left. Another attempt to end run the CC&rs is what I am once again anticipating. It will be nicely packaged and eminently reasonable. When you get to the bottom, however, it will be VIEW PROTECTION and the homes at the top will be trying to take value from the homes at the bottom.

I will keep you posted.