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ANTHEM COMPENDIUM ARTICLE
by Favil West
Anthem Compendium, December 2, 2004
Ladies and
Gentlemen:
As we near the Holiday Season, I thought it appropriate to bring those
of you who cannot or do not attend Board meetings up to date on what is
happening here at Sun City Anthem as well as to provide you with a brief
history of a issues that are being distorted by people with questionable
intentions.
DUES
By now you all know that for the 4th consecutive year your
dues will not increase. This is the result of a very concerned Board of
Directors, Finance Committee, and Community Association Management
working closely together to find ways of more effectively managing the
Association. Two years ago, the Board approved the lease of Trumpets to
an outside group which, according to the Finance Committee is the
primary reason for no dues increase. Additional steps taken have been
the reduction in full time personnel, changing insurance carrier, etc.
TRUMPETS
Many of you have joined the community since
we leased Trumpets so you may not be aware of the chronology of events
that brought about the lease and the events that created an issue:
The lease of
the restaurant alone resulted in a profit to the Association of more
than $10,000 per month as opposed to losing more than $21,000 per month
prior to the lease.
The management and enforcement of certain provisions of the lease has
come under scrutiny since it was announced at the Finance Committee
meeting in October that the lessee may be subject to penalties and
indeed may be in arrears in the payment of those penalties. A number
bandied around the rumor mill is that Trumpets owes the Association
about $100,000. I think all will agree that this figure is absurd
especially in the light that the lease has only been in effect for 24
months and if the lessee never paid a single payment on time the maximum
they could owe, under the terms of the lease, would be around ¼ of that
figure.
The Board has taken action to determine how management is enforcing
provisions of the lease, what if any money is owed for penalties and
interest, as well as the reasoning behind why the Association withheld
as much as $60,000 from the lessee over a period of 16 months, etc.
The Board has directed the controller to provide them with complete
documentation by the end of December. A public workshop will be
scheduled in early January where the issue will be thoroughly discussed.
A report will then be made to the Board. At this point nobody has any
answers so anything you hear before the workshop should be considered
nothing more than idle rumor.
SCHEDULING
A number of our residents are laboring under
the assumption that events in the ballroom and other areas of the Center
are scheduled or controlled by Trumpets. Some are convinced that
Trumpets uses the facility more than do the residents. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Trumpets events like all other events, are only
scheduled through the Association. Each, any, and all “deviations” from
the agreement are only approved by the Manager.
USAGE
As many of you know, the Board is furnished with monthly room use
reports. Included in these report are figures on catering done
exclusively by Trumpets. This figure includes weddings, parties, etc.
I will use September figures as an example, as the month is typical.
Of the 1,048 hours of room use of the Center during the month of
September, a total of 363 hours or 35% of the time was event time. Of
those 363 hours, 149 hours were events such as weddings exclusively sold
by Trumpets and held primarily on Saturdays, with a fewer number on
Fridays and Sundays. The balance, or 214 hours of event usage was sold
by our activities department. Only 14% of the total of 1048 hours was
Trumpets generated. We hear literally hundreds of stories about how
Trumpets is taking advantage of the lease. All of these rumors are
started and spread by the same small group and so it goes. I personally
follow up on each complaint I receive either with the Security Patrol,
the Manager On Duty, or the monitor. In
addition, on weekends when a big wedding is planned and I am not
otherwise engaged, I often go up to the Center to see for myself how the
event is going. What we have learned is that, generally speaking,
Trumpets guests are not a problem. Most of the complaints we receive
turn out to be complaints about resident’s children, guests, or
grandchildren. All fights, bad language, and disagreements, right or
wrong, have been with our residents.
At times, we forget, this is a public building and not a private club.
Folks can walk around the Center, they can use the restaurant, but they
are disallowed from using the facilities reserved for resident and guest
use. Keep in mind, our Center is as much a sales tool for our residents
as it is for Del Webb.
ANTHEM MASTER
PLAN
Many of our newer residents are not aware that nearly three years ago we
found ourselves, as a community, in substantial disagreement with Del
Webb over changes they were proposing to the Anthem Master Plan. These
changes included reducing the number of homes to be built in SCA to
approximately 6000 from 10,000, building a new multi-generational
community to be called Anthem Highlands to the east and south of Anthem
Center, and to build a new age restricted community called Solera on the
balance of the land. In addition they would build one addition to the
Center totaling 10,000 SF.
As some of you remember, I was handed a petition, by one of our
residents, containing more than 300 names asking “Favil
West to organize and lead the residents in opposition to the changes to
the Anthem Master Plan.” A series of meetings were organized and held
during which we received direction from the residents as to what action
they wanted us to take. A negotiating team was formed and approved by
the residents, to pursue this issue. The team was made up of Bob Berman,
Carol Chapman, Lorraine Kennett, Len Penn, Dick Sovde, with Favil West
as Chairman. After three months of intensive and at times acrimonious
negotiations, we brought an agreement to the residents for approval.
This agreement (click
here) included the increase from 10,000 SF to approximately 50,000
SF of new facilities as well as new swimming pools, tennis courts, bocce
courts, etc., certain golf play privileges, as well as $1,375,000
for the construction of a cogeneration power plant. Absent being able to
build the plant, this money is to be deposited in our reserve fund.
Nearly 1,800 residents out of a total of approximately 3,500 attended
the meetings to learn about the agreement. A vote was taken at the
conclusion of each meeting. Exactly 11 people voted against the
agreement, which, said another way means that over 99 % voted for the
agreement.
One of our residents, after supporting, indeed, voting for the agreement
to modify the proposed changes to the Anthem Master Plan subsequently
(more than a year later) unilaterally decided, at least in his mind,
something had changed and attempted to generate support among the
residents to reopen the agreement. A few attended his meetings but his
arguments were unconvincing and at the end of the day the issue died for
lack of support.
In my opinion, this proved that overwhelming majority of our residents
cannot be misled by idle talk, rumor, and printed word not supported by
facts. As far as monitoring the agreement goes, let me assure you that
the negotiating team monitors the agreement very carefully and continues
to find that the agreement reached is being honored by Del Webb
Corporation, without exception.
Typical of the emails we received regarding the agreement was the
following from Ron Johnson in support of our activities. It is printed
in full as follows:
I’m hoping you are having continued success with your negotiations. Smoke signals were beginning to appear on the horizon this day, even as this nasty wind was whirling about. If you were bothered by all those accolades on the first go-around, think what must await you as you continue to pull rabbit after rabbit out of that Del Webb box you have so well defined. Kudos. Perhaps, you may suggest, I attribute too much to your individual efforts. In reality, though, we residents seemed to have the best of both worlds, an active and committed group of residents, strong and dedicated leadership, but, more significantly I have no doubt, were your unique talents as a negotiator, which DW was weaned into accepting and appreciating—to the community’s ultimate benefit. A well deserved “Thank You,” is insufficient for all your accomplishments. Continued good health to you and your wife. Ron
WEST HENDERSON
DEVELOPMENT
Nearly 5 months ago, 1,980 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land
located immediately to the west and adjacent to Sun City Anthem and
Anthem Highlands was sold at auction to the Focus Group.
This was a great disappointment to Del Webb/Pulte as they wanted to
purchase the property for their own development.
The Focus Group plans to construct a new community including single
family homes, multi-family homes, commercial areas, parks, schools,
police substations, etc on the land they purchased to the west of Sun
City Anthem. None of this development is planned to be age restricted.
In the not to distant future, the balance of the 6,000 acres will be
auctioned off and over time we will see that area of desert to the west
of us develop into a sea of houses, etc. In effect it will be a
medium sized town of some 50,000 people.
Since it was expected that Del Webb would be the successful bidder on
the property, it was assumed that the roadway plan developed by the City
and described by the negotiating team would be built according to plan.
That original roadway plan showed Bicentennial and Volunteer as our 2
access/egress roadways to the west joining Maryland Parkway, a high
speed access road joining I-15 at the Sloan Connector on the west and
St. Rose Parkway to the north.
The Focus Group completed the purchase of their land last month and has
been preparing plans for submission to the City. Elements of the
resident negotiating team have been meeting monthly with the Focus Group
expressing our concerns over access as well as building heights. We have
also made a presentation to the City Council and have held 2 meetings
with individual Council members. We have, in our judgment, made
significant progress toward meeting the needs of our community realizing
of course that we have no leverage at all on them.
The Focus Group has been very attentive to our suggestions and has
developed a roadway proposal that addresses our needs for access/egress.
The highlights of their plan are as follows:
In order to
keep you fully informed and to squelch rumors promulgated by one of our
residents, we have invited the Focus Group to make a presentation to the
Anthem Community on December 7th,
4:00 p.m.,
at the
Anthem Center. They will make a general presentation followed by a
question and answer period. We are inviting all Anthem residents to
attend this meeting as it will eliminate unfounded rumors and
irresponsible personal opinion, deception, and divisiveness promulgated
by a few. We only have about 400 seats available so arrive early to get
your seat. As an aside, the 4 of us involved in discussion with the
Focus Group, namely; Len Penn, Dick Sovde, Bob Berman and I all agree
that the Focus Group is very interested in being a good neighbor to Sun
City Anthem.
ACCESS/EGRESS & ROADWAY SYSTEM
An expressed concern, but one that was not high on the list of
priorities provided the Core Group, through resident meetings, was
better access and egress from our community. Unlike most cities and
states in our country, Nevada requires that the developer construct the
roadways in his respective development. This is done in accordance with
a roadway plan developed by the agency responsible for that area.
Roadway systems in undeveloped areas like the former BLM land to the
west, are nothing more than overlays which
change from time to time. The proposed roadway system to the west of the
Anthem community has undergone at least 6 changes since I first started
reviewing it nearly 3 years ago. It is currently undergoing the “final
changes” as this is being written.
One of our residents has made some rather interesting assertions that
Del Webb “promised” to build a road from the Anthem Master Planned
Community to the Sloan connector. Appropriately, he quotes the agreement
as stating “Primary access to the new community will be from the Sloan
Connector. The Sloan Connector as most of you know is off of I-15 and
is, as the crow flies, some 3 miles away. To give you a perspective of
his idea of an agreement, I furnish you this quote from the same person
regarding agreements.. “Agreements are often
viewed in the eye of the beholder and are frequently a matter of one's
perception at the time of the viewing.” I think we would all agree this
cavalier attitude toward a hard won agreement creates work for
attorneys.
The limitations of the Anthem Master Plan are clearly depicted on the
map which was furnished each resident with the agreement. The
boundary creates a connection to future roadways to the west. These
connections have been built and are in place as agreed. Any person with
even the minimal amount of common sense knows that no developer will
make any kind of promise to construct anything on land he does not own.
At no time during our negotiations or in a public that I witnessed did
Del Webb promise to build a roadway to the Sloan connector.
The City of
Henderson’s
roadway plan, as it existed nearly 3 years ago, was shown and explained
to the residents at each of the resident meetings. That part of the
roadway system which Del Webb has responsibility to build has been
completed in accordance with the Anthem Master Plan. That ends their
responsibility. In addition, they built a temporary road extending from
the community boundary nearly to the St. Rose Parkway. This road is
commonly known as Volunteer. Take a drive over Volunteer and you will
see the change as you exit the Anthem community and enter the BLM land.
If you drive Bicentennial you will see precisely the limits of the Del
Webb property.
The current proposed plan for access to the Anthem Community includes
Eastern Avenue, a widened Volunteer connecting to a high speed connector
at this time referred to as Maryland Parkway, Bicentennial, and another
as yet unnamed, road that connects with the Sloan connector. With 3
access points to the west and 1 to the north our access has doubled.
Remember, there is not now nor will there ever be access available from
the east or from the south.
HELICOPTER ISSUE
The Helicopter issue continues to be work in
process. I communicate regularly with Kai Anderson of Senator Reid’s
office. He continues to assure me of their commitment to locate the
Heliport South of Sloan. The following is the latest communication from
Kai on this subject:
-----Original Message-----
From: rollingthunder3 [mailto:rollingthunder3-at-cox.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 1:25 PM
To: Anderson, Kai (Reid)
Subject: Heliport
Kai
The folks here are a bit upset at having seen the land bill having to do
with a pipeline move through Congress quite rapidly without attendant
action on our bill.
I note that according to the paper, our bill may not make it through
this session.
I know that you are busy with the assumption of new responsibilities but
if at all possible we would like to see this bill moved up a bit.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Favil
Favil -- This bill couldn't be higher on our list but it is a tough deal
to get done quickly. That said, we will prevail and get it done.
Unfortunately, no land bills of substance (with any controversy) passed
during the lame duck session last week and none are likely in our
one-day session in December.
With regard to the Lincoln County bill, the stars were aligned and the
environmental community did not unite in opposition to the bill.
Although, we wish this deal were done, I do look forward to working on
it with you and hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving....
cheers,
ksa
WATER FEATURE
The water feature at the entry to the Anthem community continues to be a
problem. The City will not allow it to be turned on. In an effort to
find a solution that will work for the community, last Monday, Del Webb
called a joint meeting of he Anthem Council,
along with the Boards of Coventry, Sun City Anthem, and Anthem Country
Club. It was clear from the opening remarks that all of us shared the
same interest in seeing the water features back in operation. To that
end, the four entities are working on a plan which we hope will satisfy
the City, as well as our residents. In creating this plan, we all have
to remember that at any time the City could tell us to shut it down
permanently regardless of the plan we come up with. Another meeting is
planned in the near future. We will keep you informed.
TRANSITION
The work of the Transition Committee is moving along nicely. We are on
schedule to transition in 2005. The Communications Task Force, Lifestyle
Task Force, Management Task Force, and Facilities Task Force have all
made their reports and recommendations to the Board. The Finance Task
Force will present their report in January. So far, the Lifestyle Task
Force recommendations have been approved by the Board. An agreement with
a vendor to publish our own newspaper is at legal and we are close to
completing negotiations on our own website. Expect these media to become
available in March of 2005.
COGENERATION
Cogeneration remains work in progress. Various problems have arisen
which have delayed our building of the plant. Among these are problems
with suppliers, contractors, construction, as well as questions about
the availability and cost of natural gas. These problems have led us to
the conclusion that we need to design building 3 from the ground up with
cogen in mind and that we may revise our
plan for building 1 to allow for peak shaving of the NE part of the
building.. We will report on this issue as building 3 moves forward.
RECREATIONAL BUILDING 2
Building 2 is on schedule and we anticipate moving in prior to
transition. The completion of this facility will virtually eliminate
crowding and the perception that Trumpets is using all the space in the
Center. Exterior features will include a stage, a large open area
between building where outdoor events can be held, and reduced
landscaping. From what I hear, the first event has already been
scheduled for the building.
ELECTION
The election process to fill open seats on the Board of Directors will
begin in January of 2005. Those of you who are interested should turn in
your resume and fill out the simple application. Keep in mind, as you
consider serving, that being a Board member
is a full time job. You will be required to attend as many as three to
five meetings per week not including Board meetings, workshops, and
executive sessions. There is no pay, no perks, and you get to be on the
receiving end of all complaints. There are conflict of interest issues
that will keep you from pursing some types of work. I can say that for
nearly four years now I have truly enjoyed serving on the Board. You may
as well.
I think you will agree that this has been a great year for all of us at
Sun City Anthem. We hope to continue this success next year.
On behalf of, Bob and Rita Berman, Dick and Barbara Sovde, Pat and
myself we want to wish you a very Happy
Holiday Season. May the New Year bring you continued health and
enjoyment of this active lifestyle so characteristic of Sun City Anthem,
this place we call home.
Favil West