Developer’s Forum

August 11, 2005

            Those in attendance at the delayed and rescheduled Developer’s Forum this past week were frustrated and disappointed for a number of reasons, including:

• the planned (?) no show of Chris Haines' replacement, Pulte’s Las Vegas South Division President, Patrick Aulds;

• heightened and increasing concerns over construction and Highlands traffic;

• lower quality of Developer presentations, along with very poor quality of screen visuals, that for the most part could not be easily read and were typically skipped over as quickly as they were shown;

• failure to provide accurate information on the status of SCA home closings, a clear marker of our local housing market; and

• inability of the Developer to be responsive on some key issues affecting Sun City.

This somewhat poor performance had compensating or positive outcomes for many in attendance. There was an offering of some maintenance freebies, like caulk (and even a can of silicon spray for those who attempted to go to that cancelled meeting a month ago); the raffling off of numerous valuable prizes, guaranteed to keep members tightly glued to their seats; and, of course, the abundance of those very tasty cookies, coffee and a variety of soft drinks. And least us not forget to congratulate Board member Lyndall Ruiz on her winning ticket number and prize. 

And then there was that mystery man, that quite tall, almost lurking gentleman, slowly moving around the perimeter of the ballroom, carefully taking pictures with his 300 mm telephoto digital camera. While taking pictures of the event and capturing the audience, he was always careful to focus on those who braved to come forward to the microphone to ask a question or make a statement.    

No Show, No Accountability

While the no show of Chris Haines’ replacement was little noticed by most—even a non mention by the assembled staff until it was brought to their attention, the message, intended or not, was clear—our Pulte head was not going to be held responsible or accountable, least of all embarrassed, for anything brought up at their forum. Unlike prior forums, there would be little of consequence discussed at this meeting.

$100,000 Foregone is Not Chump Change to Dues Paying Members

Pulte was anxious to mention their new 1,400 home Madeira Canyon project going in south and east of Sun City and Solera. As announced by Pulte, that project will not be part of the Anthem Master Plan. As a result, and unlike the five community associations making up the Anthem Council, residents of Madeira Canyon (entering and exiting their community through Anthem Highlands—which is part of the Anthem Council) will not be making any contributions towards the landscaping maintenance of common element property along our major parkways. Perhaps that’s a plus for Sun City since the Council will not be responsible maintaining Madeira Canyon common element property.

On the other hand, and assuming a minimal impact on the Anthem Council from Madeira Canyon, the absence of income to the Council in excluding Madeira Canyon residents is, by one estimate, in excess of $200,000 a year, based on Madeira Canyon’s proportionate share to all housing units in Anthem + MC at build out. Since Sun City accounts for about 50% of the total cost of the Anthem Council’s budget, the yearly cost to Sun City of not having Madeira Canyon in the Anthem Council is about $100,000.

Said another way, our yearly contribution to the Anthem Council for common element maintenance would be roughly $100,000 less if there were some means of requiring the community of Madeira Canyon to make their fair share contribution to the Anthem Council for common element maintenance.[1]

The Board should not easily dismiss but consider carefully the prospect of not having to spend $100,000 of our member dues on common element landscaping maintenance that could possibly be picked up by the Madeira Canyon community.

Traffic and More Traffic

            Following the raising of Madeira Canyon traffic implications on Sun City, one member rose to vehemently protest unsafe construction and Anthem Highlands traffic speeding along Sun City Anthem Dr. While our forum presenters were unable to say much or do anything to satisfy our protester, our complaining member seemed to go on and on about the problem and his concerns. This generated a few murmurs from some unsympathetic members of the audience who were possibly unaffected by this issue, did not care, or who had already heard enough.

Wishing to drive their concerns home, even it that meant beating an already dead horse to oblivion, several more members took the mike to complain about traffic related issues, either to complain about the traffic or to complain about Pulte’s response that we residents can do more to police and inform them of bad and dangerous drivers. But just what can we do? In Pulte’s way of thinking, one imagines, the impression left was along this line:

            Remember one thing as that dangerous driver of that cement

            truck or 18 wheeler that’s about to run you over, hold on to the

            steering wheel with your life, knees firmly pressed up against the

            wheel for control, as your now free hands fumble around the car

            looking for something to write with and some paper to jot down

            the company’s name and license number to help Pulte identify that

            dangerous driver.

Good and Bad Outcomes

While one member was pleased to announce a positive outcome—that her house problem had been taken care to her complete satisfaction, another lamented to this observer that his efforts with Customer Service were less satisfactory when he was told that his cracking drywall ceiling was his problem—even though as our member pointed out had the drywall been installed properly to absorb stress from house movement, the cracking problem would not have occurred.

Home Closings

            With 5,660 Sun City homes closed to date, there are 1,485 homes remaining to be sold. From their sales manager we learned precious little about where home closings stand at the moment. While attempting to portray a positive projection of good times ahead, there seemed a genuine reluctance to share actual monthly closing figures—even when pressed to do so. Those who were accustomed to hearing from their former sales manger, Jim Bond, were greatly disappointed.

With our projecting an average monthly closing rate of, say, about 60 homes a month, far below the rate at its height not that long ago, completed build out would occur in about 24 months, or towards the end of 2007. Of course, a higher closing rate will mean an earlier build out date. [Based on the actual average over a 6 month period in 2005, 45, and assuming a comparable sales rate in the months to come, build out will not occur until sometime in 2008.]

Ron Johnson

8/13/2005 

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