Open Board Meeting, December 3rd, at 7 PM in the Association Office.
Homeowners who have been approved for Visitor Parking Permits need to come pick up their stickers ASAP. We still have over 10 homeowners who have not paid and gotten their stickers.
One final warning will be placed on vehicles in the visitor lots that we know belong to owners or tenants and these vehicles will be towed beginning next week.
More than ample warnings have been given since 2014, so you cannot honestly say you are unaware that you cannot park there. Signs have been up for many years stating the Visitor lots are for Visitors Only. We have already notified Excalibur Towing and will be ready to begin towing these unauthorized vehicles.
We still have Permits available for those who meet the qualifications. Come to the Office and fill out an application form.
We will be sending out Letters of Determination today to those who have applied for the Visitor Parking Permits. The majority of applicants were approved, a few will be denied for not meeting qualifications. Those who are approved need to visit the Office to fill out a Vehicle information sheet and pick up their Parking stickers.
Just a reminder to everyone, July 31st is the last day to apply for a Visitor Parking Permit and also for getting your Pool Pass.
At the regular June 4th and special June 18th Board meetings, the Board voted to approve a modification to our Visitor Parking rules. No, the original rules that have been in place for decades have not changed, meaning Visitor Parking areas are still solely for Visitors to the subdivision. In the last 3 Notices that were sent out to all property addresses, the Visitor Parking rules were once again detailed and yet many of our homeowners and their tenants have chosen to not follow them.
The Board of Directors approved a program which will allow a VERY limited number (37) of our visitor parking spots to be rented out to residents. The main details have been finalized and we will be selecting a committee to oversee the process, headed by a Board member. We are sending out notices to all property owners within the next week detailing this program, its restrictions, implementation, and enforcement. We will use an identifier on approved vehicles, but all this approved parking identification will accomplish is prevent that one approved vehicle from being towed out of the Visitor Lots. Any unapproved vehicle in any Visitor Parking lot still bears the same risk of towing, per our long-established Parking rules.
The only parking spaces that any homeowner has a right to use are the two spaces in the carport on your property. Paying your dues, your taxes or other excuses made when confronted about abusing the visitor parking lots will not change the rules that exist.
Make no mistake, we WILL tow your vehicle(s) if you violate our parking rules. Failure to follow Board approved rules or regulations also violates our Declaration and can result in fines or other actions.
To refresh yourself on our Parking rules, here’s the link.
Beginning this week, our towing company will begin policing the visitor lots for inoperable vehicle, vehicles with expired registration or inspections, vehicles with flat tires, and any other vehicle which violates our Parking Rules. These Parking rules are available from the “Governing Documents” link in the menu above. Each visitor lot is clearly posted indicating that we do not allow expired tags or inspections, so you cannot say you are unaware of this rule.
We have also had a large number of people parking in the clearly marked Fire Lanes, and who apparently believe that putting on the emergency flashers will prevent them from being towed; this is not the case. Unless you are an official emergency vehicle, you cannot park in the Fire Lanes, period. We have advised the towing company to allow 10 minutes for you to unload groceries or help someone inside, simply as a courtesy.
Just so we are clear, this is what the Code says regarding all Fire Lanes:
Sec. 12-22. – Obstructions; regulations.
(1) The owner or person in control of property upon which a fire lane exists shall cause any motor vehicle other than an authorized emergency vehicle that is parked in a fire lane to be removed in accordance with Vernon’s Annotated Texas Statutes, Article 6701g—1.
(2) No person shall park, stop or leave standing any non-emergency vehicle, either attended or unattended, within any portion of the fire lane.
(3) No person shall permanently place any object of any kind in, on, across or over a fire lane in such a manner as to obstruct the free passage of fire apparatus over a fire lane. Fire lanes may be temporarily obstructed with specific written permission of the fire chief or his designee.
(4) Any vehicle found parked or standing in any designated fire lane shall be subject to citation and/or impoundment, or both, by any peace officer of the city, or subject to removal as authorized by law.
(5) For purposes of this subsection, a “non-emergency vehicle” shall mean a vehicle of any type other than the following:
a. Vehicles assigned to the fire department that are engaged in emergency activities.
b. Police department or other law enforcement vehicles on official business.
c. Ambulance vehicles on emergency calls.
Excalibur Towing will be patrolling our subdivision periodically and will be looking for violators in our visitor lots/fire lanes. If your vehicle is towed, it costs about $250 to get it back, excluding storage or other fees.
(NOTE) Excalibur will not tow expired or inoperable vehicles from under your carport; only the City of GP can do that, after proper notice.
Our rules do not allow inoperable cars under carports. Warning letters will be issued and possible fines imposed upon owners who have inoperable vehicles under their carports.
We signed with Dave’s Hiway Wrecker back in June of 2014. As a result of their City contract, slow response times and other issues, we decided to terminate the service agreement we had with them effective today, January 25th. We went back with Excalibur Towing, a company the Association had used from 2009 until 2014.
The reason we stopped using Excalibur is that they were told by our former “Office Manager” that they had permission to go under carports to check for expired registration or inspections. Many of you may remember this fiasco, as mentioned by several homeowners at a few Board meetings. All carports are Private Property and only the City can tow from under a carport after giving proper notifications. Overall, Excalibur did a really good job patrolling our subdivision and only due to unauthorized instructions by a former employee did things go wrong.
Over the next few days, Excalibur will be replacing all of the Tow company signs at all entrances and will begin patrols overnight and throughout the day. They have been given specific written instructions to never go under any carports, for any reason.
They will give 10-15 minutes for people loading or unloading while parked in the Fire Lanes to move their vehicles prior to towing them. Excalibur will patrol the Visitor Parking lots and will enforce our 48 Hour time limits after tagging vehicles; removing these tags will not change anything, they take photos after tagging vehicles. Excalibur will immediately tow vehicles that are parked in our Visitor lots that have expired tags or inspections stickers.
Signs has been recently updated to assure that both visitors and residents are aware of the time limits and other restrictions we have on our Visitor lots.