CoHope

HOA Notification of Development

Letter to P + Z on HOA Notification of Development

November 17, 2002
To: Preston Gibson
Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Dept.
100 Jefferson County Parkway, Suite 3550
Golden, Colorado 80419-3550


At the last COHOPE meeting on November 5, 2002, COHOPE members discussed the current Homeowner and Homeowner Organization notification procedures used by the Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Department and their implementation.
On at least two occasions, information packets sent out to HOA groups were received after the comment dates had expired. Five HOA’s reported they did not receive the Alpers Farm packet in time to send in comments and earlier in the year Kipling Hills HOA received a packet three days after the comment period was past. COHOPE is not looking to blame any of the planners; indeed, they have been very helpful in providing additional packets and information if the homeowners or HOA’s realize a deadline is approaching. For Kipling Hills, the planner expressed another copy that did arrive prior to the deadline.
COHOPE feels that the main issue is there is no easy way for the homeowner or HOA to determine if there is a meeting or upcoming comment period until they receive the packet. Part of the problem is that it is hard to get an HOA together to meet on an issue with short notice. If the notification comes in between monthly meetings it can be very difficult to arrange a meeting to discuss the response. The HOA’s can also call up planners weekly to find out what is going on around them, but we feel that would consume a lot of people’s time unnecessarily.
COHOPE would like the Planning and Zoning Department to consider two methods that we feel would go a long way in addressing this problem and alleviating some of the hard feelings that have developed when people feel they are being left out of the process.
First, COHOPE would like to see a monthly or bi-monthly status sheet mailed out to registered HOA’s. The information on this sheet can be very basic. At a minimum, we would like to see general location of the proposed development, the type (plat, replat, rezone), and the planner (with phone number) responsible. This would allow the groups to be aware of upcoming issues and prepare for them, as well as make sure they were on the list to receive an information packet.
Second, COHOPE would like to see a web page put on the county site with this information, plus any important dates related to it (community meeting, comment period, etc.), and maintained fairly regularly. If possible, the site could have an address area for homeowners or HOA’s interested in the development to request information on it.

COHOPE believes these two proposals would go a long way to reduce the problems we have seen with the notification process. We think the information required is basic enough to not be difficult to gather and distribute.




Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this application.


Respectfully,



Ken Gloss
President
COHOPE


COHOPE is a coalition of South Jefferson County Homeowner Organizations with over 30 members representing about 15,000 residences.