The Deerwood Homeowners Association

As my term as president of the DIA reaches the half way stage, there are several important issues that I would like to discuss with you. Possibly the most important of these are plans of the city that will undoubtedly have significant impact on our community.

Skinner Parkway Extension. The city has already embarked on a $16.5 mil. project to build a four-lane highway running from Belfort Road to Southside Boulevard. It will intersect Southside across from Deerwood Park Boulevard. A new interchange is planned on Southside about 100 yards north of our entrance that will allow southbound service road traffic to turn north on Southside. At this time, we are certain this will impact the Deerwood entrance, but we don't know how much. Getting in and out of Deerwood certainly will become more difficult if this and the overpass are built.

Southside Boulevard Overpass. The JTA has endorsed a plan to spend an amount now estimated at $36 million to construct an overpass at Baymeadows Road to improve traffic flow on Southside Boulevard. The up-ramp will start at just below the Royal Lakes stoplight south of Baymeadows Road and be at its highest level from about thirty yards south of the present Baymeadows/Southside intersection to about the same distance past Old Baymeadows Road. It will come down to the present ground level at a point perpendicular to the center of number two fairway on the golf course or about 200 yards short of our Southside entrance. During the construction period, the businesses all around the intersection will be adversely impacted.

Most important, the plans call for no improvement in the traffic congestion north from JTB through Tinsel Town to Atlantic on Southside or to the horrendous traffic situation on Baymeadows Road from Old Baymeadows to Phillips Highway. Many think the enormous expenditure (likely more than the $36 mil.) would be wasteful of the taxpayer's money. A large number of our residents attended the Town Hall meeting last night.

If you have a position on this effort, have not signed a petition and would like to do so, please email me and I will get one to you. In order to stop this construction, the majority of the city council members will have to be influenced. Lad Daniels so far is the only member who has openly opposed the effort. Phone numbers and email addresses for all council members are available at the www.CoJ.com web page. We hope you will let them know what you think about building this overpass.

Meanwhile, I promise to keep all informed of this issue via the www.MyDeerwood.com web page where we post all notices of interest to the community. For those of you who would like more information on the various transportation projects in Jacksonville, you might want to look at the JTA web page, www.JTAonthemove.com. Click on "Construction Projects" and find the project you are interested in.

Sale of Baymeadows Golf Course. The present owners of the Baymeadows Golf Course have contracted to sell the property to D.R. Horton developers who plan to build 1,400 multi-family homes on the property. At a meeting last week, our city council representative advised the large crowd of mostly present and angry Baymeadows residents that the property was presently zoned for multi-family construction. Accordingly, there was nothing the city council could do to prevent the intended construction except negotiate with the developer for reduced numbers of buildings and/or road construction to help with the expected increase in already over-burdened Baymeadows Road traffic.

Trash and Hurricane Debris. All of us have been frustrated by the delay in picking up the debris left by the several hurricanes. Many of you, however, don't know that the effort is entirely in the hands of the city government. While Deerwood residents pay an additional amount to Waste Management, Inc. to pick up our waste at our motor courts because Deerwood covenants prohibit placing any debris at the curb, the cost of the general service comes out of our property taxes. Our property manager, May Management, and the DIA have little clout to get this job done other than by making the loudest "squeak". Notwithstanding, I have been in touch with May Management almost daily since the first storm hit and they with both Waste Management and the city to get Deerwood cleaned up. We probably have been more successful than many communities, but still have found that the most important voice in this situation is the individual homeowner (read - voter). To express your concern, feel free to call the Jacksonville city center at 630 - CITY.

Meanwhile, please take note, all trash and debris must be placed at your motor court. Don't put any trash or debris of any kind at the curb.

Access Control. We have spent many hours in an effort to improve the control and efficiency of getting your guests through the Deerwood gates. Most residents have worked with us to make this happen - some have added to the problem. And a much smaller few have actually been vocal and unfairly critical of the work of our guards.

The most important link in the chain of access control is the homeowner by pre-authorizing ALL expected guests and service personnel. When a guest is in the computer, the guards can get them in within a few seconds. Without advanced authorization, it may take minutes; meanwhile the line builds up for everyone. You can call in your guests - that's the hard way - or enter them from your home computer through E-Zgate. That's the easy way and takes only a second or two.

Residents have reported that some lawn service people have been spotted taking debris from one property and dropping it on either vacant lots or common grounds. By the time the guards arrive to investigate, the trucks have been long gone. To help the resident initially identify the culprit, we have asked all lawn service people to abide by city law that requires name and phone number markings on the truck or trailer. A few residents have voiced opposition to this effort and we are reevaluating the plan. Meanwhile we are providing bar codes to some companies who enter Deerwood daily so that they may get through the gates during daylight hours more expeditiously and thus help speed the flow for others. So far this has been a big help.

After a lot of study, the Access Control Committee, with board approval, installed several speed bumps at the Baymeadows gate. None of us really like the bumps, but we were experiencing severe speeding both coming in and going out of the gate. A gate was broken almost every month and we had several near misses on accidents involving children. Since the bumps were installed, we have not lost any gates.

Several residents have complained about the speed bumps and a few have come to board meetings to protest. The board twice sent the issue back to the Access Control Committee. The first time, they removed one speed bump and lowered another. They recently voted unanimously to retain the existing speed bumps as installed. So the speed bumps will stay! - Enough said! Let's get on to other issues.

Speeding through Deerwood is still a big problem. What do we have to do to get everyone to slow down? And what do we have to do to get you to drive on your own side of double lines? Do we have to have a child injured, a jogger run over or a mother pushing a baby carriage pushed into a tree? Tell your board what you think we can do to make Deerwood streets safer for everyone.

Some who leave Deerwood via the Southside gate need to be a bit more patient and courteous. Getting onto Southside is a potentially dangerous action. If the car in front of you is more cautious and risk adverse than you, please don't add to the accident potential by blowing your horn. As soon as the traffic thins to where they feel safe to do so, they will pull out. The discourteous horn doesn't make their car go any quicker.

Play Sets. About eighteen months ago, the board started getting complaints about what several residents perceived as a proliferation of very colorful play sets that they thought to be prohibited by the Deerwood covenants. Play sets are not prohibited by the covenants (as are play houses) but are subject to approval like any other structure.

Since the residents acquired the community in August 1999, the DIA Board has taken the position that play sets, as well as any other structure should not be an eyesore to any neighbors, including the golf course. In order to fulfill this responsibility, the Architectural Review Committee tried to identify all such play sets in Deerwood and asked several owners each month to submit a form for the necessary approval.

If the owner noted on the form that their play set had been installed prior to 1999, we assumed it to be "grand fathered" as having been authorized by the previous developer as to location and size. All other play sets that have been requested have ultimately been approved, sometimes with color modification and/or with shielding from neighbors by use of bushes, trees or other landscape designs. Most owners have been very cooperative and have understood the rights of their neighbors to not have their views infringed upon.

Contrary to rumors, the DIA board has never spent any money on legal fees to regulate play sets.

Use of Common Ground. Several residents and/or their service people have been driving/parking on common ground. Often the result is ruts in the area that we must pay to have repaired. The common areas are for all to enjoy - we have a landscaping service to keep them maintained. Please don't drive on the common areas - especially when they might be soft from rain.

Property Transfers from Club. As most know, when the entire community was purchased from Gate Petroleum in 1999, several parcels that were thought to be common areas and thus DIA property actually went by deed to the country club. A lesser number, were the reverse. Last year we started an effort to straighten out the proper distribution. In the process, we found that the school crossing area was actually club property as was most of the playground area and all of the boatyard.

All three are in the process of being deeded to the DIA. Work is underway on renovating the existing portion of the playground to make it safe and enjoyable for our children. Thanks for all of your efforts in this regard.

The school crossing area will be irrigated and landscaped early next year so it will be an attractive show point for all of Deerwood. The present boatyard will probably be re-located, but will be increased in size so we can accommodate more resident's boats and RVs. We are awaiting final club decisions on the transfer of the appropriate property.

Your Proxy Vote. Last year DIA Founder Members voted to abolish that category and to include all property owners in Deerwood as voting members of the association. We went from about 550 voting members to over 900. Unfortunately, only about the same 200 people who voted the past five years returned their proxy this time. At the November 1st Special Meeting held to approve the vote count we did not have a quorum who had voted, and accordingly, held the special meeting over until the December 6th DIA Board meeting where the 2005 budget will also be adopted. If you have not done so, please either mail your proxy to MAY Management or drop it off at the Club's Administration trailer.

Finally, thanks for all of your help and interest in making Deerwood what I believe is the finest community in North Florida. If you have any comment, please email me at: tmcconn@comcast.net.

Tom McConnell, President
Deerwood Improvement Association

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