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Welcome to the Avocet Homeowners Association Website. This website is designed to provide information to the residents of Avocet and anyone interested in the Avocet Community. To learn more about the Avocet Homeowners association, click here. An increasingly important method of communication within Avocet is the Avocet Forum. To subscribe to the Forum, go here; to access the Forum once subscribed, go here. (To view all of your Yahoo! Groups, go here.) If you have information to put on the website, please contact the Avocet Information Committee at: info@avocet-hoa.org |
General information available on this page includes:
Links to other areas of the site are available at the top of every page.
Saturday, May 17, 2008 Avocet Celebration and Pool Party, 11 AM to 1 PM at the pool
RSVP to the BOD. Hamburgers, hot dogs and soft drinks will be provided. Please bring sides and deserts to share.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Avocet BOD Meeting, 7 PM in the clubhouse
After interviewing four management companies, we chose AMAG because of their willingness to roll up their sleeves and work with us to continue to improve our community. We also received several good recommendations from Home Owner Associations who use the services of AMAG and highly recommended them. You will receive more information on the transition in early May. We will also be featuring AMAG in our newsletter. Leisa Ballew and Laurie McClain from AMAG will be our guests at the party on May 17, 2008. We hope you will all take some time to meet them and welcome them to the Avocet family!
Wireless Internet access is being added at the pool, clubhouse and upper tennis courts. GoWirelessNeighborhoods.com provides free Wi-Fi to many communities in Gwinnett County. A representative will be attending the party on May 17, 2008 to demonstrate the use of the service.
This flyer, detailing recent improvements and improvements soon to come, was distributed to the neighborhood March 24, 2008. Take a look at what is to come!
The March 2008 Newsletter has been distributed to every house in the neighborhood, and is also available electronically here on the web site. Thanks to Bobby McVey, and all who helped with it!
The annual meeting of members was held Tuesday, September 25, 2007 to elect the Board of Directors for the next year. The members elected Jeanne Aulbach, Sean Bennett, Lara Foreman, Kenneth Greeker, and Neil Gonsalves the 2007-2008 Avocet BOD.
Congratulations to the new Board of Directors, and thanks for volunteering your time and energy to Avocet. Make a point to get to know your new Directors, and add your support and input to their efforts. They can be contacted by email at bod@avocet-hoa.org.
Thanks to Julie Dominguez and Mike Frintner who are leaving the board, as well as Jeanne Aulbach, Sean Bennett, and Lara Foreman who are serving another term. Your efforts and contributions in the past year are greatly appreciated!
The BOD is implementing plans to improve the safety and security of the amenities area.
We need your help as well to ensure safety and security in this area.
If you are the last person to leave the area, please check to make certain the pool and tennis court gates are closed. Also, close the door to the bathroom area of the clubhouse. If we all work together, we can make our community safe for all of us.
If you need a key to the pool and courts, please e-mail keys@avocet-hoa.org. You will be contacted to arrange the pickup of a key. There is a nominal fee of $7 to cover our cost. When selling your home this key should be turned over to the new owner at closing, along with all of your other house keys.
The county has agreed to assist us with the installation of new landscaping at the entry to Avocet. An inmate crew will be doing the installation on Wednesday, May 9 from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm. There will be 9 properly supervised and guarded men on the crew. This crew is used by the county for their own landscape projects, so they are experienced, reliable, and will save us a great deal of money that we can put into plants and materials.
The landscaping will extend along South Old Peachtree and around the corner for a short distance up Lou Ivey Road. The necessary materials will be delivered at the entry and along the area to be landscaped starting at 7:30 am. Members of our Landscape Committee and BOD will be working to ensure a smooth installation.
The pool has been drained and repairs are under way. The crumbling grout is being removed and replaced with a beauty strip, and the pool is also being acid washed to remove stains. While the pool will be refilled this weekend (28-29APR2007) it will not be ready for swimming until around the first weekend in May. Please refrain from using the pool until that time.
Many thanks to the Kids Club for the effort that they put into crafting a proposal that will make our playground safe and fun for years to come. The Avocet Board of Directors has approved the proposal, and new equipment is expected to be installed before the end of May. A depiction of the new equipment and the equipment layout is available for viewing.
In order to get the best results at the best price, the teardown and installation is expected to be done primarily by neighborhood volunteers. Please contact the Kids Club if you can help. Any help - even at the last minute - will be appreciated, and food and drink will be provided to keep the laborers going!
The teardown is scheduled for 8 AM - 1 PM on Saturday, April 21, and is expected to require 5-8 people. The installation is targeted for Saturday, May 19, and is expected to take the entire day with 10-15 people involved. Come and work as much as you can, whenever you can. A supervisor from the playground company will be overseeing the installation to make sure that everything is done to spec.
Avocet has been working to insure that the retail development at South Old Peachtree Road and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard reflects the interests of the neighborhood.
The vote on CIC2006-00034 was held at the BOC business session on March 20, 2007. The resulting resolution is available to view here. We hope you agree that the results were generally favorable for Avocet and the surrounding community.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to come and show your support for the quality of life in our community. The BOC always notices this. It has an impact not just on this current decision but also on future decisions, knowing in advance that a community is actively involved.
Mitch Peevy has provided us with a site plan and a list of conditions. The site plan shows the drive through window situated on the SOP side of the building with the menu along the back of the building which would force anyone coming into the site from SOP to have to circle the building to get to the drive through. It would also channel the outgoing traffic to PIB but not prevent outgoing access to SOP. Per Wayne, this will help to control some of the concerns we have.
History: The Gwinnett County Planning Commission voted to recommend denial of the request (CIC2006-00034) at its meeting on Tuesday, January 16, 2007. The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners will take up the request at their meeting on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 held at 7 PM in the auditorium of the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Building at 75 Langley Drive; Lawrenceville, GA 30045. They may agree with the Planning Commission, or disagree in whole or in part. It is important that there is a sufficient presence of concerned homeowners at the meeting to support our position. Please plan to attend this meeting, wearing the traditional red garb if possible.
A recent site plan that the developer provided to us is available to view, although it is somewhat outdated. Note that the plan is presented lengthwise in this document, so rotating it a quarter turn counterclockwise is helpful once it is displayed; you should find a tool to perform this on the Adobe toolbar above the document, along with a tool for zooming in or out.
There was a break-in in the 4800 block of Avocet Drive on Wednesday, February 21, 2007 between 9:15 and 10:45 AM. The intruders forced their entry by kicking the basement door until the deadbolt broke through the door casing. (As you will read below, the deadbolt and screws were not properly installed.) Nothing was stolen and no one was hurt. No one was home at the time, and the wife's return home may have scared them away.
Be alert for any suspicious behavior and report it to the Security Committee. Thanks to our neighbors for being so observant and reporting their observations to the Security Committee and/or to their COPS block captains.
Three Avocet residents observed a suspicious car in the 4800 block of Avocet Drive around the time that the break-in occurred. One said that the car was stopped on the common road near the house, and a person was in the car with the window rolled down and may have been the lookout. The description of the car varies some, but there are similarities in the descriptions. One description is a 2-door Saturn that is very dark in color - dark forest green or black. Another description was an unremarkable small black car without its headlights on. The third description is a small grey sedan. One resident observed an unfamiliar tall and thin man with short hair, red pants, a red shirt, and a white jacket or sweater.
If anyone sees a car that is close to these descriptions and is lingering around a house or the common area, please call 911. Report that there are suspicious people in the neighborhood and that there has been a break-in where a similar car was observed. Try to get the license tag number and state, but please do not get too close to the car or take any risk.
Please warn people that you know in adjacent neighborhoods about this break-in and describe the car. It is possible that the perpetrator(s) may try another break-in in one of the neighborhoods near Avocet.
Also, be sure to check all of your deadbolts and catches. The deadbolt should completely extended until it clicks, and the screws holding any of the face plates to the door frame should be at least 2 inches long. Builders do not normally do these things for you; you will likely have to drill out the hole to make it deeper and replace all of the screws.
Officer Wilkerson is our new C.O.P.S. liaison. To report non-emergency (non 911) problems/crimes to the Gwinnett Co. Police call 770.513.5100. For this and other information, please refer to the Neighborhood Contacts page and the Security Committee page.
Please be aware that a new burglar alarm system has been installed in the clubhouse. Also as a reminder, unauthorized vehicles parking overnight in the parking lots by the clubhouse, pool, and tennis courts are prohibited.
The rezoning of the three land parcels next to Avocet along South Old Peachtree Road has gone through with conditions that are generally favorable to Avocet. The developer is proceeding with a townhouse development there that will be called Berkeley Chase, and has provided us with a preliminary site plan and a landscape plan for the project. The development permit has been issued, the tree protection fence is in place, and they are preparing to remove the house. Construction is expected to start very soon; in fact, they hope to complete the development sometime in the summer - June through August 2007.
If you see a problem with the street lights in Avocet, you can send a service request to Georgia Power on-line at http://www.southernco.com/gapower/home.asp?mnuOpco=gpc&mnuType=main&mnuItem=def. Just choose "Report an Outage" from the list of choices in the Residential Customers section. You might want to provide comments about the problem so that the service people can come out with the parts necessary to repair the problem. It typically takes less than a week to get the situation addressed.
Rob Hiller has decided to focus on the retail side of his landscaping business and will be dropping Avocet as a customer. We very much appreciate the work he has done for us this past year. He has agreed to help us transition to a new company and will continue to work with us until the beginning of April.
That means Rob will have more time to take care of your lawn, so definitely consider him if you have a landscaping need!
If you are in need of a key for the pool and tennis courts (the same key works for both), please contact some key folks. Keys are available for a nominal cost.
Thanks to everyone that voted in person or by proxy at the meeting on Thursday, November 30, 2006. Quorum was achieved with 113 Members represented and the special assessment was passed with 85 (over 75%) in favor and 28 against. The projects scheduled through 2010 along with cash flow projections are available for your review.
The Finance Committee has worked to provide information and analysis on the current financial status of the Association and the reasons behind the special assessment. Please refer to these documents for further information.
Letter: Avocet
Finances
2006 Capital Reserves
Analysis Summary
Letter: Special
Assessment
The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the request for speed tables along Avocet Drive at their meeting Tuesday, October 24, 2006. Over 90% of our neighbors whose property is adjacent to Avocet Drive joined together to petition the county in favor of the speed tables. That is the way to work together, Avocet! Anecdotally, the speed of vehicles in Avocet seems much more reasonable these days.
For more information about the speed tables, see the Gwinnett County Speed Table brochure and the Gwinnett County Speed Hump Proposal notice.
On a somewhat related note: On July 25, 2006, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners adopted an amendment to the Development Regulations to require a traffic calming plan for residential subdivision streets. The notice and Traffic Calming Design Guide are available on the Gwinnett County web site.
There has been some confusion regarding the current state of the tennis courts. These pictures were submitted as documentation for your reference. Select (click) an image for a larger view.
Precision Design & Development, Inc. has applied for the rezoning of the three land parcels next to Avocet along South Old Peachtree Road (case RZM-06-025).
Adapted from Jeanne Aulbach's account on the Forum:
We had an awesome turnout at the Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday, September 5, 2006. There were about 40 people from Avocet, Highcroft, and Apremont, most in those beautiful red shirts! The looks on the faces of our Planning Commissioners when everyone stood up was the proverbial Kodak moment! The car pooling worked very well. Thanks to all who donated their services and to those who attended. You made a difference.
The vote at the Planning Commission meeting is to make a recommendation to the County Commission on a request to rezone. It is not a vote to approve or disapprove a specific project. The final vote rests with the County Commission and there is no appeal from that other than legal action which rarely succeeds because our Board of Commissioners follow a rigid rezoning procedure. While there was support on the Planning Commission to deny the request to rezone the property next door to R-TH, there was serious concern that the County Commissioners would overturn the recommendation from the Planning Committee and vote to rezone the property to R-TH with an 8 unit per acre density.
As a result of this concern, Jose Perez, one of our District 2 Planning Commissioners, made a motion that was approved to allow the rezoning to go forward as R-TH, but with significant conditions. These conditions addressed our main concerns: density, price point and privacy.
The condition with the greatest impact is to reduce the density from 8 to 6 homes per acre. This has the immediate effect of raising the price point of the homes. Additional conditions were 4 sided brick and 9' ceilings, further increasing in the price point. The privacy issue was addressed by requiring a 30' buffer with three rows of Leland cypress at least 8' in height at planting.
While this is not the detached housing we might prefer, it is certainly an acceptable compromise. It does not mean the development must be 6 townhomes per acre, only that it is the maximum density for the property. A developer may come in and develop to a higher standard, but would not be able to develop to a lower standard.
The BOD authorized joining the United Peachtree Corners Civic Association. This will give Avocet access to many helpful resources, but most imminently help with handling the issues related to the proposed development adjacent to the neighborhood.
Masonite siding, which was installed on many of the early phase houses in Avocet, can develop problems for which a class action suit can provide some relief. Information regarding this is available at www.masoniteclaims.com.
The Architectural Committee will be revising/updating the current ACC Process and Standards guide. Click here to view current guide.
The new form has additional instructions for distribution and notification.
Gwinnett County has ordinances regarding pets and animals, such as the leash law and public nuisance animals, that can be found in the Animal Control Ordinance.
The Architectural Control Committee's (ACC) guidelines (found on the committee page) in regard to fences now attempts to reflect all of the restrictions of the Gwinnett County ordinances. (It is not a requirement that the ACC guidelines do so, and it is the responsibility of each homeowner to adhere to all legal requirements.) If you are considering erecting a fence, please consult this synopsis of the Gwinnett County ordinance, and be sure to submit a request to the Architectural Control Committee.
Other ordinances of interest to the Community include the Property Maintenance Ordinance, and the Sign Ordinance.
Gwinnett County has done quite a lot of work on its web site lately, and it shows! Look around a bit, and send me an email if you find anything of interest to the Community.
A new web page has been established under the Sports Committee to provide information about tennis in Avocet. If you have interest and want to know more, please visit Avocet Tennis.
Teams are forming now for ALTA and USTA tennis - men's, women's, and mixed doubles of various levels. If you have interest in joining, contact an organizing captain; if you don't know who to talk to, contact the Sports Committee, and they will help you find a neighborhood team.
Some houses in the neighborhood have had problems with the water line running from the meter to the house. There are certain supply lines that have known problems, and there is the possibility of some relief available through class action suits. Sources of information include http://www.spencerclass.com/index2.htm and http://www.pbpipe.com/.
Anecdotal data suggests that this problem could be restricted to earlier houses in the neighborhood - say through phase 3 - but we really have no direct way of knowing for certain at this time.
For those of you that may have trouble remembering to pay on a monthly basis, consider the option of enclosing multiple coupons (all twelve if you like) with the appropriate payment. The option of paying monthly is provided as a convenience, but is only convenient if you remember to pay on time. Additionally, if you subscribe to the Avocet Forum you should receive reminders by email prior to the due date of each payment.
If you are in need of a payment coupon book for the assessment please contact Robin Steinkritz with Heritage.
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