Barrington Ridge HOA

We were planning to have a game night this Saturday evening, September 13th but the weather forecast is calling for rain Friday evening, all day Saturday and Saturday night so we are changing the date to September 27th. We will try to get flyers out to everyone but if you have neighbors who do not have internet access, please be sure to let them know about the new date!

Cedarwood Development & CVS Pharmacy have formally withdrawn all applications with the city regarding the re-zoning of the property located at the intersection of LP Cookingham Dr and NE Flintlock Rd. The letter stated that after meeting with neighborhood groups from Montclair and Barrington Woods, the decision was made to withdraw.

The lawn care company recently experienced some problems with some of their equipment when putting down the fertilizer/weed control . This has caused some brown spots to appear in the yards. The company advised that we should try to keep those areas well watered for the next few weeks. In most cases, the grass will come back but if it doesn't, they will replace the sod in those areas in September. Please remember it is the homeowners' responsibility to keep their lawns, trees and shrubs watered when we are not getting regular rainfall.

A community meeting has been scheduled for Sunday, August 17th at 6:30 PM at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in the West Wing Room (Enter through the doors located on the south west side of the building). This will be an informational meeting to discuss the rezoning of the property on Hwy 291 and Flintlock where CVS Pharmacy wants to build a new location. All homeowners are invited to attend.

CVS Drugstores asked for a postponement of the zoning meeting for the property on Hwy. 291. A new hearing date has been set for September 2, 2008. There is a group from the development across the highway from us that have been gathering signatures on a petition against the zoning change. They are trying to set up a community meeting (hopefully at the Pleasant Valley Baptist Church) that all of the homeowners can attend to discuss this issue. As soon as a date and time have been set, it will be posted on the website and we will try to get the information out to everyone with flyers. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave feedback here or send an email through the 'contact' button at the top of the page.

Just wanted to bring up a few points that have been brought to my attention regarding the CVS drugstore. First of all, the zoning hearing to change the zoning of the property from residential to commercial is set for August 5th at 10 AM. I don't have an exact location for the meeting yet but will post it tomorrow morning after I make a few phone calls. CVS representatives told the board members on 2 occasions that letters would be mailed out to all of the homeowners with the meeting date, time and place so we could attend but I for one did not get such a letter and neither did most of my neighbors. In fact, I don't know of anyone who did get the letter.

At the meetings with CVS, they assured us that they are not planning to take out any of the big trees now on the perimeter of the property. They also advised that they would not be putting in an entrance to their property on NE 98th Street where the street now dead-ends. While they can say they are not 'planning' to do these things, plans can change by the time the actual property is built. The city can make requirements of them that would change their plans and there would be nothing we could do about it. By the same token, once the property is zoned commercial, CVS could just decide not to build on this location at all and the property be sold to someone else for commercial use...any kind of commercial use. That could hurt our property values.

My biggest question for CVS right now is why do they want to build their store on this piece of property in the middle of a residential area, when there are several pieces of property already zoned commercial just a few blocks away? Why not keep all of the commercial properties in one area?

At any rate, these are just a few points that have been brought up recently that have made me question whether I really want the property zoning changed. I am afraid it might be more harmful to our development than it appears on the surface. I hope if you are concerned you will attend the meeting Tuesday.

Patti Swicegood

Our cookout was a great success and several people have expressed an interest in having another get together. This time we are going to have a game night. The plan is to have tables set up with various board and card games. Everyone is asked to bring lawn chairs and their favorite finger food...chips & dip, cookies, brownies, cheese & crackers...something easy and not too messy. There will be tea and lemonade but you are welcome to bring any other drinks you would like as well. The date is Saturday, September 13th from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Swicegood's house, 9909 N. Oxford Court. Mark your calendar and come join us! Even if you don't want to play any of the games, please come and visit with everyone and enjoy the food.

Since some of our residents do not have internet access, we are going to try getting out a newsletter once each quarter to help keep everyone updated. One is in the works now and hopefully will be ready by August 1st. The board members are going to deliver this newsletter rather than mail them out. With the newsletter will be a form for a subdivision directory. A directory was published last year but all of the homes were not completed or sold yet so not everyone is listed. This directory service is free to developments with more than 200 homes so our HOA is being combined with the other homes in the Estates, Village and Cottages as it was done last year. The cost of the directory is picked up by the various advertisers you will find in it. If you do not wish to be listed in the directory, there is a place on the form to let Nilla Henry know and she needs all forms returned to her at Curry Management no later than August 15th.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend! God bless America!

Hard to believe the year is half gone! The board is reviewing our indentures and will be going over some of the concerns we have about the way they are written with all of the homeowners soon. We will probably send a letter out with our initial thoughts and concerns and follow up with a meeting where we can all discuss them as a group before we put together any actual changes to be voted on. Please let any or all of us know if you have any particular items that you are concerned about. At this time, we are holding monthly meetings on the third Monday of each month so if you have anything you want to share with us, please get it to us before those meetings. Our July meeting is scheduled for July 21st.

There has been some interest in having more functions together. The backyards where we had our cookout seems to be a nice shady location for summer events so we are looking at having another function there in August. This time, we will probably have an ice cream/dessert night and maybe set up tables for board games or card games to be played. We will get more details out in the next couple of weeks.

Our lawn care is scheduled for Friday mornings, weather permitting, so please try to remember to have garden hoses and other items picked up and out of the way of the mowers. Also, if you have a sprinkler system, please try not to have it scheduled for Friday mornings.

The Crescent Court homeowners got together and pitched in money to purchase plants to go in the circle at the cul-de-sac. It really looks great! Thanks to Scott Sanders for heading it up! The Oxford Court circle was originally planted by McBride but during construction of those homes, most of the plants were torn up. Maybe in the next few weeks, those homeowners can do some similar planting.

CVS Pharmacies are in the final planning stages for their new store on Hwy, 291 behind some of our homes. A planning meeting is scheduled with the city for August 5th and all homeowners are welcome to attend. CVS will be mailing out a letter to all of the homeowners in the area with the time and place of the meeting.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!