A look back at 2019...

Season’s Greeting Pasatiempo Homeowners!

Your Board of Trustees is looking forward to a new year full of community and good cheer! The Board has been diligently working to fulfill our duty to provide a broad spectrum of services to our community in conformance to our governing documents. We recognize that Pasatiempo is an increasingly diverse community with a wide variety of housing styles and generations. As such each and every week the Board hears from homeowners regarding how they envision Pasatiempo and its environs. We would like to take a moment to tell you about some of the inquiries and new developments the Board has been working on in 2019.

Building and Deeds

Over the past year, we received over 35 applications for renovations to homes in our community. We appreciate the homeowners’ participation in this process, which allows the Board to ensure that the modifications are in keeping with the look and feel that makes Pasatiempo the unique place it is. While this can be a difficult process, the Board strives to be as fair as possible in order to balance the needs of the homeowner seeking changes and the input of the neighbors adjacent to the renovation and the community at-large.

Roads, Drainage and Common Area Maintenance

Last year’s rainfall caused a number of drainage and road issues. In order to manage all of the work that needed to be done, we asked several reputable contractors to bid on the entire road and drainage project, as opposed to piecemeal repairs. After an exhaustive search and many meetings, all contractors declined to bid the project as a whole, preferring instead to bid each problem area individually. As a result, we have contracted with Christianson Tree Service and contractors who have been busily working through our list. We expect this work to continue through the year.

In another area of maintenance, we have focused on clearing our right of ways for wildfire abatement. We have some more work to complete coming into the New Year. Once that work is addressed, we will happily turn our attention to the various islands and gates located in the community. Stay tuned for some sprucing up!

Gates, Traffic Management and Homeless Encampment Abatement

As you know in the past couple of weeks, we have been testing our Highway 17 gate traffic management. This effort hasn’t been without its challenges with residents and visitors tailgating through gates and breaking them, yelling at the gate staff and impatiently driving through the exit and entrance gates from the wrong side with some near misses. Luckily, we have not had any collisions. We have also purchased and begun installation of new high intensity cameras that are able to read the license plates of vehicles entering or exiting.

We will be sending you a survey soon that will cover all gate and guard options that our committee has reviewed. Please keep an eye out for this and take the time to respond. We need your valuable input!

In an effort to slow traffic on Pasatiempo Road, the Santa Cruz County Sherriff’s Department temporarily installed radar speed signs. We will continue to reserve and install these signs at various locations to remind all to be aware of our posted speed limits.  

Lastly, in an effort to manage homeless encampments along our property bordering Highway 17, we have installed cameras and added weekly sweeps of the area allowing instant notification and quick removal of any inhabitants.

Website

At last we have a completely new website (pasatiempohoa.com). Take some time and explore it! We’ve focused the initial launch on providing information about our community, forms, documents and announcements of Pasatiempo events and Board meetings. Moving forward we will add additional functions to the site, such as, password protected information and broader community involvement opportunities.

We live in an historic and beautiful community of over 300 residences, and those attributes require a team (your Board) to effectively manage its operations and infrastructure. The Board of Trustees is a volunteer Board, and each of your Board members spend many hours each week working to improve and maintain the lifestyle we have all chosen. We are always looking for interested residents to join the Board or one of our many committees. Please consider contributing your time and expertise to improve Pasatiempo!

In closing, we would like to pay tribute to our fellow Board member and neighbor Linda Oster. Linda passed away earlier this year and is greatly missed by all of us. We wish her family peace and serenity in the coming year.

Happy holidays everyone!
Pasatiempo Board of Trustees

Matt James – President
Linda Armstrong – Vice President
Stacey Vrolyk – Secretary
Joellen Pelz – Treasurer

Martha Andersen – Property Manager