Meadowood community at a crossroads > Local Happenings > Stories > Aurora

RECENT STORIES

Local video game store to host charity event ( Drew Paterson )
Santa is coming, Santa is coming ( Julie Beck )
Reflect and give thanks to our service members ( Julie Beck )
Black Friday appeared brisk in Aurora Southlands ( Daniel Smith/YourHub.com )
Boy Scouts honor wounded soldiers ( Heidi German )

share a story | more postings »

YourHub.com \\ Aurora \\ Stories \\ Sound Off \\ Local Happenings

Meadowood community at a crossroads

e-mail to a friend | print this | link to this

NEXT › ‹ PREVIOUS

Contributed by: Donna Garcia on 4/11/2008

Meadowood is an older community in Aurora that is at a crossroads. Like many older communities in Aurora, it is surrounded by aging wooden fences of varying sizes, ages and styles (or no fence at all) with bare dirt from fence to sidewalk containing rocks, plastic, weeds and trash. This problem is detrimental to the community in numerous ways. Homeowners on the perimeter can do their part to pick up trash outside their fences and repair and maintain their own fences, but they can never solve the overall problem that creates an unattractive rundown look to the community. It is a problem that affects the whole community, and it is a problem that can only be solved by the whole community.

Meadowood Neighborhood Association (a voluntary group of homeowners) has been meeting for a year and a half for the sole purpose of helping to make Meadowood an even better community than it already is. One of many projects undertaken was to gather information about how best to solve the problem of the unattractive rundown border surrounding Meadowood. Residents can choose to do nothing, but ignoring the problem will not make it go away and is not helpful to our community in any way. Another option is to form a mandatory homeowner's association, collect fees, and force perimeter residents to build fences of our design and choosing. Fees would have to be collected indefinitely to maintain the fences, install and maintain landscaping outside the fences, etc. Residents who talk about "cheaper" options for fixing the problem with more fences are referring to this option.

Another more practical solution seems to be the Fence Replacement Program offered by the city of Aurora which allows communities to replace perimeter fences with 8' high masonry walls with a variety of financing options available. The association gathered information about this option to pass on to residents, who must make the final decision for their community. Decisions that had to be made along the way were made at the monthly meetings which were open to the public. Signs were made and newsletters distributed encouraging community involvement. Residents chose a beautiful, durable mortarless block wall design with concrete to replace the bare dirt outside the wall to the sidewalk. The wall would be owned and maintained by the city of Aurora. By choosing to form a General Improvement District, the costs would be divided evenly among all 2,200 homeowners, spread over 20 years, and appear on their property tax which is, therefore, tax deductible. Also, the Senior Property Tax Homestead Exemption applies to qualifying seniors which may cut their costs in half. If residents move within the 20 year period, the costs are assumed by the new property owner. Since property tax for most residents is included in their monthly mortgage, the estimated average cost per homeowner is $32/month (or $192 paid semi-annually). The earliest date residents would begin paying the tax would be 2012. A petition must be circulated and signed by 30% of the registered voters in Meadowood. If enough signatures are received, the issue would appear on the ballot in November 2008 for Meadowood residents to vote on. If approved, Meadowood would be the largest community to choose this option, and the first without a mandatory homeowner's association.

Meadowood has been in a state of decline for many years. More and more homes are neglected and poorly maintained with little concern for the effect this has on all the neighbors surrounding them. If residents are concerned about the properties in our community that are neglected and in bad shape, how can we ask those residents to fix up their properties if we aren't willing to take responsibility ourselves for the unattractive and rundown condition of our larger community? We can fix this problem and we are the only ones that can, but if we choose to not take responsibility, if we choose to not care, if we choose to not act, how can we expect our residents to care about their own properties? And so the downward spiral will continue unless action is taken to turn it around. Meadowood is truly at a crossroads: take responsibility and action or do nothing. It is up to residents to decide for themselves. The future of Meadowood is in their hands.

Donna Garcia is president of the Meadowood Neighborhood Association.

[Report this as objectionable content.]

SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Thank you! Your comment has been updated.

SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY

digg	Google
del.icio.us	Yahoo!
reddit	newsvine

What is this?

STORY RSS FEEDS

All stories

All stories in Aurora

All stories by Brendan Leonard

WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?

Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

Loading Ad