Greenbrae Property Owners’ Association (GPOA)
Board of Directors Meeting

Date: January 20, 2000
Time: 7:00 PM to 9:15 PM

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM
The meeting was held at the office of Frank Howard Allen. President Mark Litwin called the meeting to order. In attendance were board members Patty Oxman, Dan Brady, Colin Lynch, Steve Jaffe, Scott Sherman, Chalayne Gallinatti, Mary Lindsay, Dennis Ryan and Rumple.

Introduction of Guests
First order of business was introduction of guests. First guest was Mr. Chris McCluney representing the 2050 Committee of the City of Larkspur. The 2050 Committee has been mandated by the City of Larkspur to come up with a plan for the future development and/or improvements of Larkspur infrastructure, and to set priorities for those improvements. Mr. McCluney was seeking members for the committee from the Greenbrae area. Mr. McCluney was advised to return to the town meeting on March 2nd to address that issue with more of the community in attendance. For those interested in talking about this committee, Mr. McCluney could be reached at 461-9331.

The next guests were Jim and Diane Dresser of Greenbrae. They made a presentation and were seeking a resolution opposing the Chevron Station expansion. We were advised that Chevron had resubmitted its plan to the City of Larkspur which still included a minimart with increased building size, though smaller than the previous design, and continuing to move the building to the rear of the lot, thus abutting the eastern entry of the shopping center. We were also advised that the application withdrew the request for the sale of liquor at that minimart but the Dresser's expressed skepticism about Chevron's ultimate intention in this regard. It was thought that once the project was completed, Chevron could simply then apply for a license. They advised us too that the next meeting of the Planning Commission that would hear this matter was February 8. The matter was moved to the new matters on the agenda.

Next in attendance was Robert Stupack of Corte Toluca on his own behalf and various neighbors living on Via La Cumbre. Their concerns and their issue was the poplar and pine trees that have grown over the years on the island on Via La Cumbre in front of their homes. The trees had grown to such heights that their views were significantly or completely blocked. Mr. Stupack was requesting contribution from CSA 16 immediately to either trim ten trees or cut them down in their entirety. The matter was put over to the new business section of the agenda.

The next in attendance were representatives of the Palleschis on Corte Cormoda. The Palleschis are an elderly couple who are claiming that their next door neighbors are maintaining a nuisance in the form of a large Monterey Pine tree which is leaning precipitously over their property and which regularly drops large pine cones onto their patio and particularly their patio cover, thus causing damage. The Palleschis were seeking the help of GPOA in taking some actions against their neighbors. The reports of the two arborists employed by the neighbors were presented for review. The matter was discussed and it was determined that this was essentially a private matter, that GPOA did not have the financial resources to take any action on the Palleschis behalf and since they had already engaged an attorney themselves, that they should pursue this as a private matter. Nonetheless it was deemed that this would constitute a nuisance in the subdivision and as such, violated the CC&R's. Dan Brady made a motion that the Board did find that in fact the tree in question was a nuisance that violated the CC&Rs. It was seconded. The motion carried unanimously.

The next guest was Marcia McCall from Via La Cumbre, who was advising the board of an upcoming production at Redwood High School of the musical play Mame, and ask that we give our support to that production.

Finally, Supervisor Hal Brown was introduced as a guest.

Landscaping Report by Scott Sherman
Scott discussed the trees on Via La Cumbre and agreed that indeed there were trees there that had grown up without any design or purpose and that they were inappropriate for the location. Dan Brady moved that the board authorize the expenditure of up to $500, at Scott's discretion, as an equal contribution to the affected homeowners on La Cumbre who desired to have the trees cut down. Mary Lindsay seconded the motion and the motion was carried unanimously. In regards to this motion, it was requested that the neighbors mark which ten trees they specifically would like to have cut down and Colin Lynch agreed that he would assist in this matter and he would contact the downhill neighbors of those trees to ensure that there was no significant opposition to this action. Scott's landscape report is attached.

Community Relations Report by Mary Lindsay
Mary presented a report of the number of calls that had been received by the Association in the past year and that report is attached. She mentioned that the owner of 20 Manor Drive, a house left as a shell as a result of a fire, cannot be located, that neither the City of Larkspur nor Fire Department, nor insurance company knows how to reach the owner and nothing seems to be able to be done to demolish that unsightly structure. Mary then discussed the CalTrans plans for the expansion of the HOV lane on 101 and the erection of a sound wall between the Greenbrae subdivision and 101. She stated that the United States Government was giving $300,000 towards the construction of a wall, and that the county had been very helpful in helping Greenbrae meet its express design and configuration needs, largely because of the help and influence of Hal Brown, our supervisor. Mary also expressed a need for a volunteer to help field some of the calls coming in on the main telephone line.

Approval of Minutes of Meeting of October 14, 1999
Colin Lynch requested that the reference to his report of Senate Bill 1148 be expanded. He stated that we are not subject to the Davis-Stirling Act. It would be very difficult if not impossible to amend all the different CC&R documents in our subdivision, there being 17, to accomplish what Senate Bill 1148 seeks to accomplish, i.e., the elimination of any offensive language regarding the exclusion of any racial groups. Mark Litwin suggested that we try to create some document that could be recorded with the County Recorder that might accomplish the objectives of this act without actually going through the procedures of trying to amend the CC&RS which would be expensive, cumbersome, if not impossible. The minutes of October 14 were then adopted.

New Matters
Dennis Ryan presented a report of the 1999-00 budget. It was explained that our cash flow for the year was essentially the same as for the prior year. Based on this, our available cash for capital improvements were the unspent reserves from prior years, and that the capital improvement funds available going forward would be severely limited once that reserve was spent. A question was raised of trying to raise the CSA 16 assessment, and was tabled for future consideration.

The Chevron Station expansion was again raised by Mark Litwin. Mary Lindsay made a motion that the Board of GPOA opposed the application of Chevron in all respects. Dennis Ryan seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. It was also suggested that letter be sent to the City of Larkspur and to the Bon Air Center regarding this resolution. Mark agreed to do so.

Mark Litwin next raised the issue of the slate for the upcoming year. He volunteered to serve as President for another year, in that there were no other obvious candidates willing to take the position. He nominated Colin Lynch as First Vice President for the coming year and the other board members who were already on the board to continue to remain on the board. Steve Jaffe noted that he would not be able to serve in the coming year and did not wish to be on the slate for the general meeting of March 2nd.

Rumple suggested that we try to increase our communications with the community. He suggested that we send copies of the minutes of our meetings to the entire community. On his motion it was agreed that such mailings would be instituted.

Various other items regarding who would be invited to the general meeting and what items would be discussed at the meeting were raised.

The next regular Board meeting was set for April 27, 2000.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 PM.