Oxford Place   

Fort Mill, SC          

2002 Autumn Newsletter

Comporium Communications Meeting…

On Monday August 26 at 7pm, Comporium Communications will host a meeting in the fellowship hall of the Doby’s Bridge Presbyterian Church at 2500 Doby’s Bridge Road. They are looking for feedback from the residents in the area about a proposed telecommunications tower. See the enclosed letter for more information.

Oxford Neighborhood Meeting…

The board of directors had originally planned to have a full neighborhood meeting or host a neighborhood party in September. Unfortunately, we have not seen much interest in having a September event this year.

In January 2003 the full neighborhood meeting will take place. At this meeting, the neighborhood will elect new officers and will vote on a new budget. We also anticipate that we will vote on certain neighborhood amenities (landscaping, picnic tables, etc.) and discuss other important neighborhood issues.

Fun Facts…

Did you know that every street in Oxford Place at one time was considered for another name. These names can still be found on maps that were created when the neighborhood was being formed. You might occasionally find one or more of these street names on commercially printed maps, the Internet, census maps, or tax maps. The names were as follows:

Street Name Other name(s) found on some maps

Oxford Place Drive Deer Walk Drive

White Chapel Court Fawn Trail Road

Kingston Way Fox Haven Way

Savile Lane Saville Lane, Haven Court

Croyden Court Trot Avenue

Doe Ridge Lane Dog Ridge Lane, Park Royal Court

Cabin Creek Court Bexley Court

Budget and Neighborhood Maintenance Fee…

At the meeting held in February, the community approved a $100 annual fee for 2002. The owner of record as of April 1 was responsible for paying the fee by April 15. As of August 1, 2002, 105 of the 108 lots have paid the fee. We are working on the other three. Eight property owners took us up on our offer to collect the 2002 fee in two semi-annual payments. Although, this meant a little more paperwork, we were happy to split the 2002 fee into two collection periods. If you chose to pay half in April, you will find an invoice for the other $50 with this newsletter.

Let there be light…

Hooray! Oxford Place now has fully functional street lights on all roads.

The lights for the entrance signage are slowly moving forward. Homestead Land and Timber has contributed $1500 for the lights. We already have electrical wiring leading to one sign in East and one in West. York Electric Cooperative will bring electricity to the other two signs for $300 each. They will install electric meters behind all four signs at no cost. We will have a small monthly fee for electricity for each meter. We may have about $2000 available that we can dedicate to installing lights at all four signs.

Feedback…

In the past several months, members of the board have received a few telephone calls and received comments included with the annual fee. The comments we have received are summarized below.

The most frequent comment we have received concerns individual property landscaping.

"A few properties are only mowing/maintaining the lawn directly in front of their house. These properties, especially corner lots, are not mowing the side of their lot that borders another street."

To respond - the Homeowners Board will offer assistance in assisting property owners in finding the bounds of their property if requested. We politely ask that all property owners mow and maintain all grassy areas of their property. We ask concerned neighbors to speak with their neighbor in a friendly manner to initially address the problem. To maintain neighborhood peace, the board will write a letter to the homeowner, if requested.

"The lots of a few homes under construction and some undeveloped lots are not being mowed."

To respond – the Homeowners Board politely asks builders to consider mowing their properties if the property has tall overgrown grass. We know that mowing the lawn is not always the first priority during the construction process. And we know that lot owners that do not live here would have difficulty bringing a mower to their property each week. We ask permission of the lot owners (and builders) to allow adjacent property owners to mow the very front of their property.

"Large trucks and other vehicles are destroying lawns at the street corners."

To respond – the Homeowners Board asks all builders, truck drivers, and all vehicle drivers to be more considerate of neighborhood lawns and landscaping and other peoples property. Individual property owners need to make it clear that they do not want trucks driven on their property.

***At the January meeting, we will gauge the interest in the neighborhood in expanding the duties of our lawn maintenance contract. We could consider having the landscaper mow the right of way of undeveloped lots, mow neglected properties after notice is given (or neglected areas of properties), and find landscaping solutions to fix and possibly prevent the truck damage at corners. There would be a cost involved. These issues will need thoughtful discussion and careful consideration at the next meeting.

"What about a community yard sale?" "Consider a cookout fundraiser to improve the recreation lot."

To respond – the Homeowners Board agrees that a community yard sale or a fundraiser is a great idea. We would love for a few neighborhood residents to volunteer to spearhead this event. We strongly encourage anyone who wants to form a group or activity to better the neighborhood. Let us know how we can help.

At the recreation lot…"We need a picnic table." "We need a shelter with several tables." "We need a trash can." "We need a ball field/tennis court/basketball goal." "We need to pave the parking area."

To respond – the Homeowners board agrees that all of these items would be nice. However, all have a cost involved. Currently, there is very little money in the neighborhood reserves. At the next full neighborhood meeting in January, we will vote on a new budget. The items above as well as some other items will be presented on a ballot to each Oxford Place property owner. An extra $50 per property per year would allow the neighborhood to purchase $5400 worth of amenities each year. The fundraiser/yard sale could also be a source of revenue.

"The bushes transplanted to the entrance signs at Oxford Place East died"

To respond – the Homeowners board will allocate some funds to purchase new bushes to be planted in the fall.

The Current Board Members

The five members of the Homeowners board are happy to serve the community this year. We share the same goal as all residents and future residents – making Oxford Place an exceptional place to live.

Frank Collins       547-xxxx       1026 Croyden Court
Heather Ratliff                    just moving in 1426 Doe Ridge Lane
Maureen Reavis      802-xxxx       218 Oxford Place Drive
Peggy Reitz         802-xxxx       417 White Chapel Court
Dan Warren          802-xxxx       building on Lot 95 Cabin Creek

If you have any questions or concerns about neighborhood issues, please give any one of us a call or you can email us at OxfordPlace@Elvis.com. We are here to serve the community.

Architectural Review…

A friendly reminder that all Oxford Place mailboxes must be the uniform standard mailbox that you will find in front of the properties of all current residents. One company that provides this type of mailbox is Carolina Mailboxes Inc. 704-845-0850. This company paints a gold house number on the mailbox.

We wish Andrea Hofacre and family the best with their recent move to Mexico and their exciting new career opportunity. We will carry forward with 3 members of the Architectural Review Committee. The architectural review committee looks forward to working with all property owners that have building needs. Please contact any member of the committee if you have a project you are planning or just need some advice.

Laura Bradford     802-xxxx   628 Kingston Way
Roger Guchone      547-xxxx   603 Kingston Way
Johnny Webster     802-xxxx   xxx Oxford Place Drive

Per item 27 of the Covenants and Restrictions - No construction, reconstruction, remodeling or alteration of any building, improvement, or structure shall be commenced without prior written approval. Basically the architectural review committee wants to make sure plans meet the conditions of the C&Rs (square footage, 90% brick, stone, stucco, cement drive, extra walls etc.) and some other common sense guidelines (not a duplicate of house next door, etc.). All Oxford Place property owners buy lots with these conditions in place and want to protect home values. The members of the Architectural Review committee will be happy to help you with any questions or concerns. We are happy to see the rapid development in the past six months. We now have complete homes on over ½ of the 108 lots. Another dozen homes are under construction.

Bylaws and Covenants and Restrictions…

If you would like a MSWord copy of the bylaws, please send an email to OxfordPlace@Elvis.com. We will send the Bylaws as an attachment to you within 7 days of the request (usually within 2 days). If you do not have access to email or word processing software, feel free to call any of the board members and we can arrange to send you a paper copy. The Covenants and Restrictions are only available in paper form. All residents need to be familiar with everything listed in the C&Rs. Call a member of the homeowners board if you need a copy.

Why Elvis?…

Why OxfordPlace@elvis.com? No, we are not Elvis impersonators. Actually elvis.com is one of the top rated free email sites. The free account we established has a lot of functionality, and very little Spam. Email us if you would like to be included on an Oxford Place email address list. We will occasionally send out an email message if something eventful is happening in the neighborhood (meeting reminders, news, etc.).