The Latest Ocean Ranch News for you

April Newsletter Vol. 12 Issue 4

April Board of Directors Meeting

The April Ocean Ranch Homeowners Association Board of Directors Meeting will be held on Thursday, April 20^th at the Laguna Niguel Sea Country Senior & Community Center located at 24602 Aliso Creek Road. The meeting will begin with the closed Executive Session at 6:30 PM followed by the regular Open Session of the Board Meeting which will begin approximately 7:30 PM. For your information, the proposed Meeting Agenda is posted on the Bulletin Board located at the Ocean Ranch Community Park Complex.

All Ocean Ranch residents are invited to participate in the Open Session to discuss any matters of business that would be proper to come before the Ocean Ranch Board of Directors. While it is not necessary that the Board be notified ahead of the actual Board Meeting, it may be more effective if Ocean Ranch’s Community Manager, Ms. Katie Davies is apprised of the issue ahead of time. You may contact Ms. Davies by telephone at: (949) 448-6160, or via email at katie.davies@fsresidential.com. You may also write directly to Ms. Davies at FirstServices Residential, 15241 Laguna Canyon Road, Irvine, CA 92618.

April

Thursday

BOARD MEETING

New Community Manager

We wish to inform Ocean Ranch residents that Mr. Roger Velasquez, Ocean Ranch’s Community Manager for the last several months, recently resigned his employment at FirstService Residential. We thank Roger for his service and wish him well.

This change has occasioned the re-appointment of Ms. Katie Davies as Ocean Ranch’s Community Manager. Many of you may recall that Katie previously served as our Community Manager for several years, so she is very well acquainted with Ocean Ranch. We are very pleased to again enjoy the benefit of her services. Katie’s direct telephone number at FirstService Residential is (949) 448-6160. Her email address is katie.davies@fsresidential.com

Katie will be assisted by Mr. Cameron Smaw whose telephone number is (949) 448-6191. His email address is: cameron.smaw@fsresidential.com

Neal Lander will continue to work with Ms. Davis on architecture and landscaping matters. His telephone number is (949) 540-6862, and his email address is: neal.lander@fsresidential.com

ACCESS CONTROL

VISIT OUR WEBSITE

Burglary News Update

Ocean Ranch is very pleased to report our Community does not appear to have had any further burglaries since the end of 2022. Nevertheless, all residents should continue to be vigilant and implement defensive measures necessary to protect their individual residences. Specifically, please carefully review the recently published bulletin issued to alert residents of recommendations to help protect our Community and individual residences from further burglary incidences.

Some of our residents have inquired as to what actions the Sheriff’s Department is taking to reduce burglary activity in our area. Two members of Ocean Ranch’s Board of Directors recently met with officers from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and were informed that the Department has formed a County-wide task force, staffed with a large contingent of officers working full time on the problem. They are utilizing a wide range of sophisticated equipment including drones and license plate detection equipment, including fifteen installations in Laguna Niguel. They are also using heat seeking equipment in appropriate areas. They have also deployed active patrol units in areas where burglaries have previously occurred so that they can more quickly get to areas where alarms have identified possible burglaries in progress. Use of these types of equipment and procedures have led to apprehension of several burglars.

We were informed that the Sheriff’s Department has increased patrols along Ridgeway Avenue. Ocean Ranch has also added afternoon and evening traverses of Ridgeway Avenue by the Ocean Ranch patrol. The patrol car is well lighted and easily identified as a patrol car with the intention of providing at least some dissuasion to would-be burglars. The patrol car also “searches” the canyon area with a high-powered searchlight.

While it is unknown if the efforts of the Sheriff’s Department and Ocean Ranch’s patrols have been a factor in the reduction of burglary activity, the fact remains that we have had significantly less crime in our direct area during the last three months. We are continuing to emphasize strong gate access procedures and encourage all residents to be aware of what is going on in our Community. If you see something, say something, and call 911.

New Gate Access Procedures

The Board of Directors has been very focused on the need to significantly improve the effectiveness of Ocean Ranch’s access gate operations. Allied Universal, our gate personnel contractor, has reviewed all gate personnel assigned to Ocean Ranch and has made personnel changes where it was determined improved personnel were necessary. We have also required Allied to conduct a weekly assessment of the effectiveness of their personnel to make sure they are following prescribed procedures and that their gate attendants are doing the quality job that Ocean Ranch is demanding. The Board of Directors is also closely monitoring the effectiveness of our Gate Attendants. Based on our reviews and discussions with many residents we believe that since greater emphasis was placed on following procedures around the latter part of February, our attendants have been performing up to our expectations.

Some procedure changes that have been implemented to improve operations include:

All arriving guests and vendors must now present their driver’s license as proof of their identification. Licenses are being scanned into a computer database in code form—pictures and personal information are not readily available except to specific law enforcement officers or other similarly confidential protected review. The implementation of this procedure corresponds with identification procedures at most other similar private communities. Please inform your guests and vendors that they will have to provide their driver’s license for admittance to Ocean Ranch.

Residents must enter visitor and vendor information into the QuickPass visitor control system as being authorized to visit your residence. If your visitor/vendor is not in the system, they will be asked to pull to the side, away from the entrance lanes, and call your residence to have you call the gate and authorize your visitor. The Gate Attendant will no longer place calls to residents. This is necessary for several reasons, not only for efficiency of gate operations, but also so that Gate Attendants do not inadvertently inform some arriving individual that the resident they have been expecting to visit may not be home, thereby exposing the resident to potential increased level of risk.

Please support this change as it is a very important improvement to Ocean Ranch safety. If you need assistance operating the QuickPass System please contact Christian Vasquez at the Upper Gate between 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Mr. Vasquez’s telephone number is (949) 371-4644.

Dear Monarch,

There are two types of people in our world: those who work with plants and those who work for plants. At Monarch, we are the latter. ....

Pollen Press .PDF

Why Approval Is Required

Periodically Ocean Ranch residents decide to undertake home improvement projects on their properties. Such projects are highly encouraged as they generally help to increase the overall value of all properties in Ocean Ranch. However, it is VERY IMPORTANT homeowners understand that Ocean Ranch’s Rules and Regulations (CC&Rs) require ALL PROJECTS that affect the exterior of a residence including the landscaping require pre-approval from the Homeowners Association before work commences. Ocean Ranch's Rules and Regulations specify:

No improvement(s) or alteration(s) to the exterior of a lot or residence may be commenced until plans have been submitted to and granted final approval by the applicable "Committees". All plans for improvements or alterations are to be submitted to Ocean Ranch at Bear Brand Homeowners Association, in accordance with the Architectural Standards and amendments thereto.

Ocean Ranch Rules and Regulations,

Sections 4 & 5, Page 23

The reason for this required approval is to enable the plans for improvements and landscaping changes to be evaluated in accordance with the provisions of Ocean Ranch's Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs) governing maintenance of architectural standards, landscaping, property maintenance and view protections. It is important that Ocean Ranch’s “look and feel” be maintained up to the standards that we all expected when we purchased our properties.

Improvements that are initiated without approval can be subject to fines, removal of the project and the property restored to its pre-construction condition.

Ocean Ranch’s Board of Directors does not like to have to enforce the Community’s standards but without enforcement of CC&Rs, our Community would quickly develop a “mish-mash” of architectural styles and colors. It is

uniform compliance with Ocean Ranch CC&Rs that enables Ocean Ranch to continue to be regarded as one of South Orange County's premier communities.

Ocean Ranch Spring Celebration

We thank Lori McGuire and the McGuire Team for sponsoring the Spring Celebration, which was held on Saturday, April 1 at Ocean Ranch’s Community Park Complex. It was an eggcellent day of fun and frolic. There was a bounce house for the kids to go along with the Easter Egg hunt. The kids also enjoyed the face painting and the balloon twisting. Mom and Dad even got to enjoy tasty crepes and a mimosa bar. Who doesn’t enjoy a good eggscuse for a springtime party? There appeared to be about 200 Ocean Ranchers participating during the day, and the weather couldn’t have been nicer.

Click the HERE to see for yourself!

https://youtu.be/M_bBqLZZLPE

The Board of Directors:

Richard Belliston, President

Janice Wolf, Vice President

Daryl Jacob, Secretary

Tom Williams, Treasurer

Michael Leventhal, Member at Large