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About
Our Neighborhood
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Welcome to our neighborhood! Here is some information you may find helpful. The Association The Board of Directors Architectural Standards ACLAD Land Movement Fire and Fire Safety Gates Open Houses Phone Numbers Roads Sewers Trash Pickup Portuguese Bend Artists Colony To Send Us Mail The Portuguese Bend Community Association (usually just called the PBCA, or the Association) is the legally-chartered management organization for our community. The PBCA is a community association, rather than a homeowner’s association.Most of the parcels within the boundaries of the Association do in fact hold single-family houses, but the owners of the vacant properties are equal members of our Association. The Association:
The Association is governed by a board of five directors. These directors:
In addition to the annual meeting, there is a monthly PBCA board meeting – normally, the first Monday of each month. Meeting announcements are posted in advance of each meeting on the bulletin boards at the two gates and the web site and are sent by e-mail to those who request that service. Send your e-mail address to Tim Kelly (Tkellyrpv@aol.com) if you want to receive e-mail notifications of meetings, etc. The Association has promulgated a set of Architectural Standards that govern all property improvements within the area, and the association's architectural committee administers these standards. The Architectural Standards are posted here. A cover letter summarizing the Architectural Standards is available here. Portuguese Bend is located within the City of Rancho Palos Verdes – you can reach RPV City Hall at 310-377-0360. If you are contemplating additions or re-modeling, you must conform to both the PBCA and RPV rules / standards / codes. The suggested procedure for doing so is here. Members of the Architectural committee are:
ABALONE COVE LANDSLIDE ABATEMENT DISTRICT (ACLAD) If you live in the western portion of the PBCA, you may also be within the boundaries of the Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement District (usually known as ACLAD). ACLAD is an official California Hazard Abatement District, governed by a board of directors who are elected by the property owners within the ACLAD boundaries. ACLAD and its board are separate from the PBCA, although clearly our interests at time converge, and the two organizations at times co-operate. Note also that if you are located within the boundaries of ACLAD, you must pay a separate set of annual dues to ACLAD, in addition to the dues you must pay to the PBCA (and of course, in addition to the property taxes that you pay through Los Angeles County). Questions about ACLAD can be directed to Bob Douglas, chairman of ACLAD, at 310 544-2291, or to Sandy Marshall, ACLAD secretary, at 310 787-7111. Brush fire is an annual concern to our community. Each spring, owners receive notification from the County of Los Angeles about brush-clearance requirements; generally, the County requires that brush be cleared by 1 June each year. If you own a vacant lot, this means mowing or disking the entire lot; for lots with houses, this means mowing or disking areas that are not fully landscaped. If you do not clear it (or pay to have it cleared), the County will come and do it, but at a price much higher than the “going” rate; it will be quite a bit cheaper to make your own arrangements. The two Portuguese Bend gates (one on Narcissa, and one on Peppertree) are for access control. The gates open during “normal” hours (6 am to 10 pm) in response to a number (“gate code”) entered on the keypad, and also open anytime a gate card is inserted into the card reader. The intent is for residents to have gate cards, and thus enter at anytime using either the card or the code. Everyone else – gardeners, visitors, repairmen, etc. – are provided only with the gate code (but not a card), and therefore may only get in during “normal” hours. You may provide the gate code to your guests, but please do not post it in a public place, or on the Internet. If you are expecting a large number of people for an event, please make arrangements to have someone stationed at the gate to admit your guests. Realtors need to make similar arrangements for Open Houses. The code is changed at least once per year and notifications are mailed to all owners-of-record in advance of a gate code change. If you have problems with the gate, or need to purchase additional gate cards or a remote gate opener, please call Tim Kelly (541-8582). Tim – like all board members – is a volunteer, so please be nice! The Portuguese Bend Riding Club is located inside of our community, on Narcissa. Bona fide members of the Riding Club have been provided with the gate code – you should not have to do so. Similarly, bona fide employees of utility companies, etc., have been provided with the gate code.It is always sensible when making an appointment with such a person to check whether or not they have it. There are some houses just to the north of the community (up Vanderlip Drive) that are not members of our Association, although they traverse our (private) roads to go to and from their houses. The roads behind the gates are private; no member of the general public has a right to enter our community or use our roads. We have at times had to go to court to enforce this, and have prevailed. Open houses are to be conducted only on the first Sunday of the month. This is a private gated community and leaving the gates open to the public every weekend is contrary to this idea. Brokers' open houses may be held only on Tuesdays from 1-4 p.m. and realtors ivolved must have someone at the gate during this time. The gates will not be left open and/or unattended for open houses. The agent is responsible for staffing the gates with a competent person over the age of 18. All For Sale signs must be compatible with the community signs, printed with For Sale and a phone number, no names. Under no circumstances shall there be more than one Sunday open house per listed property in any given month. There shall be no exceptions to the above policy unless there has been prior written approval from the Board at least 2 weeks in advance. Any open houses that that do not adhere to this policy shall be shut down immediately. City of Rancho Palos Verdes 310.377.0360 Cox Cable Look here for phone numbers Southern California Edison 1-800-655-4555 Fire Department: 911 or 310- 679-1131 Southern California Gas Company 800-427-220 Los Angeles County Sheriff: 911 or 310-539-1661. Deputy Steinbacher or Deputy Duran. Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District 310 - 378 - 9966 There are two areas within the boundaries of the Association that are known to be subject to land movement. One is located in the eastern portion of our community, and is commonly referred to as the Portuguese Bend landslide. The other is located in the southwest portion of our community, and is commonly referred to as the Abalone Cove landslide. The city of Rancho Palos Verdes has established a Landslide Moratorium zone that extends over the entire Portuguese Bend Community Association area (and even a bit beyond). This moratorium places restrictions on development, grading, house additions, and other matters within this area, over and above the standards, codes, and regulations governing such actions in the rest of the City. The Portuguese Bend Community Association has no control or jurisdiction over this matter, takes no position for or against development on the vacant land within the boundaries of the Association, and makes no representation as to the probable duration of the moratorium. Everything behind the Portuguese Bend gates is private, including land (whether vacant or developed), roads, all improvements, etc. Please remember this at all times; seek out the owner of a vacant lot if you think a tree needs to be trimmed, please don’t drive off-road vehicles or bicycles on property that is not yours, etc. If you don’t know who owns a piece of property, the Association may be able to help. Some property (e.g., the area near the Narcissa gate, etc.) belongs in common to the Association, and is maintained by the Association. But individuals hold most of the land behind our gates. Please respect the privacy and rights of all property owners – they are all members of the Association, too. The western portion of Portuguese Bend has sewers; the eastern portion is on septic tanks. The sewer mains and laterals are maintained by the City. There is an annual fee for this that is included on your property tax bill. If you have problems with your sewer, please call the City "sewer hot-line” at (310)-521-3525 Trash service is provided by Universal Waste Systems on Monday and Thursday. Paper and plastic waste placed in the large blue trash can, is picked up on Monday. Green waste, in the green trash cans, is picked up on Thursday. Other trash is picked up on both days. If a legal holiday falls on a trash day, service will be moved to the next day (i.e: December 15, 2008 is on a Thursday. Trash service will be December 26.) You do not have to move your barrels to the curb. Universal Waste Systems mails a bill for trash collection services directly to each resident. Portuguese Bend Artists Colony A group of local artists has formed the Portuguese Bend Artists Colony. Read more about them here QUESTIONS Questions and/or problems about Portuguese Bend should be directed to the appropriate member of the Board of Directors. Questions and/or problems having to do with this web site should be directed to the volunteer who maintains it. PMB 397 P.O. Box 7000 |
