Montecito Neighborhood Group

Montecito Welcome Letter

Feb 02, 2002

Montecito Neighborhood Welcome & History

Many of you have just moved into the Montecito Neighborhood and we would like to extend a welcome to you from all of the Montecito Neighborhood. Also, to others of you who are long time residents, we want to say thank you for helping to maintain a viable neighborhood.
The Montecito Neighborhood Association was established 1985 and registered with the City of Phoenix Neighborhood Services Department. Our volunteer board is comprised of interested neighbors, from each street, that meet once a month to discuss and vote on issues that impact our neighborhood. Our goal has been to protect property values, our way of life and not to let our neighborhood decline into apathy. Our actual mission statement voted on 11/11/96 is: ?“To preserve, enhance, and protect our neighborhood to promote a greater sense of community among our residents and to do all possible to make our neighborhood an ever better place to live.?”

Here are a few of the Neighborhoods accomplishments over the past few years:

1. In 1987 we deterred the City from installing sidewalks in our neighborhood, which would have caused an increased tax assessment to each owner?’s property over 10 years. A record 90% of the households turned out to vote this proposal down by a 97% margin.
2. The local Bryman School bought the adjoining property on 16th Street to expand their parking. We oversaw the site plan review and insisted on no vehicular access to the neighborhood streets.
3. We reviewed the Pinnacle Townhomes site plan and worked with the developer to angle the units on Campbell. This was to ensure they would not look directly south into the homes. Also, no driveway access was allowed on Campbell, as this would have allowed cars to cut-through our neighborhood to get to Indian School Road.
4. We survived a ?“Fight Back?” plan initiated by the City of Phoenix for neighborhoods from SR 51 to 7th Street and from Campbell Ave. to Indian School Road. The purpose of the Fight Back was to get rid of drug trafficking, blight, and other undesirable activities. The City spent over $80,000 in this area and did help to clean up the areas, especially along the canal. However, with the initiation of this plan they fined Homeowners for not maintaining their properties to the minimum standards set forth by the City. The Board did everything in its power to inform the neighborhood that fines could occur. We went to the monthly Fight Back meetings to gather the information and then wrote and mailed the meeting details to each resident in our bi-monthly newsletters (some residents still received fines). The Fight Back is over and it is now our responsibility to maintain our own properties. The City of Phoenix will still randomly send out their inspectors.
5. The Montecito Home Award is presented six times a year. Every other month the board members nominate 3 to 4 homes that have been improved or have maintained high standards for their property. The winning home can display the Home Award sign in their yard, and may be featured in the following newsletter.
6. For the past three years we have applied for and won a one thousand dollar Block Watch Grant. Our Board volunteers spend many hours to prepare the necessary Grant forms for submittal. There is never a guarantee that we will be awarded the Grant each year (we would then have to rely completely on donations). This Grant helps us to put out our 6 newsletters and 6 fliers every year. This Grant is carefully audited by the city and can only be used for the postage and printing of newsletters and fliers. Without our newsletter, we would be a less informed neighborhood.


Our Association uses the non-grant monies for our Festivities that have included:

?· Our annual Potluck Block Watch/ G.A.I.N. (Get Active In Neighborhoods)
Block Party in October. We supply Hot Dogs, buns and all the fixings. You bring one dish i.e., a salad, desert or meat dish to share. The City requires us to rent the ?“street closed?” barricades each year (at $100.00 for the day!) and register the closure with them. We also have drawings for great prizes including a $100.00 savings bond and gift certificates from Home Depot and Albertsons. If we could get additional neighborhood volunteers to solicit local businesses many months in advance (this is what many large neighborhoods do) we may be able to secure more gifts for the party - as most major businesses have a certain amount of money set aside for community services.
?· Our annual Garage Sale has been growing in size every year. We buy the advertising and all you need to do is set up and sell. This is usually a week in the middle of March (March 23, 2002). We also like to schedule a Block Watch meeting the weekend prior to paint signs for the sale and eat ice cream. We do respectfully request that you donate 10% of your sales to the Association.
?· Also our annual Holiday Light Contest with a $50.00 First Prize. Judged by the El Dorado Vista staff.

Other Upcoming Neighborhood involvement includes:

?· The property owner of empty parcel @ 16 Street and Glenrosa wants to have it rezoned from R-3 to C-2. This request will be heard by the Camelback East Village Planning Committee on Jan. 8, 2002 with a continuance to Feb.5th (thanks to residents).
?· ADOT will be adding a HOV lane to SR-51 in 2002/2004. We will be monitoring the design detail and will hopefully be successful in our request for a higher sound wall (we have been dealing with SR-51 since it?’s inception 15 years ago ?– first with the City of Phoenix, and now with ADOT.

Last year was a banner year for our neighborhood.

We were recognized by the City of Phoenix as one of the ?“Neighborhoods That Work?” (32 out of 360 Phoenix neighborhoods received this award). We were presented with an award at the banquet and also a $100.00 check.
Programs and activities like these listed can take many hours of our trusted volunteer Board members time and we could use your help. If you would like to participate as a neighborhood volunteer, or visit one of our board meetings, they are held at 7 P.M. the second Monday of every month at the El Dorado Vista meeting room 4118 N. 17th Street. Please ask yourself how you could help support your neighborhood. We respectfully request that each household donate $10.00 per year to the Association to keep us self ?–sufficient of the Grant (we never know if we will receive it.) Since 9-11 the city budget is being sliced which could effect the number of grants available in 2002.

Remember: The important thing to keep Block Watch working is getting to know your neighbors and report suspicious activities to Crime Stop (262-6151). Visit our website at www.neighborhoodlink.com and follow the instructions until you find Montecito Neighborhood.