4th Post: Orange County Register Newspaper Updates Community

Project Promontory makes HEADLINES!!

Project Promontory Makes Headlines!!
(Be sure to read the attached letter to the Editor)


COPY:
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Current Edition  

OCT. 15, 2013

      Newport residents equate upgrade to 'war zone'

By NICOLE SHINE I ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER NEWPORT BEACH - There's no "home, sweet home" for Newport Beach resident Cheryl Archer.

An extensive renovation has turned her seaside apartment at Promontory Point into a "war zone," Archer said.  Since construction started last month to replace windows, rain gutters and stucco siding, jackhammer noise has made it nearly impossible to conduct her in-home business as an executive coach, the 55-year-old said.  

Outside, her apartment is surrounded by a maze of scaffolding and construction barricades. Indoors, even with all the doors and windows sealed tight, her eyes sting, she said. She's worried about the dust and particles she sees and breathes.  "I just don't know what my health risks are," she said. "You just don't know what you don't know."

The Irvine Co., which owns and runs the 520-unit complex at the corner of Jamboree Road,  Magdalena Thomasson, a Promontory Point resident, looks out onto her ocean view balcony Friday in Newport Beach. The balcony is covered in scaffolding that is part of the Irvine Co.'s remodeling of the apartment buildings, which some residents said have turned their homes into a war zone.

Michael Lyster said,  the company has discounted the rent of Archer and others by up to $500 a month while construction is underway around their unit, and residents can break leases without a penalty, Lyster said. He said the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which signed off on the project, saw no need for air monitoring.  But Archer and others say the Irvine Co. failed to convey the extent of the project, and expected stretch through early 2015.  "They continue to say they understand this is our home," Archer said. "But they don't really understand this is our home."  

In protest, some residents have started a blog to air concerns about contaminants, noise, and a lack of privacy. They've posted construction photos of what looks to them like black mold, animal droppings, termites and rotted wood. Next to some photos, they write questions like: "How safe are the exposed open walls for our long term health concerns?"  Lyster said any mold or rotted wood will be treated, and that the company is addressing individual tenant concerns on a case-by-case basis. The company has scheduled three dinner meetings with residents at the Island Hotel over the next week or so.'

Newport residents equate apartment upgrade to 'war zone" - News - The Orange County...Even so, Archer is moving. She's one of about 15 tenants who've broken their leases since construction started, officials said.  Isabel Lawson isanother. The 63-year-old cancer survivor said she wasn't told about the impending construction when she signed a six-month lease in May. "There was not one word about major construction," she said.  With her compromised immune system, she wouldn't have moved here if she'd known, she said.  In response, Lyster said in an email: "In May, we still were in the planning and analysis stage and had not set a course to move ahead with the reinvestment yet."  Lawson likened the Irvine Co.'s actions to that of a goliath. "It simply isn't right." 

Contact the writer: nshine@ocregister.com

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/archer-530999-construction-home.html

Safe Access

Here is the REST OF THE STORY: 

Dear Fellow Residents... 

We submitted the following response for clarification:

Dear Letter to the Editor;

As residents of Promontory Point, we are submitting the following “letter of correction” to the Editor of the OC Register, Current edition, in regards to an article recently published on Oct. 15, 2013.  

The article was written on behalf of residents impacted by a massive construction project.  Although it seems that this reporter did “hear” most of what the residents had to say, there are a few key points missing. 

One major correction: Our "Resident VOICE" Website and Blog was never intended to create protest, but was created with the intent to provide positive, effective communication, and a safe place for residents to voice their concerns and get information.  

On behalf of the project, we all agree and welcome necessary improvements and understand they are required.    However, it is the way the Irvine Company demonstrated a complete lack of regard for residents' homes, quality of life, health concerns, and safety to residents living here.

The AQMD (South Coast Air Quality Department) signed off on the project on the basis of a report from the Irvine Company dated 2011.  Upon dozens of complaints to the air quality and safety issues, the AQMD came out to the property last week and only advised them to "keep dust down."  However, Tran, AQMD Agent, went on record and strongly urged the residents to call the "OC HEALTH DEPARTMENT" regarding what is actually in the dust and potential hazards.

The Irvine Company had to apply for many permits and licenses in order to orchestrate such a project.  That means they had plenty time to hold resident meetings which would have helped to promote "positive effective communication."  Resident meetings were never held until AFTER the website was published in September of 2013.

Upon the second meeting held on Sept. 24, 2013, residents were told,  "planning for this has been in the process for the past year or so."  Additionally, as reported by the Project Manager, "Once the budget was approved, Mr. Bren, owner of the Irvine Company, said,  'GET TO WORK'." 

Understandably, residents are outraged and had no time or warning to move.  The Irvine Company has an agenda and goal to renovate not only the exterior to Promontory Point, but they also have planned to remodel the interiors. Upgraded interiors would generate higher rent and profit. 

The Irvine Company had NO regard for how a project of this magnitude may affect residents in the long term.  Bottom line: who wants to wait 10 years to see what health issues have developed? 

April, whose story was never conveyed, wanted people to know that she is suffering from respiratory issues over the past month and is coughing something up due to the dust.      

The term: "CONSTRUCTIVE EVICTION" has been used and seems to apply in this case and our community wants to express, “There has been no regard for our health, safety, or quality of life.”

Again, OUR RESIDENT WEBSITE / BLOG WAS NEVER A PROTEST BUT, CREATED  AS A FORUM FOR PEOPLE TO SPEAK OUT ABOUT CONCERNS AND GET INFORMATION.  The construction project has been run like a circus with contractors running on planks similar to a race track and jumping from deck to deck!  Until recent meetings, the only answers residents received were extremely "generic" in regards to any specifics.  The majority of the residents concur, they would like the following to be done:

• One of the following:  $1000 Monthly Rent Allowance, moving expenses paid, or accommodations made to another property which also includes, pet allowances

• Air Quality testing done and reports made public

• Construction project to be re-evaluated and executed on a much smaller scale to reduce the negative impact to the quality of life and privacy

• Safety... by decreasing time the scaffolding is actually at a ground level will help to provide safety and a piece of mind (especially considering recent burglaries

• Air Purifiers and Air Conditioners to be made available to all residents 

Our "Resident Voice Website" has made significant progress towards  improvements related to emergency access safety.  Additionally, residents now also have access to AIR CONDITIONERS AND AIR PURIFIERS (on a first come, first serve basis and by request only).

As a Resident Action Committee working on your behalf, we reached out to the local News reporting agencies to share our story.  After reviewing the recent article in the paper, we strongly feel, that although the reporter did absorb and report on most of what residents had to say, however, the Irvine Company sugar coated  what is really going on here.

"GREAT COMPANIES ARE NOT JUDGED BY WHAT THEY SAY BUT RATHER, WHAT THEY DO."   

Our decks have been a place to relax, read, eat, enjoy the morning, or take in a sunset.  For others it is a sanctuary for toddlers to play safely, without the intrusion of scaffolding for the next 3 months or more.  And still, for others, it is a place for our pets while we’re away or at work.  

On another serious note, our elderly population, many with respiratory conditions,  were cooped up in 80+ degree weather without access to fresh air or air conditioners. 

The article also did not mention that the pets who live here feel the vibrations and that the decibel thresholds exceed acceptable levels, causing illness and anxiety and a number of residents are now having to board their pets elsewhere.  By the way, each resident pays a $50 per/month pet fee on top of their rent yet, they are now forced to  pay for animal day care during heavy construction which can add up very quickly.

Our deck space, now know as a "Newport War Zone," is not only a place of peace and source of fresh air but in fact, it is an extension of our homes.  

Like Cheryl Archer mentioned in the article, we have a large population of working professionals that depend on the quiet surroundings of their homes in order to conduct business and have already suffered great financial loss due to noise and chaos.  Although the Irvine Company did make accommodations to work from the clubhouse or Day Suite, in all seriousness, how reasonable to expect everyone to drag numerous files and other essentials up and down stairs on daily basis?  

Most importantly, our homes should be a place where a Mother should feel safe to sit down and breast feed her newborn baby in the comfort of her own home without fear of being intruded upon by another contractor on the deck and, if you don't call having an unannounced contractor drop down on your deck unannounced, than frankly, what is?

Our decks are extensions to our homes;  the square footage is built into the rent.  A $500 “rent allowance” does not come close to what we are sacrificing and by law, the Irvine Company is only meeting the minimum criteria of what the law demands during extensive, large construction projects and not the needs of the community.   

Again, we want to thank Nicole Shine for doing such a good job and for sharing our story.  We only hope that some of the information that was excluded will be updated.  Our Website has had over 4,600 visits and almost 300 comments posted and appears this particular community cares. 

RESIDENT WEBSITE / BLOG: www.projectpromontory.blogspot.com

Sincerely,

Residents of Promontory Point

Residents: 

Please feel free to write into the newspapers with any follow up concerns and per/ AQMD contact the OC Health Department.

*More Photos to post soon...

*Thank you for your continued support and welcome your comments... a new thread of comments can be started at this point or, for continued conversation, please continue posting on the first original post.  We have almost 300 and are listening!!!