Blog

Just a quick note regarding the pending appeal of our initial final approval back in April. The final order for Birds' amended plat (which received Final Approval from the County on November 25, 2002) was signed by the County Commissioners and has been forwarded to District Court for dismissal. I anticipate that we will be informed of the dismissal of the appeal within the next week or so. I will keep you posted!

We are pleased to announce that Lapa Rios Ecolodge in Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica, designed by David Andersen (our architect) of Andersen Group Architects, Ltd. has been listed by Conde Nast Magazine as number five in the top 10 Latin/Atlantic Hotels for 2002 in the Reader's Choice Survey!

I can't believe that it's already November and only 3 more weeks until the long awaited final hearing to amend our plat and get the issue of the appeal resolved! I can finally see the finish line for Phase I after a long and challenging journey and it's pretty exciting! Please send your thoughts and positive energy our way on November 25th!!

Sorry for the long delay between updates. I have been very busy showing the property and finishing up several very important projects. I will be sending an online newsletter this week with more details on progress, but here is a "snapshot" of the latest news.

I can't believe that summer is almost over. We have completed all of the rough cutting and shaping of roads for Phase I. Electricity is at the entrance gate and our first well was completed and tested over a year ago. There is a plentiful long-term supply of great water available.

We are still working towards filing our final plat and beginning lot and home sales in September. Seems like during the summer there are more delays than ever because lots of people are on vacation.

We are still receiving e-mails requesting lot and home prices. The price range for lots and pricing levels for casitas are located on our lot and home price page on the website. There is a "pricing available" button link on the home page.

Everything is moving along, although slowly. We are continuing to work on all of the legal requirements required to file our final plat. Things such as disclosure statements, covenants and restrictions, letters of credit or bonds and many other details. We have also spent time on the issue of the community center assessment for Phase I. Since we don't plan on starting the community center until after receiving approval for Phase II, we don't want to make an assessment on lots in Phase I until we're closer to having a center for resident's use. So, the solution seems to be to wait until Phase II is approved before making any assessment. We'll talk more about that in the next newsletter.

What a great day to finally announce pricing for the casitas and a price range for the casita and single family lots! Prices for specific lots will be available before lot and home sales begin in July 2002.

The electrical engineer finally completed his design for the community last Friday. Mora - San Miguel Electric will now put the design out for bid to several electrical contractors. That is the last number (cost of digging trenches and laying electric and telephone lines) needed before we can price the lots! We will notify everyone on the mailing list when the prices of lots and homes are finally available! Lot and home sales will begin at that time!

We have scheduled groundbreaking for sometime around the first week of June... we will start building roads and as soon as they are completed, we will install the dry utilities and water lines.

Birds of a Feather received FINAL PLAT APPROVAL at our hearing today! We have met all conditions of preliminary plat set at the last hearing (9-11-01) and can finally start the next phase in the process... building homes and creating community!

My lesson in creating Birds of a Feather's new community continues to be patience. We appeared before the San Miguel County Commissioners yesterday for 2 1/2 hours debating the only condition that stands between us and final approval.

There have been lots of positive things happening since the last update. We have been very busy working with various contractors on getting bids for the infrastructure work such as roads and wet and dry utilities. The bids are even starting to come in! We have also been in discussions with home builders to finalize plans for the casitas and single-family homes. All of the roads have been staked and even some of the lot corners!

May you keep hold of your dreams no matter how many things conspire to keep you from them!

We have been experiencing a few problems with our website during the month of December.  I have not been able to upload information. which is the reason for the lengthy time between news updates.  Some of you may have also experienced problems with our mailing list sign-up form. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.Our website hosts have finally fixed the problems and everything seems to be back in working order.