Dover Shores News - February
DOVER SHORES NEWS, February 1, 2025
We hope all our Dover Shores neighbors are enjoying a happy, healthy, and safe new year as we already move into February.
Here is a brief overview of the latest news including the Dover Shores HOA General Meeting on January 21:
Beach Update
While we gear up for spring and summer at the beach, we want to remind all neighbors that parties 16 and over need a reservation. Reservations are easy to make and can be done by can be done by emailing the reservation form to BHE Management at ap@bhemanagement.com.
Before you make your reservation, check out the new virtual Beach Reservation Calendar.
North Star Beach Improvement Update
As most of you know, Dover Shores HOA has access to and use of two private beaches – Larry’s Beach and North Star Beach. These are great amenities for our community.
Many of you use our beaches regularly, particularly newer residents with children. Larry’s Beach has been far more popular because of its facilities, including a restroom, a gas barbeque with food serving area, playground equipment, and a floating swim dock. North Star Beach, on the other hand, has been waiting for these improvements for some time now. And as the number of residents using Larry’s has increased over the years, moving forward with upgrading North Star has become more important than ever. Also, having two beaches with amenities would likely be a factor in increasing our home values.
In 2022 we started the work required to provide the improvements, obtaining first a survey of boundaries and easements, and also utility locations. Then in May 2022, our Association architect, David George, drew up improvement plans which were presented to the community, voted on, and approved at one of our HOA meetings.
The plans went through some revisions. You will recall that pickle ball was taken off the table, and a few other cost-saving changes were proposed. We then had a reputable contractor review the project to provide some preliminary costs.
As a result of our findings, the Board decided last year to attempt to do as many improvements to North Star as possible in a piecemeal fashion. In other words, to the extent possible, we want to pay for portions of the desired improvements out of our existing budgets and annual homeowners dues. If we can do so, this would save our Dover Shores homeowners from possibly having to pay a special assessment for the improvements.
Our first steps this year in moving the piecemeal process forward will be to install utilities – electrical first, then plumbing upgrades, sewer and gas. The next and most important improvement will be the construction of a bathroom/storage building. We will have to budget this cost over the next few years and draw from unused reserves and contingency funds. Our hope is to accomplish this without additional dues being assessed to our residents. This means of course, the improvement of North Star Beach will take time to complete.
We are open to any ideas that might help us accelerate construction and/or save costs. For example, a resident volunteered the service of his construction workers to help with the replacement of the playground equipment at Larry’s Beach, saving us over $3000. Some folks even mentioned starting a fundraiser to raise funds needed for some of the planned improvements at North Star Beach.
We've created a form here to collect your feedback and/or contributions on this project but you can also reach out to BHE or any of our Board members. We thank you in advance for any help you might be able provide to our Dover Shores Community for this important improvement project.
Welcome Committee
We would like to extend a warm welcome to these homeowners who moved into our neighborhood in recent months:
- Santiago Drive: Max Moncayo
- Galaxy Drive: Brynn and Adam Ferrari
Architecture Committee
Have you recently completed a home improvement project or renovation? Congratulations! Now it is time to file a Notice of Completion form for your project. The form is part of the Architectural Application, found here. You will need to provide a copy of the final permit approval, signed by a Newport Beach representative. Color photographs of the completed work from multiple angles should be submitted. Front yard, rear yard and side yard views are needed for remodels. Photographs are often sufficient to show completion of work. If more information is needed, a member of the Architectural Committee and/or HOA Architect may arrange to inspect the work with the owner. Any monies left over from your deposit will be returned to you after project Notice of Completion is approved.
A Message from BHE Management Corporation:
Happy Valentine’s Day! The 14th is on a Friday this year, so if you don’t have reservations yet…do it now!!
Dues
Less romantic but certainly of importance in February are the Dover Shores annual dues. You should have already received your billing statement in the preferred medium (paper or email) so if you haven’t seen it yet, please contact us to let us know!
This year, the Financial Committee would love to see everyone pay their “Full Balance Owing”! We have some old charges from years ago that we would love to get cleaned up and off the books – many of these are relatively minor, but we ask that you please pay attention to the total amount due, rather than simply paying the annual dues themselves, thank you for that!
Attention Dock Owners
Did you know that the City of Newport Beach has simplified its dredging permits for homeowners? This still isn’t a simple process, but the City does manage the permitting for the federal and state agencies through it’s RGP 54 (Regional General Permit program). This is a great tool for homeowners who are looking to dredge specifically around their dock! When you reach out to dredging companies for a proposal (you will want a contract in hand before you start the process), you can inquire what other applications they are preparing to submit or have in the works that you can “piggy back” on to make it more cost effective, too!
Because the process can take about 4 months, now is a great time to get started – For more information, visit here.
BHE Management Corporation
www.BHEManagement.com
(949)363-1963
Lisa Parra, Community Manager, LParra@BHEManagement.com
Melissa Mora, Architectural Assistant, AP@BHEManagement.com
Marla Hemmel, Managing Agent, MarlaH@bhemanagement.com
CERT / Neighborhood Watch Updates:
Fire Safety
The tragic fires in LA are a reminder that we are vulnerable to wild fires that have become more common and more dangerous due to climate change. We are a thoughtless cigarette away from a fire in the Back Bay or a fire coming over the hill from Laguna (remember 1993?). Fires often start in the wild areas, but the really bad ones use our homes for fuel. We will never completely eliminate fires, but we can reduce our risks, the risk that our home will burn and the risk that our lives will be up-ended or even lost if our home does burn.
Home Hardening
All of us watched whole neighborhoods burn in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades. Yet amid these scenes of devastation, one often sees individual homes that somehow escape. No doubt there is an element of luck involved, but as the saying goes: "you make your own luck" by hardening your home against fire. Some actions are pretty obvious. There are still homes with wood-shake roofs in Dover Shores. These roofs are much more vulnerable than tile or other fire-resistant materials. Vents and openings should have fire-safe covers. Some plants are more flammable than others. Choosing fire-resistant plants, reducing the total plant materials, and keeping plants away from flammable surfaces and eaves reduces your risk. Cal Fire has many practical suggestions that you can use to harden existing homes: https://www.fire.ca.gov/home-hardening.
Preparing for Evacuation
There are many reasons we might need to evacuate our homes. Planning ahead can make evacuations much less traumatic. The first step is situational awareness. Recent newspaper articles have suggested that lives might have been saved in west Altadena if they had evacuated sooner. Depending on authorities to notify you when you must leave is a risky move in the chaos of a fast-moving fire. Stay informed! The Watch Duty App mentioned in the last newsletter will send you an alert any time a fire breaks out in Orange County and gives the status of existing fires. Don't forget to enable it to wake you while you are sleeping (Focus under Settings). Make sure you have subscribed to AlertOC and Newport Notified.
Everyone should have a Go Bag ready with essential items like medicines, documents and money. Cal Fire has a good evacuation guide: https://www.fire.ca.gov/prepare. Planning ahead will help you pull your life together if the worst happens and you lose your home. We suggest scanning all your photos and important documents and making sure files are stored in the cloud. Our family had a good experience with Scan My Photos in Irvine.
CERT
One of the best ways to prepare for disasters is to take the free CERT training offered by the NBFD. Classes start March 18 but you will need to register in advance. NBFD now also offers hybrid classes that permit you to access most of the material via online classes (details on the CERT page). In our neighborhood, your Dover Shores CERT team helps you to be better prepared and help your neighbors. We had 11 residents at our January meeting. The material above was covered in more detail in the handout from the meeting: https://www.dovershorescert.org/meetings.html. Email board@dovershoreshoa.org if you would like to be involved in future meetings.
Residential Burglaries
During 2024, Dover Shores had 3 residential burglaries. This is a substantial reduction from the 8 burglaries we had in 2023. However, in Newport overall, burglaries are trending up again. Recently, the east side of Newport, including Newport Coast, has seen the most burglaries. The MOs are similar to what we have seen before, most often with South American gangs targeting wealthy individuals. The burglars usually break into master bedrooms looking handbags, jewelry, cash etc. They are quite aggressive in cutting open safes or even ripping out and stealing the whole safe. Note that these gangs have been casing high-end stores in our area and have sometimes followed people home to identify addresses for later burglary.
Aside from the tragic incident last July at Fashion Island, the burglars / thieves are generally non-violent and seek to avoid confrontations, so making your home look occupied reduces your risk. In some cases they have been specifically identifying people with multiple homes in an effort to find empty homes so that they can have more time to ransack the home.
The NBPD is working hard to protect us using helicopters, drones and even horse-mounted officers using FLIR (night vision) technology. The burglars will often hike long distances in the wild areas to gain access to neighborhoods so be very careful about hiking at night as you might be stopped by the NBPD or run into the wrong sort of people.
Newport now has 70 Flock cameras with license plate reader technology installed all over the city. Neighboring cities also have this technology so cars are being followed all over Southern California with great success. At the PD, "flock" has become a verb as in: "we flocked them leaving Newport and all the way to Riverside". In response, the bad guys are stealing/swapping license plates.
Next Dover Shores HOA General Meeting: March 18, 5:00 PM
The board is continuing to offer Zoom access to board meetings. All meetings will use the same credentials listed below. The general session for homeowner participation for these meetings begins at 5PM.
Join Zoom Meeting with your browser
Meeting ID: 880 4927 2107
Passcode: 940601
One tap mobile: (669)900-6833
For the foreseeable future, those wishing to attend in person can attend at the principal office of the Association which has been designated by the Board as the place of business of BHE Management, located at 30011 Ivy Glen Dr., Ste.118, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677. BHE Management will be present.
Board meetings occur bimonthly on the 3rd Tuesday. The remaining meetings for 2025:
- March 18
- May 20
- July 15
- September 16
- November 18
Board Officers and Committees:
| Name | Office |
|---|---|
| Tim Hawke | President |
| Emily Leach | Vice President |
| Jim Gula | Treasurer |
| Sherry Bilbeisi | Secretary |
The Board Committees are:
| Committee | Chairs and members |
|---|---|
| Architecture | Tim Hawke (Chair), Peggy Pugh, Tate Luesbrink, David George |
| Landscape | Gwen Feiner (Chair), Anne Michaelsen Yahn, Sharon Wright, Jim Gula |
| Beach | Sherry Bilbeisi (Co-chair), Emily Leach (Co-chair), Jodi Cassutt, Dan Converse |
| Welcome | Tim Hawke(Co-chair), Emily Leach (Co-chair) |
| CERT | Jim Gula (Chair), Dan Converse and others |
| Finance | Jim Gula (Chair), Ross Nelson |
| Communication | Jim Gula (Chair), Sherry Bilbeisi, Esther Fine, Emily Leach |
| Dredging | Tim Hawke (Chair) |
| Social | Sherry Bilbeisi (Co-chair), Emily Leach (Co-chair) |
If you would like to participate in any of these committee, please email us at: board@dovershoreshoa.org. We could use more help!
Finally
If you would like to submit an article for publication in the Newsletter that you think might be of interest to Dover Shores, please let us know by responding to this Newsletter by email.
Please let your neighbors know how to contact us at board@dovershoreshoa.org if they are not part of our email list and would like to join. Or please forward this email to them. Our goal is to reach every Dover Shores neighbor.
Note that past newsletters are always available at our archives.