Planning Commission Hearing

The Planning Commission approved and accepted the application from the Southwood owners to convert the complex to townhomes. The next step will be to get the City Council's approval at the November meeting, I believe.

There has been little interest among the tenants during this process - I don't think many will want to buy, because the price is too high for what they'll be getting. The result is that there will be a rash of new landlords who will turn around and rent the units - so the illusion of a homeownership opportunity for low and moderate income families is basically just that. The units will continue as rentals under a plethora of owners instead of just one, and the maintenance and security issues will multiply.

Southwood Condo Conversion

It's been four years - but it looks like it may happen after all. The Development Services Department approved the owner's application to convert Southwood Gardens Townhomes from rentals to condos. This is not an easy or fast process, because the City of Sacramento has stringent requirements for such conversions (Chapter 17.192 of the City Code). It is actually the second such approval. The first was in the 1980s, but the then-owners failed to make even a single sale and the approval lapsed.

A public hearing before the City Planning Commission is scheduled for Thursday, September 27. If the Planning Commission approves it, the application will go to the City Council in November.

If the conversion is approved by the City Council, the owners may proceed with the unit renovations, evictions, sales ... which puts our tenancy in jeopardy. We are supposed to be able to negotiate up to a 3 yr lease before our unit must be renovated - and although the market is pretty bad, just now, for home sales and mortgages, I think the writing is on the wall. We'll need to get our finances in order in the next couple of years, and look for another place - house? - to buy or rent.

The Southwood units have not been well-maintained over the years, and we don't want to buy ours. It's OK as a rental, but not as a home we would own. We are afraid that the homeowner association will need to perform expensive repairs and maintenance soon, and the cost will be added to the mortgage payment - beyond what we can afford.

Stay tuned.

How Many Doctors Does it Take to Change ...

When I returned from two weeks in Hawaii, Marty pulled up at the airport with an inflamed shin. The red was alarming! Three doctors later, they decided it was not a blood clot, but cellulitis, whose symptoms are similar to deep vein thrombosis (blood clots.)

So, now they're embarrassed that it took three physicians to make the diagnosis. He's doing the antibiotics regimen, and has a follow-up appointment on Monday. But he's on the mend!

Through Other Eyes

John posted photos of his and Alison's visit to Hawaii. It was fun to watch them experience Hawaii for the first time, and to notice things that seemed extraordinary to them, but normal to me - like why the bathroom mirror doesn't fog up, or whether the cockroach or the gecko would win in battle with the other, or the magic of color changes on the mountains.