Road Resurfacing Begins December 2

The HOA board of directors asks for your help and patience for an important project coming up next month. Starting December 2, our roads and parking areas will be resurfaced to extend their life. The roads in St. Charles Place are private, and the HOA has the responsibility to maintain them.

The road resurfacing project will happen in five phases spread out over eleven days, so that we don't all have to park at the Winn-Dixie across the street on US-301! But it will mean that all residents will have about two days where they cannot park near their units while their section gets its new coat of blacktop.

(The stuff is actually called Pavement Dressing Conditioner or PDC, so it promises to last much longer than a coat of that tar stuff, and with luck it will be another 9 or 10 years before we have to do this again.)

Residents will get a notice posted on their front doors 48 hours before their their road will close. If you're not in the first phase, your road won't close December 2. The HOA has contracted with a security company that will shuttle you to and from your home on a golf cart, so you won't have to walk a long distance during the two days you can't park near your home. The company will work 24/7 during the length of the project. The notice posted on doors will include the phone number for the shuttle service.

Besides giving people rides, the security company will patrol the closed areas to make sure no one tries to drive on them. Homeowners whose residents or guests damage the work, the surrounding concrete or landscaping by driving into the closed areas will have to pay to repair it.  Closed areas will have barricades up to make it obvious.

The HOA will not enforce normal rules prohibiting parking on the street during the project. Vehicles still must face the flow of traffic, they can't block fire hydrants or driveways, and they can't park side-by-side in a way that makes the street impassible.

If you won't need to drive it when your street is closed, you can keep your car in your driveway or garage, if you have one. But once the barricades go up, your vehicle must stay in place for the two days the road is closed.

Weather could delay or change the schedule of the project. The coat can't go on the road when it rains. We did plan this project for a time we typically get little rain. If the schedule changes, you'll get notice posted on your door of the new time table. 

You might have more questions. Our property manager, Excelsior Community Management will hold a workshop Monday, November 30 (right after Thanksgiving weekend) at the community pool from 6:30-8 p.m. You can get a copy of the project dates for all five sections of the project.

You can also call Excelsior's office at (813) 349-6552 or email StCharlesPlaceHOAManagement@TampaBay.rr.com with any questions you have.

I know this will cause inconvenience for a couple of days. But when it's finished, you'll see how much better and newer our community looks. And treating the road surface now means that we won't have to tear it all out and replace it, which would really disrupt our lives on a completely different level, not to mention cost a whole lot more money.