OVA Committee Notes: Long Range Planning Committee – 2025-03-03
The Oakmont Village Association LRPC, chaired by Rex Fuller, met in the East Rec today. The LRPC meets on the first Monday of each month (except April when it will be scheduled for a different date than the OVA Annual Meeting). The Committee web page, with links to posted agendas, meeting minutes, reports and the Committee charter, can be found at https://oakmontvillage.com/article/author/long-range-planning-committee/ . Minutes are now being approved and posted soon after the Committee meets. These provide the permanent documentation of Committee activities and decisions. For this month’s meeting, the agenda is posted here, and, as usual, includes the minutes of the preceding month for approval during the meeting.
The first primary topic of today’s meeting was a panel discussion with two Oakmont realtors, Allan Bolchazy and Paula Lewis. In response to numerous questions for Committee members and guests, they expressed various conclusions based on their experience selling homes in Oakmont. An incomplete list follows:
- Following the fires in 2020, there was a major exodus of less mobile Oakmonters in 2021, fleeing the Highway 12 corridor. This resulted is yearly sales of around 365 homes in 2021, vs around 190 in more typical years
- Typical Oakmont buyers are active seniors, in the 60’s and 70’s, while typical sellers are older, in their 80’s and 90’s.
- Both realtors noted the importance of the various OVA facilities to prospective buyers, including: the dog park, the fitness center (at no extra charge), swimming pools, pickleball and tennis courts, lawn bowling, etc.
- Allan Bolchazy stated that around half of the Oakmont sales he has seen were cash purchases, while many of the other purchasers brought large down payments. Rentals are rare. He also mentioned that buyers are looking for “move-in ready” homes, which means that Oakmont homes which have not been remodeled will sell more slowly.
- There was some discussion of buyers’ preference for owner-maintained home which don’t require two HOA dues payments every month. Realtors need to educate buyers about the value provided by subHOAs, and the trade-offs between owner-maintained and subHOA homes.
- The realtors noted that safety has improved (due to firewise modifications and PG&E actions to reduce fire risk), but that insurance challenges have increased and tend to dampen demand for Oakmont homes.
The second main topic was a presentation prepared by three Committee members on analysis of 2020 census data (from the American Community Survey) and OVA new member questionnaire data. The demographic data from their analysis was very interesting, but defies summary. It did show that the Oakmont population is substantially richer, more educated and whiter than the overall population in Sonoma county. This presentation should eventually be available from the LRPC web page.
OVA General Manager, Christel Antone, reported to the Committee on her plans for an “infrastructure audit”, as previously announced at the February OVA Board meeting. As she explained it, the results of this process will provide cost estimates for remedying maintenance issues, for comparison by the Board and the community with the eventual cost estimates for major construction projects or upgrades that would obviate such maintenance requirements. She stated that she hoped for results within a month or so, and asked for volunteers with relevant expertise to help with the task. Contact Christel at christel@oakmontvillage.com if you would like to volunteer to help with this effort.
Chairman Rex Fuller noted that, according to the LRPC Charter, the term of the chairman is one year and that he had served for a bit over a year, so it was time for the Committee to recommend a chairman for the coming year, who must then be approved by the OVA Board. The Committee voted to recommend Rex for another term as its chairman, and he agreed to serve, subject to some time off or schedule adjustments for an upcoming health issue. If, as he expected, he is approved as chair by the OVA Board, then at next month’s meeting, he will appoint a vice chair, as required by the LRPC charter.
If the Committee follows its charter, the minutes of today’s meeting should be posted on the LRPC web page within about a week. The next regular meeting of the Committee will take place the week of April 7, but will not be on April 7 because it would conflict with the OVA Annual Meeting (and election results announcement). The agenda, with the time and place of the meeting, should be posted on the LRPC web page by around April 1. If you would like to see first-hand how the Committee operates and what progress they are making, you should consider attending.
