Neighborhood Update | Oct. 20, 2017

We have officially reached my favorite time of year. The sun is out during the day, the evenings are cool and football is in full swing. Things are in full swing at River Bluffs as well and since it has been two weeks since the last update, so there is plenty to talk about this week.

Tomorrow River Bluffs will be hosting “Classic Cars & Architecture” from 11:00a.m. to 3:00p.m. As of right now, we have twenty classic cars scheduled to be here. A very big “Thank You” to Ritt Schiano for helping coordinate the exhibitors and for working with Tara and I on some of the logistics leading up to the event. Porches Cafe will be open during the event with its normal menu but also with some “Grab and Go” options (wraps, chips and a drink). There will be live music during much of the event and several vendors will have booths set up on the porch along with Farmer Steve (actually his son Ian tomorrow) who will have an expanded selection available. Wilmington Water Tours will be doing river tours at 11:00, 12:00, 1:00 and 2:00. If you like you may also meet the boat at its home dock downtown at 10:00am to ride up to River Bluffs and then return with them after the 2:00 ride. If you plan on riding the boat on of the tours leaving from River Bluffs, the 11:00am tour would probably be best given that the boat tours are usually a big draw. Bob Conger has graciously offered to have a “Life at River Bluffs” table set up as well and we will have seven homes open for viewing. Feel free to share the event link with your local friends – riverbluffsliving.com/cars – Thanks!

Both sides of Chair Road will be blocked off tomorrow from 10:30am-3:30pm from Hansa to Chicora as we will be displaying the cars in the show along the area in front of Davis Square. If you have any special deliveries coming during that time, please contact the Greeters to help coordinate. The trick to these types of events is predicting how many people may show up so we have a plan for overflow parking just in case.

Barnesmore is being prepared for rock today and the final stormwater catch basins are going in on White Cliffs Drive. The portion of White Cliffs that has been rocked looks great and if you walk down in that direction you can see how Burrows was able to incorporate many of the large trees into the roadway medians or islands. We are still on target to have both roadways paved in November and record the plat map with New Hanover County by January. This week our Sales Team sent out pictures of the progress on White Cliffs to those who have Lot reservations and as I’ve mentioned before, we expect several houses to start early next year. Our next area of focus will be Chair Road on the other side of the powerline easement and the next section of Rosewood Landing.

To date, we have closed on 108 Lots with another 8 under contract. 68 homes are sold and being lived in, with 14 sold and being constructed. Legacy is finishing up its new model on Lot 29 and it will be available to be shown this weekend. JMP (Lot 38) and Vahue (Lot 70) are both moving right along with their projects and Herrington has closed on two Lots (Lot 50 and Lot 92) to start inventory homes on in the next several weeks. Traffic in the Sales Center has been steady and we have two contracts so far this month.

The pavers are here!! At long last the paving of the amenity center on Chair Road has started this week and will likely wrap up early next week. As I’ve talked about before, the next steps will be power, fencing, landscaping, and restrooms. We have contracted with TMC to build-out the multi-use room and they will also be constructing the restrooms at the amenity center. TMC is working on the plans to submit for a building purpose for the multi-use room and we’ll keep you posted on the progress.

While we have not yet received approval on our permit modification request for the Riverwalk, the review continues… it seems as soon as Burrows provides the agencies with the information they request, they come up with a new set of questions. We hope the review process is close to coming to a close.

I learned something new today. Did you know that the Sheriff’s Department has a Deputy dedicated to work with the CFPUA on the issue of water theft? I met him today and had a nice conversation about how subcontractors can’t use temporary water hookups without backflow preventers. On a somewhat related note,  one of our neighbors indicated that he received a test tube in the mail from a company called “Carolina Fresh Water”. The correspondence requested that the homeowner send in a water sample to “DVR Labs”. Carolina Fresh Water sells whole-house water treatment systems. While everyone is certainly welcome to consider the services offered by Carolina Fresh Water, please know that the correspondence nor the testing has been endorsed by the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and the mailing appears to be an effort to sell treatment systems. Any questions regarding water service or water quality should always be directed to the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.

We have had several telephone conversations from builders in the community who have indicated that their job site dumpsters are being used by individual homeowners to dispose of furniture, trash and large items. Please realize that the builders pay for those dumpsters each time they are dumped and they rely on the dumpsters to try and keep their job sites clean.

Farmer’s Market – Be sure to visit the farmer tomorrow from 10:00am to 3:00pm as he will have an expanded selection on the front porch of Porches. As his e-mail today indicated, a lot is happening at the farm and you are welcome to stop by and chat with he or Ian (his son) anytime.

Live Music at Porches – “The Motos” will be playing at Porches this Sunday afternoon from 3:00-6:00. The “Other Guys” will play next Sunday. We are working on pushing the time of the performances back somewhat and will keep you posted on that. Please remember that our ABC permit prohibits alcohol being brought onto the restaurant (and patio) property while we are open, unless we specifically isolate the patio from the restaurant for a specific event. Thanks for your help and understanding about this.

Almost all of the responses I received about the frequency of these reports indicated that bi-weekly was preferred. We are going to experiment with that for a month or so, but rest assured that we will keep you posted as issues come up. You are always welcome to reach out to me via e-mail anytime at John@riverbluffsliving.com. Have a great weekend and hope to see you tomorrow at the event.

– John