Vehicle and garage break-ins

Nearly a dozen vehicle and garage break-ins have been reported this past week in the Central Park community, mainly in the Gardens and Meadows subdivisions.  They have been occurring during the daylight hours around 4 PM as well as in the 10 PM and later time ranges.  Most of the vehicles were not locked.  Access to some of the garages was gained by using the garage door opener they found once inside the vehicle.  The perpetrator(s) also watch for open garage doors and make a quick getaway with valuables from the garage and the unlocked vehicles parked inside the garage.  One of the daylight thefts involved a purse that was left in a vehicle that was briefly parked in the driveway while the owner went back inside the house to get something. The Shelby Twp. Police ask that you please be vigilant and proactive.  ALWAYS LOCK YOUR VEHICLE when it is parked in your driveway or on the street and keep your garage door closed unless you are actually in the garage, the driveway or front yard.  Also, it is best that you do not leave your garage door opener or other valuables in plain sight within the vehicle.

UPDATE: On Feb. 28, 2012, a local man plead guilty on charges of larceny from a building and receiving and concealing stolen property in connection with these break-ins. He was sentenced to 30 days in Macomb County Jail and 1 year probation. More details can be found here and here.

Community Area Rules and Regulations

Everyone should have received a mailing today from the Central Park Master Community Association Board of Directors (via Kramer-Triad, our property management company). Enclosed were rules and regulations covering parking and other uses on the Community Areas within Central Park along with a map showing the location of our twelve Community Areas. These rules were adopted by the Board of Directors at their meeting of Oct. 24, 2011 and will become effective on Nov. 21, 2011.

The enclosures can also be viewed on-line by clicking these links:

• Community Area Rules and Regulations
• Community Area Map

These rules regulate parking along North Central Park, South Central Park, East Central Park and West Central Park, which are located within Community Areas # 1 and #5 as shown on the map. Notification signs regarding the towing of unauthorized vehicles are on order and should be in place at both the Van Dyke and 22 Mile entrances within the next two weeks.

UPDATE: Enforcement of these rules and regulations began on Dec. 2, 2011, 24 hours after these signs were installed.

If your vehicle is towed because it was in violation of the parking rules and regulations, call Nightingale Towing at 586-731-9400.

Please note that when Shelby Township declares a "Snow Emergency", these regulations give the Master Association the right to have any vehicles towed away at the owner's expense if they are left parked on North, South, East and West Central Park. These streets are used on a daily basis by everyone living within the Central Park community and they are also UCS school bus routes. Therefore, the Board intends to enforce this rule when needed to quickly reopen these streets to full traffic and also facilitate on-street parking once the "Snow Emergency" expires.

Streetlight Maintenance

As you probably noticed in mid-October, more than half of our streetlights were not working. Our streetlight maintenance workers were here during the third week of October and again today getting them back into service. As of tonight, 60 of our 61 streetlights are working and the remaining one will be working as soon as they receive a part that is on order.

Here is a map showing all of the streetlights that the Master Association is responsible for maintaining. Each streetlight has been given a number that is also shown on the map and that is painted on the concrete base of the lamp post. If you see a streetlight that is not working, please contact one of the Master Association Board members and give them the number of the streetlight. Click here to view contact information.

#56 is the streetlight that is not yet working because we had to order a new top cover. In the meantime, our maintenance people have removed the entire enclosure to prevent water from damaging it.

Please help us by keeping an eye out for suspicious activity around our streetlight fixtures.

When #53 and #57 were examined today, they both had broken bulbs that could have only been damaged from violent shaking of the lamp post.

We have experienced numerous bulb thefts over the past two years and we believe that the top cover on #56 was recently stolen along with the light bulb.

If you see someone using a ladder to reach into the top of the lamp enclosure, they are probably stealing the bulb, since our maintenance workers typically use either a truck-mounted bucket lift or a scissors-lift platform to perform our maintenance.

Our maintenance workers will be installing anti-theft devices on the lamp enclosures within the next several weeks to put a stop to this. In the meantime, if you see someone leaning a ladder against a streetlight post, please get a description of the person(s) and their license plate number and then call a Board member or the police.

Map and Contact Information

Click here to view a map showing the relative locations of the four sub-associations in Central Park and the Community Areas which the Central Park Master Association (CPMA) maintains for the benefit of all. The map also includes contact information for the CPMA Board of Directors.

Demolition of the Visteon Plant

UPDATE:  Click here to learn the latest about the demolition of the former Ford Visteon plant, which commenced on April 28, 2012.

On May 25, 2011, the Shelby Twp. Planning Commission approved the demolition permit for Ford Motor Company's contractor to begin tearing down most of the manufacturing buildings on the Visteon property that is located along the east side of Mound Road, south of 23 Mile Rd.

I attended the public hearing and took notes and also received a copy of the conditions the Planning Commission placed on the demolition contractor.

You can read all the details on this web page that I created.

Central Park Master Association 2011 Annual Mtg.

The Central Park Master Association 2011 Annual Meeting was held on April 20, 2012. During the discussion, members asked if links to certain information could be provided. Click on the links below and use your browser's BACK button to return here.

• 2011 Budget - Central Park Master Association
• Parcels along the Van Dyke entrance road that are subject to reimbursing the Association for 40% of our maintenance expenditures in that area (cost allocations shown were initial estimates and are outdated)
• Ciena Skilled Nursing Facility rezoning request, east of our 22 Mile Rd. entrance
• Lancaster at Central Park (former Kensington Phase 2 parcel) proposed revision to the Central Park Planned Unit Development (PUD)
• Declaration of Easements, Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions for the Central Park Master Community