Montage at Mission Hills

Quorum Article - July 2005

Montage at Mission Hills is a PUD of 128 single-family homes located behind its own gates on lease land within Mission Hills Country Club. It lies in Cathedral City on the border with Rancho Mirage. This central location in the more mature part of the Coachella Valley makes it handy for many outstanding shopping and restaurant outlets.

GHA, one of the premier local area developers, built Montage during the period 2001 through 2004, pitching their product at the discriminating buyer. The 2, 3 and 4 bedroom units currently sell in the six to eight hundred thousand dollar range. All Montage homes are distinguished by prime landscaping. Another distinguishing mark is the very high proportion of full-time residents, estimated at 75%, many of them being local professionals.

With so many fulltime residents, there is an overall willingness among the community members to do whatever is necessary to keep the community looking good and financially viable.  Montage members appreciate a board of directors, with only three members, that takes prompt action on potential problems within the community and that represents the entire membership with no personal agenda.

The Architecture and Landscape Committee meets once a month to address any A & L related issues.   In addition, individual members of the committee are assigned an area of the association to monitor on a daily basis.  When the need arose, a Rules Committee was established that recommended appropriate changes in the existing rules to address apparent  problems.

Says Board President Lars Hansen, “As in any new community, we have experienced a period of transition from the developer to our homeowners association, and now that we are fully vested in the responsibility for the care of Montage at Mission Hills we will be carefully reviewing issues that have been brought to our attention by various homeowners.

“Most issues brought to us by homeowners center around clarification and interpretation of the CC&Rs, especially when it comes to the exterior look of the homes, particularly as seen from the streets.  As we all know, our collective “curb appeal” is very important to all of us, and is one of the reasons we chose to live in a planned, well-designed development.  There will be times when the task of permitting a change in the original design of a home and/or landscaping will be very difficult for the Architectural and Landscape Committee and the Board. However we all know that all of the homeowners appreciate how hard we are trying to honor the ‘spirit’ and integrity of our overall design.”

Montage at Mission Hills HOA dues are modest $103 per month and include social membership in Mission Hills Country Club. Montage vendors include Pacific Western Bank; GLS Landscaping; H&H Electrical; Peters and Freedman, Attorneys; and Glen Perry, CPA.

Personalized Property Management provides association management services, through Dayton Dickey, CCAM. Says Dayton, “ This is a great community to manage because of the interest and involvement of the Board and Committee members.  They are a very high-class group and have a great understanding of what is involved in living in a common interest development.”