While we love what the community "may" become, it still has a long way to go...
HOUSE: Tim Lewis (at Shoreline) is THE worst home build we've ever been associated with!
1 year, 6 months after moving in we've had to take 45 days off work, or "working from home" to meet with Sub's & Contractors to correct build problems. We use a week's vacation, just to be home to have issues of bad design/damaged materials replace that were used in our build. Totally unacceptable! Customer service treats us like they are doing a favor in correcting their non-existent QA process during the build.
From months of misleading information, to poor/sloppy workmanship, poor building materials, out & out lies from Sales & Customer Service, and their standard "good tradesmen are hard to find" (implying we need to accept subpar work), to say it's been a rollercoaster would be giving Tim Lewis Communities, far more credit than they are due!
Friends in Lakeside 360 and Drakes Bend used the same sub-contractors and tell stories similar to ours. Our friends here in Tim Lewis Shoreline homes continue to have problem after problem. There are many unhappy homeowners in River Islands.
COMMUNITY LIVING:
Tons of potential, but with the mis-steps the community/city of Lathrop design team has made so far, I don't see the potential coming fully to fruition...
The Boat House (local restaurant/bar) finally has new management! Everyone is excited that we've got a place close to home, with owners that care about being a good neighbor.
The schools are highly rated. If you live in RI, your children are first to have access to them.
PUD DESIGN:
There's a couple of small parks that are nice. Surrounding them are areas of spider & wasp infestations! Take a closer look at lights leading to the boat house, most are filled with spiderwebs. If you live here you NEED a pest service! Most service companies don't go on ladders/roofs to get the wasp hives that more & more people are finding at home.
The design of the fences that you are required to have around your home looks nice. However they are a haven for wasp nests; something the planners of the community didn't think through.
There's several Roundabouts at larger intersections; cutting down on noise, pollution and saving gas. To keep people from speeding thru them, a knee-jerk reaction from the developers was installing "temporary" speed bumps: black rubber and brightly reflective yellow strips. These speed bumps have spread throughout the community. So instead of seeing nice brick work, flowers & landscaping, your eye is drawn to what looks like an industrial second rate neighborhood w/speed bumps. This takes away all the charm of driving into the area that so much time has been invested in planning...another thing that the planners of the community didn't think through. A more appealing look/feel, would have been of brick work and/or planer bins with flowers or shrubbery. A well thought out community planner would have created an appealing fix for the community.
SAFETY and SECURITY:
Crime has been growing. Early in 2017 there was an open town-hall safety meeting w/Lathrop Sheriffs and Developer Mgnt. Neighborhood watch groups were set up, but this has done little to slow/stop crime. Look at the FaceBook River Island Residents page to see how many cars and homes people are reporting being broken into. A security company has a vehicle with flashing lights that drives around some evenings, but with its flashing neon yellow lights, any criminal in the area has plenty of warning to duck & cover.
There are alleyways in the Shoreline area. They have no city/PUD lighting in them at all. The home builder Tim Lewis didn't install or require automatic lighting on the rear of the houses. Several cars have been broken into in these alleys. Again, a bad design with everyone to blame. On a dark night, it is really dark! Seriously 'black' dark! This is not just a security issue, but a safety issue as well...if you can hardly see the ground in front of you, it's a legal action waiting to happen. Yet another thing the planners of the community didn't think through.
At the town-hall safety meeting, It was suggested to add posts with LED photocell lighting, automatically coming on at night, powered by a small solar panel on top of the post.
PLUS, "No Parking" signs could be added to the post, eliminating the need to keep spray painting the curbs red, polluting our sewers/oceans with red paint chips, and keep the ally from looking like a second rate, urban type community, rather than the nice lake front community it is. Simple, cost effective problem solved, right?...Six months have gone by and RI Management & developers have done nothing about this issue(s).
TO SUM UP: Tons of potential! Missteps by developers/Lathrop city looks like turning a profit is more important than creating a coveted premier community for decades to come.
Susan Dell'Osso, River Islands's future is in your hands. read more