Villas Landscape Planning (LandPlan) Committee

 

Meeting Notes: February 14, 2008

 

 

Members Present :


 

Emery Dilda – Chairperson

Elaine Diepenbrock

Lee Harper

Peggy Verdine

Sherri Burke – Board Liaison

Ken Burke - Guest


 

Discussion Items:

 

Emery provided feedback regarding the proposed Shenandoah landscape design contract. In as much as the proposed costs exceeded our anticipated budget, other options were considered. These included 1) reducing the number of areas that Shenandoah would address, 2) delaying any formal contract action until after Shenandoah had made their design presentation to the community at large as part of their existing contract with the FRCA, and 3) exploring the possibility of preparing less formal design plans using existing OTS landscape design software.

 

Several committee members attended the special meeting of the FRCA Building and Grounds committee for February 13. It had been expected that Shenandoah would present its initial draft proposal for landscape enhancements to the community for review and comment by residents. Instead, the presentation focused only on the types of trees and shrubs that were being considered for inclusion in the design and the rationale for those choices. The prepared design plan will be available for community review and input in 4-5 weeks. Committee members are encouraged to attend.

 

The revised LandPlan Committee charter was delivered to our Board liaison for presentation to the Board. In as much as the charter states that the committee is “responsible for developing a phased plan for the beautification and smart utilization of the villas common areas” it was again determined that one aspect of the committee effort appropriately includes making recommendations related to the modification of Villa common areas by Villa home owners

 

There was no new information to report regarding the two Boards’ discussion about geographic boundaries that would define landscape responsibilities. The Villa Board had sent a recommendation to the FRCA Board outlining villa understanding of areas of responsibility, and recommending a course of action based on those boundaries. Because Villa residents pay the same fees to the FRCA as do the single family home residents, there is an assumption that both sections of the Falls Run community should receive the same level of service.

 

The committee discussed, and made further changes to, the revised draft guidelines for resident monetary contributions to the community landscaping efforts. Essentially, this document was modified to focus on specific internal operating procedures that would be used by the committee/Board to manage resident contributions. As second document will be developed for use as a community education tool to inform residents of the guidelines and how they may be implemented.

 

The committee discussed the draft guidelines that had been prepared for single family residents which addressed the use of common areas for planting beds or other enhancements. Members agreed that while these may serve as a starting point, changes would have to be made for the Villas. In addition, there were a number of barriers that would have to be addressed in order for resident modifications to be approved by the board. These include:

It was recommended that a simple first document be prepared for Board review and feedback so the committee would have necessary guidance prior to developing more formal guidelines to present to the community.
 

Decisions Made:

 

Committee members will evaluate Shenandoah’s deliverable (design plan) to the FRCA before deciding to move forward with a formal contract.

 

Guidelines for resident monetary contributions to the landscaping effort will be finalized and delivered to our Board liaison for the upcoming Board meeting.
 

A second PR document will be prepared to inform the Villa residents about the contribution guidelines.

 

A preliminary version of guidelines for resident modification of common areas will be prepared and presented to the Board. It is anticipated that their feedback will guide the development of a more formal document.

 

Action Items:

  1. Attend the Shenandoah presentation of the proposed landscape design (to be scheduled sometime in mid-March) (All)

  1. Finalize the revised guidelines for resident monetary donations to the enhancement of the common Villa areas and give it to our Board liaison for presentation at the next Board meeting. (Emery)

  1. Prepare initial document addressing resident modification of Villa common areas. (Emery and Elaine)

  1. Research available OTS landscape design software. (Peggy)

  1. Review the LandPlan initial action plan to assess progress and make changes to the plan as needed (All).

  1. Continue to conduct research on available resources for both materials and information. (All)

  1. Continue to recruit members for the committee. (All)