Coming into the second half of the year, I wanted to give an update on a number of items of importance to our Members.
Assessments
First, the mid-year assessment of $263 is due July 1 and payment reminders were mailed the last week of May. Pay the assessment amount by the due date to avoid late fees and interest charges. If you use Spectrum’s online assessment payment service, there is an additional charge to cover the fees charged by their payment processor. For this reason, we normally recommend that Members use the electronic bill pay service offered by their own bank or credit union if that feature is available at lower or no cost. More details on payment options are here.
Pool
The pool renovations planned for this year have been completed and the pool is now open and staffed with lifeguards during most general swim hours. We have installed new quartz plaster, edge coping, waterline tile, and a new stone backsplash behind the baby pool waterfall. We’re also happy to welcome a family of sea turtles who’ve recently taken up permanent residence at the bottom of the baby pool. Many thanks are also owed to board member Mark Weaver who took advantage of the downtime during construction to completely rebuild and rewire the pump room electrical service to bring it up to code. In the coming months and years additional maintenance, repairs and upgrades on the deck, shade canopies and frames, deck lighting, hand rails, etc are planned but it is a relief to know that the vast majority of our planned capital expenses related to the pool and bathhouse are now behind us and we can transition from major repair / renovation mode to maintenance mode.
We’ve also made some modifications to the operating hours. Mondays are now open with regular weekday hours; there is no longer a late open on that day. Pool hours are 10 am to 8 pm daily, with lap swimming from 5:30 am to 10 am and 8 pm to 10 pm every day. Access to the pool and other amenities is granted by key card. Don’t wait until July 4 weekend to find out that your key card is lost, bad or needs reprogramming. I encourage you to test it out or request a new one via the Spectrumam.com website as soon as you can before the heat of the summer really sets in.
Canyon Creek Cyclones swimmers working out during practice.
After taking last year off due to COVID closures, the Canyon Creek Cyclones swim team is off to a great start with just under 90 kids, ages 5 and up, from the neighborhood participating this year. The team practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-8pm through July 8 and there will be one swim meet on Saturday morning, June 26 from 7-11am. The pool will be closed to general & lap swim during these times. We are very happy to see this popular activity resume and wish the team good luck. Visit http://canyoncreekcyclones.swimtopia.com/ for more info on the swim team.
Community Events
Thanks to our newest board member, Poornima Siddapur, and a handful of volunteers stepping up we have some fun community events planned for later this year. Today, I can announce the July 4 kids bike parade to run from Canyon Creek Elementary down to Trailhead Park. This event was a big hit and a lot of fun a couple of years ago so we are excited to be able to have this one back. Stay tuned for more details on this. We have a few other events planned for later this year including a back to school pool party.
Traffic and Safety
Many of you likely received a flyer from the City of Austin describing upcoming construction and safety improvements to the intersections at Boulder and Ember Glen and Boulder and Chestnut Ridge. This is a project that the HOA’s Traffic and Pedestrian Safety committee worked on for about a year with City of Austin officials. Construction is expected to begin sometime this month and to last several weeks. When completed, these crossings will calm traffic through the use of curb extensions and other features, offering significant safety improvements to school children crossing the street at these locations. Many thanks are owed to the members of this committee for their efforts on this project. More details on this project can be found here.
Winter Storm Recovery
By now, most plants and trees with the exception of some palm trees are showing good signs of life. Our landscaping company reports that for some slower growing palm trees it may still take a few weeks to see if they will recover. For those, continue to be patient. In the meantime, it is safe to go ahead and trim any dead material off of plants, trees and shrubs and let things continue to recover at their own pace without use of fertilizer. You can test if something needs to be pruned or cut by breaking a small twig or branch. If it is dry, it is dead and can safely be removed. Use wound sealer on any larger branches that are removed to help prevent disease and rot.
Our greenbelts and canyonlands were heavily impacted by the storm but thanks to a small group of trail volunteers, all of the trails have been cleared and are open for hiking and trail-riding. Since the storm, we’ve been receiving ongoing requests to address fallen limbs or downed trees located within the greenbelts. We have been consistently telling folks that if a tree or limb from the greenbelt has fallen into your property and you are willing and able to cut it up and move it to the curb for pickup, please feel free to do so. If you cannot do so, let us know and we will send our landscaper to come remove it from your property. If your property has been damaged by one of our trees or fallen limbs, let us know and we will make it right. This only applies to trees or limbs originating in greenbelt or other common area property and which are currently in, on or damaging a Member’s property. In all other cases we are allowing residents who are willing and able to remove fallen trees / limbs in the greenbelt for aesthetic / fire risk purposes once they have filed a request with the Architecture Review Committee who will review and advise homeowners before cutting.
Because the greenbelt area damaged by the winter storm is so large, it is not economically feasible for the HOA to send paid labor out to each location to remove dead or fallen trees or limbs that are not causing immediate harm. We will have to deal with specific areas street-by-street and block-by-block on a volunteer led basis during our regular FireWise wildfire risk reduction efforts in the coming months and years. The HOA will support individual Members willing to organize their neighbors for a volunteer cleanup effort for their block or street. Please reach out to the Board if this is something of interest. We can usually arrange for mulchers / shredders and haul away of mulched debris at little or no cost to the HOA through our landscaping company. Refer to one of our community maps here if you need help identifying HOA greenbelt / common area property.
Landscape Maintenance
Living in a deed restricted community such as Canyon Creek means that there are certain restrictions on and obligations required of homeowners. In the monthly reports that the board reviews, issues related to landscape maintenance and general curb appeal are the most common violations we see of the community deed restrictions. Lawns must be mowed regularly and kept free of weeds; sidewalks and driveways must be kept neatly edged and planters & beds must be well maintained, attractive and free of weeds. Nothing on your property should look overgrown or unmaintained. For reference, lots of guidance has been published / re-published on this website in recent years. As always, an initial violation of one of the deed restrictions will result in a reminder courtesy notice explaining the problem and will include steps and a timeline to correct the issue well before a fine is assessed.
Architectural Review
The Architectural Review Committee is tasked with ensuring the homes and other improvements in the community maintain a consistent look and feel in keeping with the overall character and design of Canyon Creek. Earlier this year, the ARC published a comprehensive update to the community Design Guidelines. Any Improvement (as that term is defined in the governing documents) that you are planning must be submitted for pre-approval by the ARC . Consulting the guidelines and designing new construction or repairs to comply with the current standards is the best way to ensure a smooth and successful project. Failure to receive approval beforehand or to follow the standards can result in significant added expense if you are required by the ARC to make changes after the fact. Pay special attention to the section on allowed colors for fence stains as this has changed. Transparent or natural wood stains are the only approved colors going forward. Opaque stains of the barn red, orange, or green variety are no longer permitted. If you are replacing an existing fence that was previously stained one of these colors, your new construction must comply with the current standards. Minor repairs to existing fence must continue to be stained to match until such time as the entire fence is replaced.
Finances
We are currently operating very close to target on our operating budget. A few line items are a little over budget while others are a little under budget. Unbudgeted expenses related to cleanup and repairs (e.g. irrigation, dead plant replacement, etc.) from the winter storm are the biggest source of overage and have us reassesing the level of discretionary capital spending that we had planned through the remainder of the year. We watch the finances closely and make adjustments to our discretionary spending as necessary, in some cases deferring planned maintenance and upgrades to the following year. Specifically, we have additional improvements planned for the common area landscaping that we are reassessing for this year.
There are two things we are tracking closely as we begin to prepare the budget for 2022. First, contrary to what most observers were expecting this year, the Texas legislative session that just ended included a number of new laws passed that will directly affect the operations of most HOAs / Property Owners Associations in Texas. We have directed our management company to do an impact assessment of all the new laws and report back to us. While that assessment is ongoing, the primary concern is increased legal and regulatory compliance costs and potential increases to the cost of our director and officer insurance. Second, the impact that the winter storm will have on renewal rates for property and casualty insurance is of major concern. My belief is that insurance rates statewide are going to increase substantially for all property owners, the only question is by how much and whether either of these events will impact our ability to hold the current assessment level into 2022 or even 2023 as I stated was our goal in my remarks at the annual meeting in March.
Community Management
Denise Johnston, our previous community manager at Spectrum Association Management has been on extended leave of absence for medical reasons. We were informed recently that she will not be returning from her absence and that Elizabeth Schoen who has been filling in will now be taking over our account. The board wants to thank Denise and welcome Elizabeth and are looking forward to developing a similarly effective and productive relationship with her in the coming weeks and months.
Please reach out to the board with any questions or concerns. We can be reached at board@canyoncreek.net. In addition, our website, https://canyoncreek.net/ is a great resource for all things Canyon Creek. Thank you for your continued trust in us in managing this community.
On behalf of the board,
Brett Funderburg
President, CCHOA