As we head to the second half of the year and the summer heat is on us in a big way already, I wanted to share a few updates of interest to the Members of Canyon Creek.
The regular annual assessment of $263 covering the latter half of the year is due July 1. Spectrum Association Management offers an online pay option but there will be a fee applied by their payment processor. To avoid this fee, we always recommend that members use their own financial institution’s online bill payment feature since these are often offered at no cost. Make sure you include your account number on your payment so that it can be applied to the correct account. Interest charges and a $20 fee for collections on delinquent accounts applies each month that an assessment payment is past due.
With pool season in full swing and getting plenty of use due to the unseasonably hot weather, all Members are reminded that the pool is closed to recreational swimming until 10AM daily. From 5:30AM to 10AM, the pool is open for fitness and lap swimming only. For those seeking some relief from the excessive heat, we’re looking at extending the pool operating hours until 11PM nightly and making some reasonable accomodations for lap swimmers from 8PM to 11PM nightly when we will have two lap lanes available. If you’re a lap swimmer and need the least amount of distraction or interruption, go ahead and use the morning session. If you’re more tolerant of rec swimmers around you, feel free to use one of the two lap lanes during the evening session. During peak times, please circle swim when it is necessary to share lanes since this allows more swimmers to get their exercise in with the least amount of interference with others. The lifeguard schedule will remain unchanged with guards on the stands from 10AM to 8PM daily. More information on these changes will be shared in an e-mail blast in the coming days. Make sure that you stay up to date on these and other announcements by setting up your login account with Spectrum Association Management and having a valid e-mail address on file.
Once again, we’re proud to support our neighborhood swim team, the Canyon Creek Cyclones. With close to 90 Canyon Creek households participating this season, swim team continues to be a popular summer activity for Canyon Creek’s youngsters. Practices are held each Tuesday and Thursday from 5pm - 8pm through July 5, with two morning meets from 7AM to 11AM on Saturday June 25 and July 9. On these dates and times, the pool will be closed to recreational and lap swimming.
Earlier this year, we began converting the CCHOA pool to an automated chemical maintenance system that will improve efficiency and significantly reduce the risk of non-compliance with local health codes. Much of the work constructing the pad and fence pilings for the chlorine and muriatic acid storage tanks has been a volunteer effort led by board members Mark Weaver, Robert Canik and Russ Jakala. This team effort lets the HOA stretch our project dollars just a little further on other needs so we owe them all a huge debt of gratitude. I am personally very grateful for their efforts.
This last quarter, we were able to complete the conversion of the pool area and lower tennis court to LED lighting. We’re always looking for opportunities to make smart investments that generate an ROI and this was one of those instances. At this point, only a few non-LED lights remain in service at the Community Center and we’ll look for opportunities to convert those as the need arises.
You may have noticed that activity on some of our landscape refresh projects is beginning to pick up. We completed a refresh of the bed in front of the Trailhead Park monument and have recently completed a new installation at Ember Glen and Boulder Lane across from Canyon Creek Elementary. This is an area with good soil and sun so we decided to add some visual interest here by converting the area from sod to drought tolerant, native clump grasses, and lots of annual color in mulch beds accented by river rock.
Please continue to care for your trees and lawns, watering according to the current Stage 1 watering restrictions. The community deed restrictions require that irrigation systems be kept in good repair and sufficient water applied to sustain the plantings. Lawns must not be allowed to die or become overgrown with weeds. Also note that it’s time now to remove or prune palms and other trees affected by the freezing weather in 2021 and 2022. Trees that have not shown signs of life by now must be removed and dead limbs and branches pruned. Guidance on the expectations for landscape maintenance has been previously published here.
If you are planning any type of alteration to the exterior of your home or lot, the community deed restrictions require that you receive approval from the Architectural Review Committee before work begins. Failure to do so may result in fines, delays and added expense and could result in you being required to revert your property to its previous condition. The ARC has published its Design Guidelines to assist Members in planning their projects and is always ready and available to answer questions or provide input to ensure the successful completion of your project.
By now, city workers have completed the slurry seal resurfacing of the 30 or so cul-de-sacs in Canyon Creek scheduled for this year. This should conclude the street work within the neighborhood for a while. The remaining areas will be completed in the coming years. It has also been noted that city crews have completed reconstruction of the stone pillars for the handrails on the bridge adjacent to Trailhead Park. Report any quality issues with the work done to the Austin 311 line.
The board has already begun the process to prepare the 2023 budget. Reserve Advisors has completed the Association’s triennial reserve study which the Board is now reviewing. This independent study is a major input to our annual budgeting process and will be available for download once the Board has had a chance to thoroughly review it. The study is calling for significant expenditures on multiple common area elements within the next few years. Highlights include:
$280K in phased repairs and maintenance to the concrete panel fence along Boulder Lane (2023) and $321K in 2027. We choose to handle these repair expenses on an ongoing annual basis rather than periodic lump sums but the study is clear that we need to significantly step up this allocation in our annual budget.
Total asphalt surface replacement of the walking path behind Trailhead Park (2023), and the Community Center parking lot, the basketball court and the lower tennis court (2026). Rather than repair, we may consider replacing the basketball court and lower tennis court with concrete that offers a longer useful life with lower maintenance expense;
Total replacement of shade frames and canopies in the pool area (2024);
In recent years, the Association has significantly increased both the operating budget and capital expense allocations to preventive maintenance and upkeep of our infrastructure and amenities. However, this is an aging property and the reserve study report is clear that we must be prepared to do more as our common elements age out of their expected service life. In addition, with inflation impacting the global economy, CCHOA is not unaffected. Although our largest contracts include caps on annual renewal increases, typically in the 3-5% range, we are seeing significant increases in both labor and materials costs on non-contract expenses such as unplanned maintenance and repairs and various landscape renovation projects. At this time, we have no reason to expect these increases are going to revert or slow down in the near future. Taking into account the need to step-up our annual maintenance expenses on common area elements, and higher costs for upcoming capital repairs identified in our reserve study and other discretionary projects, I intend to propose an increase of $49 in the 2023 regular annual assessment, taking us from $526 to $575 annually or an increase of just under 10%. This increase will allow us to fund these important maintenance and upkeep projects, stay below our target operating expense ratio of 80% and continue to meet or exceed our reserve balance targets next year. These recommendations from the reserve report and subsequent revisions to the operating plan have been incorporated into our five-year financial model available here which the full Board will consider at the 2023 budget approval meeting sometime in September or October.
Finally, let us say thanks and farewell to Daniel Galko from Beckwood Lane who, for the past several years, has been handling our entry sign messaging and tennis court reservation system. He is heading to a new job as a camp counselor for the summer and then off to Germany in the fall on a study abroad scholarship. Best of luck to him and welcome to Lennon Court who will be taking over his responsibilities. I’m grateful to both of them for their service to our community.
Have a safe and enjoyable summer! Thank you for the trust you have placed in us,
On behalf of the board,
Brett Funderburg
President, CCHOA