Looks like a landing zone for aliens from outer space........

Tonight at the meeting the board said that they were considering changing half of the grass in the common areas bordering Schnepf Road into desert landscape. I am ABSOLUTELY AGAINST THIS IDEA! When watered properly, the grass is beautiful and it is one of the things that attracted me to this community in the first place. I understand that the water pressure is down...so put on some different sprinkler heads to adjust for that! Also, there are water saving sprinkler heads out there that will water more uniformly and save us money without having to tear up our grass. Please look into the cost of changing the heads before making a drastic change to the community landscape. Additionally, how much is it going to cost us to tear out all the grass, put in a drip system that will be necessary for all the desert plants (which are mostly thorny and not kid friendly), and then choose a nice gravel to go in the area? How much is this change going to negatively affect the value of my home?

I totally agree with you on this one. It is a VERY BAD IDEA to change out grass for desert landscape! The question I have is why is the water going like mad in some of the parks? It seems like it would make more sense to water the areas that potential home buyers see than water the heck out of the parks-- just my 2 cents, and I think previously mentioned by others. Our landscapers must be jumping for joy and doing the happy dance at the potential of our community eliminating the size of the grassy areas-- grass will keep growing back like a weed through the rocks, plus the cost of digging back the grass, reworking the sprinkler, etc... I'd bet the board changes out the grass anyway---community comments really don't seem to hold any much value.

I agree that the green belts should be kept with grass. But I am willing to compromise with the board on this.

Here is what I propose for a couple of the main areas:

1. The green belt South of Castlegate on Schnepf should be turned into rock. I have never seen anyone in it.

2. The hook on the green belt Castlegate and Camden could be turned into rock.

3. The small area connected to the larger area North of Rousay on Schnepf could be turned into rock.

I haven't driven around the other outter areas in the community to see what has grass and what doesn't. Maybe someone else can comment on that.

This proposal, will keep most of the larger grass areas and will allow the HOA to save us some money in the long run. Yes, sometimes it takes money to save it. They spent over $120,000 last year in water alone. Maybe, we can get volunteers to help with the grass removal and just have the rock dumped and we can move the rock around. The landscapers can fix the sprinklers and spray the ground to kill the grass and weeds prior to laying the rock. This will save money as well. But, as in the past, it is damn near impossible to get anyone to help out.

The main issue is keeping as much of the grass as possible for the kids to play and for families to have some fun. Thank you.