It seems to me that 42% for lawn/grounds maintenance is very high. I assume this is because we we are mowing the entire area under the power lines. Can anyone confirm if this is the majority of the cost?

Lawn mowing expense

I am not sure as to the answer here. The next question would be: If we are, should we not? If we did not mow this, and AEP did not mow this, then it would really be bad for not only the homeowners that back up to the lines, but to everyone.

I guess the unfortunate reality is that because of the low density of homes here ( compared to Scioto Reserve ) we have a significant amount of green space. The benefit is the low density.

What we pay for lawn care I believe also includes weed control etc..

To me $250 a year is very fair for overall dues. 42% is around $10 per household per month for this maintenance. I can live with that.

When I moved here I wanted to make sure we had a strong HOA. For the most part we do. I am sure that if we stopped mowing, painting, keeping up the green space etc...it would have a significant impact on everyone. It is too bad more homeowners are not concerned. I am sure they would be if things were not pretty good right now.

Lawn Mowing

That was a good post. We could use more positive posts like yours. This is how it was explained to me. The common ground under the power lines is ours, but AEP has a right of way to it and no one can build on it. The bigger green space on BBA is a retention basin, for collecting overflow of rain water. This was done to prevent flooding in your homes, same as the green space behind the shopping center. We have 22 acres of common ground throughout our subdivision, thus the majority of the costs is landscaping. I believe we have the lowest HOA dues in the area, mainly because we have 356 homes to share in the cost. It is imperative that we ALL share the costs, in order to keep our dues down. I must say, there has been a significant improvement lately in the upkeep of people's lawns, I for one, am proud to live here.

Original Poster again

Well I'm not complaining really but would like to think about alternatives. The BBF HOA fees are much higher than most locations. Standard HOA fees are $100/year. That's average and I know because I work in the real estate field.

What about wild flowers underneath the powerlines? I don't actually don't know if that would be cheaper or not. But where I've seen it done it looks nice and requires clearing/mowing twice/year. That may be cheaper than mowing/treating many weeks per year. A trail could even be added.

Just thinking....