August 1 2025

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“Conserve water,
       Save $$ and
             Improve appearance”

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Latest update about the Water Conservation efforts. On July 16th Mitch Albert presented the Business Plan for the Water Conservation Pilot to both Board(s) during a work session of the Joint Long Range Planning Committee (JLRPC). The Pilot includes three buildings/areas: B223/224, the South Town Homes (STH) area, and B217/218. The pilot project scope for B217/218 includes replacement of the irrigation system around the buildings which will conserve water and save money. Also, the implementation of drought-resistant landscaping which will improve the appearance of our buildings.

The business plan for the three areas includes an initial investment of $150K (net $100K after city rebates of 50K) to realize a total of $350K in water reduction savings over five years. This means in business terms a payback period of 2.3 years. The payback period is based on retail costs and without the rebates. With wholesale costs and rebates the payback period will be 1.6 years!  After the 1.6 years payback period we will start making a “profit” out of our initial investment when cost savings (reduced water bill) are coming in for the three areas included in the pilot project.

Since the B218 Garden Committee and the 217 Landscape committee strongly believe that a Heather Gardens water conservation project always must include drought-resistant landscaping, we included in the business plan a proposal to invest $57K (net 40K after city rebates) of the irrigation savings in upgrading the landscaping around B217 and B218. Mitch Albert presented his business plan, including the costs and the rationale of our landscaping plans, in his presentation.  (Source: Adhoc Water Conservation Committee 3 Pilot Project Plans July 16, 2025 “Executive summary 7/17/25” on page7 go to www.hg-wctf.org  and look under Reference tab.)

Mitch’s presentation focused on the financials including our B217/218 landscaping plans. After his presentation we got time to go over the landscaping plans in more detail. The design for B218 was developed by our Garden Committee. The 58K plan (Net 40K) includes labor costs and materials for two areas/gardens for B218: The first garden will be between Linvale and the parking area on the North side of the building and the second garden will be in the Bench area under the trees. B217 costs are included in the 58K plan. The B217 Landscaping committee designed two areas mainly on both sides of their front door entry ramp. For all garden areas, colorful drought resistant flowers and plants were carefully selected by the members of the B218 Garden Committee and B217 Landscaping Committee.

What is next?
The Board members had constructive questions and some concerns, and decided during the JLRPC work session to send the business plan to the Maintenance Committee to further investigate what is necessary to realize the replacement of the irrigation system (smart controllers and efficient sprinkler heads) and for implementing the landscaping proposal (B217/218).

We expect the Board to make a decision to implement the Business Plan during the HGA Board meeting on August 26th.

Sid Vollema
Nancy Starts