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Common Area at Long Creek and Idle Wild

There is an open “common area” lot at the corner of Idle Wild and Long Creek.  The parcel is 226-11-4860.  Can we beautify this lot with trees, shrubs and fresh ground cover?  It would certainly improve the neighborhood.

Replace the builders billboard with a community message board by Fry’s

Why not have a community message board where all residents can drive by it instead of in front of the community center. It would definitely be an enhancement over the builders billboard sitting there on Silverbell at the north end of Fry’s parking lot. It might even inform more residents of community meetings etc.

Approved Plant List

I am glad to see that we will be revising the approved plant list, however with an anticipated “publish” date of the end of July (according to the July newsletter), I am disappointed that homeowner input has not yet been requested.  We have 3 weeks left in July and that does not leave much time to solicit input, review the suggestions and approve them.

I agree with a previous suggestion by another resident that we should look at providing a prohibited plant list instead of an approved plant list.  Indeed there are many plants that are appropriate for the area (low water, non-invasive, clean) that are not on the current approved plant list and are not “common” plants that most people are aware of.  If you look at the current approved plant list you will see that the UofA makes notes on some of them that include “not recommended for use in Arizona.”

Organize Online Documents

It is terrific that we now have most association documents available to us online, however, they need to be organized in a better fashion.  Three design guideline documents are available online and unless you view each one of them, you are not aware of which one is the current guidelines to which we are being held accountable. 

There are also “Final changes to the revised design guideline” available, however with no date on them we do not know which DG version they are associated with.

Creating a “Current” documents area and an “Archive” documents area on the website would help alleviate this confusion.

talk up the web site

Use the newsletter to really talk up the web site!  I am astonished that more people are not registered, I don’t think most people really understand what a great tool we have!

Font suggestion for Board report in newsletter

In the Board report published in the monthly newsletter, it would be helpful to utilize bold and underline features to highlight committee names, dollar amounts, issues, etc of particular interest.  As the reports currently appear, it is difficult to skim for specific information, it all just runs together.  Perhaps a larger font would be helpful as well, though certainly space considerations dictate font size. 

dog park

As a responsible pet owner and also a homeowner who observes the daily life cycle at CR Community Park, I would support CR HOA working with ToM to develop a dog park in the area.  If at CR Community Park, the far southeast corner would be great – many people play there with their dogs and it would seem not to interfere with the ball fields (baseball or soccer.)  The dog park at the far north end of James Kreig (sp?) Park in Oro Valley is an excellent example.  ToM “ownership” of a dog park would hopefully alleviate HOA liability issues.  This suggestion was previously submitted to the Long Range Planning Committee but never heard anything back. 

 Thanks for your consideration – the Suggestion Box is a great idea!

 Pam Carden

Sample Suggestions

Ideas that are clearly expressed will have a better chance of being understood and embraced by the community.  The below suggestions are examples of well written ideas.

Suggestion Title: Dog Park
Suggestion Description: Add a dog park or running are for the community.
Suggestion Reasoning: We all love our animals and I think they deserve to have a place to run and play.

Suggestion Title: Pancake Breakfast
Suggestion Description: Put together an annual pancake breakfast
Suggestion Reasoning: The community I grew up in had an annual pancake breakfast, complete with wagon rides, fire departmet displays and music.  It would be a fun way to get the community together and raise money for the food bank.

Approved plant list

It would be far easier to write a list of prohibited plants which would be much shorter. A list of invasive species would be sufficient.

It makes sense to use plants that are adapted to an arid climate instead of using imported water guzzling varieties.

In addition homeowners should be allowed to have annual wildflowers in their front yards. The Sonoran desert enjoys a stunning display of ephemerals only about once every five years or so. This fleeting display of natural beauty lasts for a couple of weeks and then is gone until the next time that winter rains provide the right conditions. The homeowners who have them remove the spent plants as soon as they are done blooming.