Landscape Committee
Guidelines
Preserve, Maintain and Enhance our Landscaped Areas.
Evaluate, negotiate and Select Landscape Providers for CGTA. Reviewing the contract for the major landscape provider should be done every few years. Because this task is large it is recommended that a sub-committee be formed to evaluate multiple candidate providers. Report the findings of the selection activity to the Board of Directors.
Supervise Landscape Providers (grounds, trees, barkdust, etc.). Typically, there will be one major landscape provider and at this time it is Brightview. Another provider does tree removal and pruning. Each landscape provider will designate a representative and only one person on the landscape committee (typically the chair) will give directions to the landscape representative.
Accept requests and comments from homeowners. Committee members will be assigned to represent different portions of the townhomes. Homeowners within each area are encouraged to address their concerns and requests to their Landscape Representative. During landscape committee meetings these concerns and requests will be discussed and the committee will decide the action to take. Board approval is needed for financial expenditure beyond $xxx.
Monitor irrigation system turn-on and approve repairs. Our landscape provider prepares the irrigation system for operation in the spring. A landscape committee member may be assigned the job of observing a portion of this process and becoming familiar with the irrigation system. The landscape provider will make some repairs and propose other less urgent repairs. A recommendation on which repairs are to be made may need to be approved by the board.
Monitor irrigation water use. Our landscape provider will set the irrigation rate and they don’t want the lawns to be brown. Since they don’t pay for the irrigation water they do not have a built-in incentive to keep irrigation costs under control. It takes a landscape committee person to monitor the water rate and to work with the provider. The person may wish to monitor the water rate by reading the meters. The person should check that the irrigation system is not unduly watering during rainy spells and that it is turned on and off at appropriate times.
Read Water Features water meters and provide periodic reports to the Treasurer on the amount of water that has been used. Typically, this task is delegated to a committee member with other members trained to be a backup.
Supervise Periodic Landscape Work. Every three years barkdust is spread on areas that are not vegetated. The landscape committee determines the type of cover, the quantity and arranges for the delivery. Our primary landscape provider does not maintain large trees. The landscape committee oversees the pruning, health and removal of large trees. The landscape committee will utilize a tree service for consulting, recommendations and tree work.
Budget and Reserve Study. The chairperson is a member of the Finance Committee and helps prepare the budget for landscape work. The chairperson also helps with landscape items in the reserve study.
Reports. Report the activities of the landscape committee to the board and to homeowners as appropriate. The board would appreciate having a written report approximately quarterly that will be an addendum to the minutes.
Reference Information
Claremont Greens Townhomes
Approved April 13, 2021
Landscape Financial Authorization Policy
With the approval of the Board Treasurer, the Landscape Chair may authorize spending up to $500 on any one project.
For expenses over $500, the full Landscape Committee has to approve the project provided it is within budget, and with approval from the Board Treasurer.
Expenses that are over the amount budgeted for the item need approval from the Board.
Reserve funds always need approval from the Board.
From the CC&R
2.10 Landscaped Areas
“Landscaped Areas” shall mean all portions of a Building Lot other than those portions occupied by a Building Structure or designated as an Outdoor Living Area or containing paved driveways or walkways.
2.12 Outdoor Living Area
“Outdoor Living Area” shall mean the portion of a Building Lot that is located immediately adjacent to a Building Structure and is screened, enclosed, or set off in any manner to create a private outdoor living/landscaped area. Outdoor Living Areas shall initially be established by Declarant at the time of construction of the Building Structures and may be modified from time to time by the Townhome Owner of the corresponding Building Lot, with the approval of the Architectural Review Committee, in accordance with Section 5.
3.10.1 Maintenance of Building Exteriors, Townhome Common Area, and Landscaped Areas
3.10.1.1 By the Townhome Association. The Townhome
Association shall be responsible for maintenance of … all Landscaped Areas. … Maintenance of the Townhome Common Area and Landscaped Areas shall include maintaining, repairing, and replacing of grass, sod, trees, shrubs, and bushes in a neat, clean, and attractive condition and the maintenance and repair of all underground sprinkler systems. The decision as to the nature and extent of maintenance that is required for a particular Building Structure and the timing of such maintenance shall be solely within the discretion of the Board.
3.10.1.2 By the Townhome Owners.
The maintenance responsibilities described in Section 3.10.1.1 specifically do not include the following duties, which are the sole responsibility of the Townhome Owners of the Building Lots: … landscaping and other Townhome Improvements (including, without limitation, decks and patios) located within the Outdoor Living Areas; …
Reading the Water Meters
Link to instructions on how to read the meters along with photos of past meter readings. You need permission in order to make changes to this website or to add photos of meter readings.
Link to spreadsheet with meter readings and charges for the Greens.
Notes on Landscape from past board president, March of 2021
1. CGTA has a three year contract with Brightview. 2021 is Year Two of the contract.
2. Irrigation repairs are ongoing as sprinkler heads wear out and roots impede other heads. The board allocated adequate funds in operation and reserves for irrigation repairs. Probably the repairs should be consolidated into operating as it is an annual maintenance expense.
3. Trees are maturing and may be too large for the location. Also their roots may cause damage to water/drainage pipes. CGTA can work with NW Trees on removal of several large overgrown trees in future years.
4. The Hermit Crab seems to work well in controlling water costs. There are funds in 2024 for updating controllers and weather signals. As the board discovered, software changes occur that cause discontinuation of service to dated equipment. Also after Year One (2020) there will be an annual weather signal fee.
5. “Private gardens” have been discouraged by Landscape Committee and the board. It becomes an issue when townhomes are sold.
Annual Backflow Test for Irrigation Water
[Backflow is a term in plumbing for an unwanted flow of water in the reverse direction. It can be a serious health risk for the contamination of potable water supplies with foul water. ]
CGTA has two backflow devices, one at Tee Court and one at Kaiser Rd.
Each year, Tualatin Valley Water District (TVWD) notifies our management company that the backflow devices need to be tested and recertified.
The management company then contacts a company called Aquatech to test and recertify these devices.
The following might be the company that has been doing the testing:
Aqua-Tech Backflow Services
14655 NE Russell Ct
Portland OR 97230
(503) 251-1683
Landscape Markup Maps
The source for these diagrams can be found in Clare Money’s Google Drive under Landscape.
Diagram of Irrigation Zones, 2019
This diagram is not exact.
Rainbird controler manual
Irrigation Controller Schedules from 2019
Bethany controller program
Kaiser controller program
Irrigation Systems History
This chart shows the amount of water used for irrigation in the Bethany irrigation system. The amount of water is primarily controlled by three things. 1) When irrigation starts. 2) The rate at which water is applied. 3) When irrigation stops. The start and stop times are influenced by the weather but can also be a matter of choice. In 2022 the landscapers were playing with the irrigation controlled and goofed it up causing irrigation to stop early. A smart controller (which we had in 2021 and 2023) can adjust the rate at which water is applied based on the weather. In general, our summers are without much rain and it seems like the smart controller does little other than watering as usual.
Our landscape company programs the rate at which water is applied. This varies from year to year. The landscape company can program too much water. This happened at the Kaiser irrigation system and was not discovered. The cost of this sort of mistake is born by the HOA, not the people who make the mistake. For this reason, it makes sense for the landscape committee to monitor the amount of irrigation water that is being applied and get the landscape company to fix errors in their programming.
From this chart we see that the amount of irrigation water used can vary by a factor of 2, from 1000 CCF per year up to over 2000 CCF per year. Some portion of this is due to changes in weather. However, most of this is due to the way the irrigation system is programmed and when the system is turned on and off.
A reasonable way to monitor the irrigation water use is to take weekly meter readings. This was done in 2021 and 2022. The 2022 readings are shown in the chart on the left. The irrigation water used each week (or any other period) is calculated in gallons. This is then divided by the time interval to get the average water used per day. Then that is divided by the number of units to get the average water used per unit per day. By looking at the area that is being watered I found that about 200 gallons should be used each day for each unit. We see that in 2022 about 200 gallons was used. We also see that the Bethany irrigation system was shut off early because the landscape company goofed up the controller and then delivered extra water in October attempting to compensate for their mistake.
The chart on the left is for the Kaiser irrigation system. Notice that in 2018 the water controller was programmed to deliver much more water than was needed. The landscape committee realized that the water bills were high but felt that this was due to a leak in the water features. In 2018 it was not pointed out that the landscape company incorrectly programmed the controller.
In 2023, the controller was programmed to deliver about three times the normal amount of water.
It is easy to see that the rate at which irrigation water is applied varies considerably from year to year. This suggests that the landscape company does not have a good understanding of how much water is required. Also, the landscape company does not pay for the water used and therefor may have little incentive to apply a thrifty amount of water.