July 21 - We were informed that our HOA must comply with the California State “Second Water Conservation Emergency Regulation of 2022 (May/June 2022)”.

We were instructed to immediately stop irrigating non-functional turf with potable water.

This mandate is in effect for a year but is expected to be permanent.

November 11, 2022 – We have complied by turning off the irrigation to approximately 4.5 acres of property and posted signs that drought restrictions are in place. Much of this area contains trees that will be irrigated every 2 weeks to protect the trees. All of this turf is expected to die in the near future.

December 2, 2022 – We have identified approximately 9.5 acres of erosion control turf. We claim that this is functional turf but this claim is controversial. It is likely that this turf will eventually require replacing with non-turf erosion solutions.

Landscape Committee

Now that we have complied with the California State Mandate as ordered, we have about 4.5 acres of dying turf.

We can use turf removal rebates with sprinkler to drip conversion rebates to convert these areas to low water plants.  The good news is that the available rebates at this time totals $5.80 / sq-ft which works out to about $1.1M, high enough to do these upgrade projects at no cost to the HOA.  The bad news is that we have to act fast or lose out.

• Turf rebate requires evidence of turf.  If the turf turns to dirt and weeds, the turf rebate is not available for that area..
• Rebates are frequently reduced sometime in January through March due to the lack of uncommitted funds.  You snooze, you lose.
• The rates and rules change on July 1 each year, the fiscal start of the rebate year.  They can go up but they can go down, and additional restrictions on what the funds can be used for changes.

We must act fast or lose out on using rebates to refurbish these areas and the money required will have to come from somewhere else.

The Landscape Committee has been scrambling to sort out solutions

The current plan is to group these non-functional-turf areas into projects.  The first project has been selected to be  the small area next to the Clubhouse parking lot (Area 1) and the Paseo Vendaval entrance to the Main Green Belt (Area 15).

Landscape Committee

Thank you all for decorating and for making Serrano Park look beautiful!

Serrano Park Social Committee