The Villages at Maxwell Creek HOA Newsletter (2nd Quarter 2007)

Annual Meeting / Elections

At the second calling of the Annual Meeting on April 16th, we were able to reach a quorum thanks to the 47 proxies that were received. Previous Board Members, Robert Butler and Yesika Fletcher were reelected. There is still one open position on the Board; if you are interested in volunteering, please contact us!

One of the topics that was discussed at the meeting was how, and whether, to rebuild the brick neighborhood border fence along Shelley. There have been several episodes of vandalism over the last year and a half, and the wall has been repaired four times so far. Unfortunately, no one has been caught, and there are no suspects, so a couple of options were suggested including having a private security company periodically surveil the area, and installing security cameras along the fence. The private security company ends up being too expensive to guarantee that we would catch someone. We are reviewing the security camera option, as we are aware of two neighborhoods in Richardson that have installed cameras so far.

When it comes time to repair the fence, a vote was taken at the meeting to have the top three-row decorative (but less strong) strip replaced with solid brick rather than replicated. Although it will likely take several years for the fence to be completely uniform, long-term it will save the HOA money by not performing as many repairs.

Another topic which has come up several times in the past is posting the names, addresses, and amounts owed by delinquent homeowners in the newsletter or on the web site. We have considered this, however there is the potential of legal liability or libel / slander cases being brought against the HOA from an owner who is named. However, as a non-profit corporation of which you are a member, the books of the Association are open and anyone wanting to review them is welcome to make the request.

Finally, the last 'big' topic was the options the HOA has when it comes to enforcement of violations. A few suggestions were made, such as:

• If homeowners are unable to do timely maintenance, perhaps the HOA could negotiate discounted rates for yard service (this was done in 2005 and 2006, but not enough people signed up to allow for the truly low rates to kick in),
• Moving to more of a condo-based setup where the HOA would be responsible for fertilization and landscape maintenance for the whole neighborhood (which not every homeowner would want, and which would cause a large increase in annual dues),
• Sending crews in to do the work and billing the homeowner.

The HOA has done the latter on several occasions, but only after repeated attempts to get the homeowner to do the work themselves. Under Texas law, the HOA cannot immediately go onto property to perform the work ourselves; the homeowner must first be given 30 days to come into compliance. Additionally, if someone is willing to let their yard go, they aren't likely to pay the HOA back for work done.

Dues Collection

As of May 17th, the total amount still delinquent is $17,209.49 (24.7% of the annual budget) owed by 31 (10.2% of all) homeowners. Of those 31, three are in foreclosure, one is being sold, and the remainder will have liens filed and be turned over to the Association's attorney for collection in June. The most delinquent account in the neighborhood, which now owes over $4,500 in dues, interest and legal fees, is about to be foreclosed, and will be auctioned on June 5th.

A frequent question that homeowners ask is how many rental / lease properties are in the neighborhood. At last count, there are 26 out of 303 homes (8.6%). Of the 31 delinquent accounts, five are rental properties.

Tax Appraisal

As happens every year, all of us have received the new tax appraisal from the county for our property. Accordingly, we've received a few questions from homeowners about protesting the increase over last year, which for some homeowners has gone up over $20,000 since 2006. If you are interested in protesting the appraisal increase on your residence, the appraisal district maintains a web page with information on how to file both a written and in-person protest.

The largest element in determining whether the appraisal increase is justified is if it can be matched to an increase in home sales prices over the last year, but, unfortunately, this is harder information to come by. We contacted a Realtor about pulling comps for the area for the last year. Based on that, home prices in our area have averaged between $68/sqft to $80/sqft, with some homes selling for just below market and a few selling for slightly above.

There are 10 homes currently for sale in the neighborhood, and if they're indicative of the current market, prices may be increasing slightly. The lowest price/sqft currently listed is $74.18 and the highest is $103.92, at an average of $79.70/sqft. This is a definite positive from where we were a few years ago, when most homes sold below market value, and two sold for less than the original purchase price. However, since these are only the offered price, not the actual sale price, we won't know the real trend until later this year.

If you decide to file a protest, you must do so before May 31st.

Open-Forum Meeting Schedule

For the last several years, the HOA has called meetings with homeowners every other month to discuss numerous topics including: commercial development in the area, dues, lawsuits, violations, and any other items of interest that were brought up at the meetings. Unfortunately, over that time, homeowner participation has never been very high, with most meetings averaging about a dozen people.

Going forward, we're going to reduce the number of meetings to two or three a year. Currently the next scheduled meeting is on December 3^rd, but it may be moved to earlier in the year depending on response.

Water Supply and Drought

The following statement was put out by the North Texas Municipal Water District on May 10^th:

The North Texas Municipal Water District service area remains in a Stage 3 Severe Drought despite recent rainfall, which raised elevations at Lake Lavon but brought little relief to Lake Jim Chapman.

Because of the rain, some people think the drought is over but it's not, said Jim Parks, NTMWD executive director.

NTMWD relies on three reservoirs 0 Lake Lavon, Lake Jim Chapman and Lake Texoma - to serve more than 1.6 million people in and around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Recent rain has been good for Lake Lavon, which is at 94 percent capacity with an elevation of 490.65'. Yet rainfall patterns have skirted Lake Jim Chapman, which is still less than half full. It stands at elevation 430.29', nearly 10 feet below normal.

Located an hour and a half east of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Lake Jim Chapman has been in a drought for more than four years. In fact, the lake is 1.40 feet lower today than it was this time last year.

Remember, the entire region has been experiencing the worst drought we've seen since the 1950s, and we're heading towards what are traditionally the driest months of the year. While we're pleased Lake Lavon is about twice as full as it was a few months ago, Lake Jim Chapman is not recovering at the same pace, therefore we must ask people to continue to save water.

Parks says there are multiple triggers for implementing NTMWD's drought contingency plan, not just Lake Lavon's water level. The State of Texas regulates how much water NTMWD is permitted to draw from its reservoirs and there's a limit. Last year, as the drought worsened and the demand for water increased, NTMWD slightly exceeded its allowed water supply.

Two projects, initiated prior to the drought, are currently under construction and will add more water to NTMWD's supply in early 2008 and help NTMWD keep pace with the region's water demands. Once online, the Upper Sabine Basin Project and the East Fork Raw Water Supply Project will ultimately add the equivalent of one and a half Lake Lavons to the current capacity. The Proposed Lower Bois d'Arc Creek Reservoir in Fannin County will help secure future water supplies for Fannin County and add additional supplies for the NTMWD. It is tentatively scheduled for completion by 2017.

While we may relax some watering restrictions later this year or early next year, we may never return to a time when we could use all the water we wanted without worrying about the consequences, said Parks. We anticipate keeping time-of-day restrictions and limiting outdoor watering. Water conservation is and will continue to be an important part of NTMWD's water management strategies to meet the projected demands of the population increases in our service area.

Committee Updates

Architecture Committee

Since April 1st, the HOA's management company has sent 55 violation notices to 45 different homeowners, and 207 letters to 118 different homeowners since they were hired last September. That is in comparison to roughly 75 letters mailed from Sept05 - Sept06.

When contacting the HOA with a concern about a residence that may be in violation, please provide a specific address so we can review our records.

The chairperson of the Architecture committee is Robert Butler.

Landscape Committee

We'd like to give special recognition to homeowner Michael White; earlier this month, Michael volunteered and completed power washing and repainting the lettering on the neighborhood entrance sign on Bethany!

The HOA has recently signed a contract with Trugreen Landcare (sister company to Trugreen Chemlawn that already has a contract for fertilization services) to take over maintenance of the common areas from Perfecto, our old company. Earlier this year, we received notice that Perfecto was going out of business, and we already had concerns about service last fall, so we had begun looking for alternatives. The great news is that even with adding additional services to our contract over what was provided by Perfecto, the overall rate is about $100/month less than what we were paying before.

It's going to take a few months for Landcare to get up to speed and work on the backlog of issues we need taken care of, and because of the timing of the transition, we may have to hold off on some maintenance issues (such as tree trimming) that would normally have been taken care of earlier in the year.

The chairperson of the Landscape committee is Stephanie Butler.

Social Committee

We hope you enjoyed all of the activities at the Spring Block Party! For those of you who missed it, we had a great magician performing tricks, a balloon artist, a bounce house, and plenty of great BBQ from Sugar Baby's. Pictures from the event have been posted on the HOA's web site. We'd like to thank Stephanie Butler, Yesika Fletcher, Robert Butler, Andrea Westmoreland, and David Findley for all of their hard work, and Jeff and Lisa Steele for the use of their electricity!

The chairperson of the Social committee is Yesika Fletcher.

HOA Contact Information

The Home Owners Association and its agents may be contacted in several ways:

• Through the HOA web site, at http://www.maxwellcreek.org/,
• By emailing the officers of the HOA, at officers@maxwellcreek.org,
• By emailing the HOA management company, at maxwellcreek@hoa-management.com or management@maxwellcreek.org,
• By calling or faxing the HOA at (972) 739-5221.
• Through U.S. postal mail at:
  Villages at Maxwell Creek HOA
  P.O. Box 2265
  Allen, TX 75013

We welcome any questions, comments, or concerns you may have. Please include your name and street address on all correspondence in order to expedite a response. Please allow two business days for your call or message to be returned.

Is there anything that you've wished to know more about or is there something you would like to share with other association members? If you want to suggest a topic, write an article, make a suggestion or even correct a mistake, please contact us at newsletter@maxwellcreek.org!