Are HOAs under water restrictions during drought

So what did you want to hear? You don't have to worry about the water restrictions as your not "residential"? Seriously, figure out a way to incorporate the water restrictions. Which sounds like they are doing based on address. Why can't that similar system work for your HOA?

Melissa,
Being a board president and a Rules guy I just want to make sure that we are not putting our HOA plants Trees, shrubs and parks in danger of not surviving till this drought ends. What if we are not included and we decide Zones on our systems.

Texas has many HOA subdivision and we all have similar assets. I was just hoping for feedback since this is the first time the "D" word has been used since I moved to Texas.

Melissa,
The difference between an HOA and a home in an HOA are significant. A typical home in our development has a lot that is less than 1/5 an acre. Our common areas are vast including Parks, walking paths Pool areas and several lush entrances. By the HOA not maintain our common area it can cause home prices to suffer much more than the home that is next door to you on your block.

I am not trying to change any rules. We will follow any restrictions we are given that I will assure you. I am trying to figure out if it pertains to the association.

We have watering restrictions where I live but they are very clear on things like this. Residential addresses water day is determined by whether the address is odd or even. Anything non-residential (HOAs included) is considered commercial and they have a different day. Since we are also restricted to before 10am and after 6pm, it can make it difficult to cover a lot of zones on the appointed day.

Yes here in Nevada. We are under heavy drought retractions. We even have a water nazi department that patrols neighborhoods for water waste. The watering restrictions are codified in the Nevada Revised Statutes.
If you are a board member, I would really come down on your landscapers to make sure there are no missing drip irrigation emitters. You the association would be on the hook not the landscapers.

Mark, I should expand a bit on my previous post.

I believe you live in a large community, 3000+ properties. The water agencies and large associations have found conventional watering day restrictions based on meter addresses or similar criteria do not always work for large associations. Ours has 9,000 plus members, several incorporated sub-associations, lakes, ponds, green areas, miles of street bordering landscaping, you name it.

You will find you are dealing with at least two association entities, perhaps more. My description below is how ours works in the city of McKinney, yours may follow a similar pattern:

1. Single family residences may water on the day of trash-pickup, and 3 days later. Watering restrictions begin first by eliminating the second watering day. I believe we eventually were on an every other week schedule. Drip systems are generally exempt. Our master and sub-associations have no input to these watering days, nor do they have the ability to enforce compliance as it is a city responsibility. City watering restrictions may eventually extend to washing vehicles, filling pools, and other non-essential uses of water. The HOAs were forced to modify compliance with certain landscaping requirements; the state mandated HOAs accept xeriscaping and other water saving/conservation measures.

2.The Association itself will have other watering day(s) for common areas specified by the city. In our case, the master association has tens to hundreds of meters, all have a common billing address and different service addresses. Provisions have been made to spread the watering days for associations to provide sufficient watering days and to avoid massive use of the water distribution systems on a single day.

3. Our sub-association has its own watering day separate from the master association as the sub-association is no different than the average HOA with only one or two hundred homes. We have irrigated common areas which are not the responsibility of the master association.

Our client HOAs and condominium communities, being smaller, follow whatever the city guidelines are for HOAs and condos, the single family residences are always responsible for following the city criteria such as trash day and trash day+3, defined city regions, or whatever.

Again, your landscape contractor for the association common areas and the city agency responsible for watering restrictions and compliance should be able to provide guidance.

Also, we are just moving into drought conditions. A week with one or two good storms can tilt the needle back into the green area on the drought meter. Make preparations and be ready to execute but do not include detailed articles in newsletters and such until you see where we are a month or two from now. If you do anything, start people thinking about how to reduce water consumption and save water. A simple example: we rinse the coffee carafe each morning when we are finished with coffee. Rather than pouring the rinse water down the drain, we water one or two of the potted plants in front or on the pool deck with it.

The last drought ended four or five years ago, we were in it for three or four years. It got pretty ugly toward the end. Looking around now, you can find little evidence of it.