Holiday Cookie Exchange
Come to the clubhouse on December 14th, at 1pm for a holiday cookie exchange! Residents can share cookies (or any other homemade dessert) with others. Feel free to bring your recipe too so others can try it out!
Association Payments
In 2023, the Board contracted with Mason & Mason Capital Reserve Analysts to conduct a study to assess the community’s financial situation, outline upcoming maintenance needs, and recommend monthly resident charges for the coming decade. The study recommended that assessments be increased by 5% for Fiscal Year 2025.
In putting together its recommendation, the analysts pointed to a handful of expensive maintenance and improvement projects that need to be undertaken in the near future. This includes a balcony restoration project, set to be launched within the next couple of years, which the study estimates will cost around $700,000. In 2031, the study pointed to the need to repair and replace vinyl siding around the community, a project which is expected to cost over $1 million.
While these numbers sound large, sound financial management in previous years means the community’s finances are quite healthy. Because of this, the board has decided that it’s only necessary to raise fees 2%, rather than the suggested 5%.
The 2% fee increase will go into effect January 1st.
EV charging
A quote has been signed and a contractor is working towards getting these installed in spaces #201-204. As of this writing no date has been firmed up yet, but if you regularly park here be on the lookout for a notice in the coming weeks with information about what days these spots will be closed for construction.
Some basic rules for parking in these spots once the chargers are ready to go:
- Your vehicle must be able to use the charger to park here.
- Extra fees can be incurred if you idle in the spots but are not charging. These fees won’t be applied to overnight parkers.
- The spots are for residents and their guests only. We encourage all residents to call the towing company if they spot cars parked in the EV charging spots that do not have either the resident sticker or the visitor parking hang tag.
The chargers will provide electricity below market rate, but still at a rate high enough so the community makes a small amount of money which we can put towards building more chargers in the years to come.
Visitor Parking Policy Update
In the last letter, we asked residents to stop using the visitor parking spots as a place to permanently park a 3rd or 4th vehicle on the premises.
It seems like most residents were respectful and moved their cars. Unfortunately, some residents have not moved or even have just swapped the cars they had parked in the spots. Because of this, the townhomes continue to make a number of complaints to us.
In an attempt to find a fair solution to the problem, the board went back and looked at the original, decades old, shared use agreement meant to decide how to manage the visitor parking spots. The agreement clearly defines the visitor spots as “temporary” parking spots.
Therefore we feel it’s only fair to our neighbors that we institute a strict time limit to ensure our residents no longer use these spots as permanent parking spots.
To this end, the following policy will go into effect January 1st:
- Vehicles must display the “visitor parking” hangtag at all times.
- No vehicle shall be parked in Shared Visitor parking for more than 5 days, and may only park in Shared Visitor parking a total of 7 days a month. Vehicles parked more than 5 days in a row or more than 7 days a month will be subject to towing.
- Shared visitor parking is for visitors only. Residents are not allowed to park here in any vehicle.
Cars in violation are subject to towing.
The policy is available online here.
Reminder, this policy is only applicable to the “shared” visitor spots. Residents can still park permanently in the visitor spots located outside of the community.
Thank you all for your understanding, and if you are still using the shared visitor spots as permanent parking spots, please move your car so you don’t get towed!
Clubhouse
The UOA proposed plans to the HOA to renovate the spa room and to eliminate rental fees for residents wanting to use the meeting room. The UOA in an attempt to move both proposals forward offered to fund these changes solely. Both proposals were rejected by the HOA at this time as they are not interested in moving forward with either. The UOA plans to continue to work on reimagining these shared spaces.
Recycling
Please follow Fairfax County’s guidelines for recycling and remember a few important things:
- Never place plastic bags in the community recycling. Putting your recycling in a plastic bag means that nothing in there is getting recycled. Sorters at recycling facilities are on the lookout for bags and throw them along with their contents, and often even the entire bin they belong to, in the trash. Plastic bags get stuck in recycling machinery causing the machines to stop until the bags can be removed. Do not place any plastic bags in the recycling bins.
- Do not place food soiled recyclables in the recycling bins. This contaminates the stream which means that the companies who process the material are not interested in purchasing it from whoever sorts it. When in doubt, throw it out.
- Do not place glass in the recycling.
For more information and guidelines, please check the county website.