For the last four years Heads Up Landscape Contractors has been installing common area landscape and irrigation in this large homeowner's association in Santa Fe just off Highway 14 and Cerillos Road near Highway 599.
Following the landscape and irrigation installation, the company began providing grounds maintenance for the community. The project is multi-phased, meaning that as one phase is completed the developer contracts with Heads Up to begin providing maintenance on that area. After a year and a transition plan, the developer turns the property over to the homewners association for continued maintenance. Heads Up is currently providing maintenance for three phases of development at this site.
The streetscapes cover approximately 18 miles, counting both sides of the street, with shrubs, trees, and native Blue Grama grass in all areas. There are six parks covering about 10 acres. Seven of those acres are planted in fescue grass and the other three are xeriscaped. This is a diverse landscape for maintenance due to the varied water needs, mowing requirements, plant identification knowledge,, and the different pruning practices needed for wide assortment of plants and grasses.
The property contains 10 irrigation controllers,seven of which are tied into the development’s effluent water system for irrigation. The effluent watering system requires special knowledge in order to coordinate watering times with construction use of the same water-- while assuring that the plant material is properly watered without using all the water from the holding pond.
Over the last few years Heads Up has completely mapped the irrigation system and is now working with the Associations' Landscape Committee to develop water budgets for each controller. These budgets assure that Heads Up is always watering plants according to their needs while never over or under watering. The Landscape Committee is developing neighborhood watch groups on each street to assist in identifying any irrigation or plant material issues that should be addressed by the maintenance crews. This partnership is extremely important on such a large property. Heads Up welcomes this assistance as the company works together with the owners to continue to manage and improve their landscape.
This project has required a unique coordination between the design team at Heads Up, the developer, the construction division, the irrigation technicians, herbicide spray technicians, maintenance crews, property management and owners as they all work together on this premier property in Santa Fe.
Heads Up has worked diligently to strike a balance between homeowners and the developer as they work together to transition this community from developer responsibility to homeowner responsibility. To help accomplish this, Heads Up has conducted training sessions for homeowners, provided articles for the bi-monthly newsletter, and sponsored routine property walks and driving trips with both the property manager and the members of the Landscape Committee. These sessions have helped promote understanding of the issues each member of the group faces as Heads Up works to provide one of the most expensive services this HOA has in its budget.
The challenges are immense and the reward is significant as Heads Up trains its crews to recognize plant problems, irrigation issues that need to be addressed, to keep tumbleweeds under control in the native seeded and non-irrigated areas, and to balance the water use from the effluent pond.
At Rancho Viejo, Heads Up believes it has found a workable combination of homeowner input, property management communication and direction, and solid supervision in its maintenance operation.
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