Henderson might have to take over HOA’s park

By Jeremy Twitchell (contact)

Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 | midnight

Members of a homeowners association in Green Valley want to turn over their 2-acre community park to Henderson, and the city may have no choice but to accept.

Hillpointe Park, on Windmill Parkway near Arroyo Grande Boulevard, was built in 1990 and is owned by the Hillpointe Homeowners Association. But as the park has grown in popularity with residents of nearby neighborhoods who don't pay dues for its maintenance, Hillpointe residents say everyone would be better served if the city took over the park.

When presented with the plan Dec. 3, members of the Parks and Recreation Board balked, saying the maintenance would further stretch the department's limited resources. In addition, the park is too small for the city's standards, and its acceptance would set a risky precedent, they said.

The department estimates that maintenance for the park would cost the city about $4,000 per year.

"It's just a pretty little thing that a developer put in to sell more homes," board member Dundee Jones said. "It's not there to serve the people. We would just pick up more maintenance."

Park planner Patricia Ayala, however, told board members that the precedent has already been set. State law requires cities to accept any streetscape or park a community association wants to turn over, as long as the association brings it up to city standards first.

"We have these requests coming in all the time," she said. "We've just never had an HOA willing to bring it up to our standards."

Bringing Hillpointe Park up to the city's standards means new irrigation equipment and new playground equipment.

The upgrades will cost an estimated $500,000.

Hillpointe HOA President Eve Hedman said association members are willing to take out a loan to make the upgrades and get the park off the association's books, because increased use from neighboring communities has driven up maintenance costs.

"I can understand your feelings," Hedman told the board. "But we're looking at it from the point of view that this is one community supporting this park, but it's being used by many other Henderson residents and obviously they're enjoying it."

Though the city has a 5-acre minimum for parks, the city can make exceptions in cases where residents are underserved by city parks and there isn't enough developable land for a larger park, Ayala said.

"(The park) is right in the middle of some neighborhood areas, and it provides some good neighborhood elements that we don't have," she said. "We have a deficiency in this area, and it just seems like a good partnership for us to work with the association."

More importantly, Ayala said, accepting the park would give the city an easement in the Sandy Wash, which runs along the west side of the Hillpointe community, that would allow the city to build a trail with a trailhead in the park.

The Sandy Wash Trail, if built, would connect to the planned extension of the Pittman Wash Trail, she said.

Jeremy Twitchell can be reached at 990-8928 or jeremy.twitchell@hbcpub.com.