Thursday, January 13, 2022 at 7 pm via Zoom

Attendees: Kelly, Cyndi, Kayleen, Kristina, Sandy, Karen

Community updates

Board Responsibilities – assigning tasks for 2022

1. Snow Removal (Mike Peyton) – Kelly
2. Landscaping (Chris Hughes) – Sandy
3. Garbage Pickup (Theresa Cunningham) – Kayleen
4. Concrete (Juan) – Cyndi
5. Dominion (watchlights) -Cyndi
6. Legal (Chesapeake) – Kristina
7. Parking – Kristina
8. Tree Committee Liaison – contact with the tree committee (reports on tree trimming/removal updates) – Cyndi
   1. Tree committee members – Mike Pendleton, Jeffrey Cai, Kerry Wingell
9. Community outreach –
   1. E-news – Kristina
   2. Facebook updates – Kristina
   3. Website maintenance – Kayleen
   4. Sign – Kristina
10. Erosion – Kristina
11. Parking Lot – Kristina
12. Design updates – Sandy

Annual Meeting Review

1. The community overwhelmingly voted for an increase in dues of $25/quarter or $100/year.  Most homeowners also wanted to keep homeowner lawn care as is currently provided by our landscaping company.  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Myaun5dGGZbjxgrcF0b1YZJPswWA7GylCiXSfaMcVo4/edit#responses

2. Reviewed new siding colors with the community.  Since then, the board approved a new form that homeowners can submit when applying for a siding color change.  Wheelwright Cluster House Color Change DRB.pdf

The link has also been added to the Design Updates tab on the website

3. Doors/Decks/AC unit DRB’s There is no set time frame yet, but  doors and Ac units have priority. Decks will be worked after. 
4. Deck enclosures, exterior light fixtures, house numbers Sandy will get with Meghan and Erin to talk about these and what they think Reston will approve and determine if our plan needs to be adjusted and discussed with residents. 
5. Parking lot – next step is to get a quote from Resurface, Inc.
   • Also need to decide if we want to go the route of muddling through this on our own or hiring an outside company to contract with us to manage the process (i.e. Pavement Design, LLC)
   • Talked with Burt Hall. Seems like this company will be a good idea in helping us determine our needs. They charge $3k to do an assessment to see what your parking lot needs. They will also get quotes and give a 10-15 year plan.
   • It could be beneficial to have someone who has experience in parking lots instead of the board trying to run it when we don’t have the expertise. We want to make sure that we are getting our money’s worth and get quality work and that we have a subject matter expert
   • Could be a money saver in the long run if it ensures the work is done properly.
   • Doing the reserve study first may be beneficial in getting the estimate of aging and life of parking lot
6. Reserve study
   • How many companies have we received quotes from? 3
   • Do the services offered differ between companies? Haven’t done a comprehensive comparison but at a glance they all seem pretty much the same. Price wise they are in the 2k range, 3k range, 4k range
   • We should go with least expensive not only because of price but because it is the one Chesapeake (our cluster lawyers) recommended to us
   • Kelly to put together what service they provide in their study and reach out and ask about what is included with parking lots. Determine If it is a major part of study and if we can expect them to lay out a budget for us and do an assessment.
7.  Items that were discussed and also referred to in survey
   • Trim options – namely white because of cost and ease of use
     1. People aren’t interested at this point
   • Hiring architect for garbage enclosures
     1. Majority say yes, Sandy will reach out
   • Parking permits
     1. Not enough of a push to go the parking permit direction. However, parking will be on top in the next newsletter. We will give people a date to have cars registered with the cluster within the next 4 months.
   • Speed bumps
     1. Kayleen will look into removable speed bump options
   • Results of survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/191EX925Z4OyECiZLfiuvgWgZLd2GzePJrCxm8oLd7yQ/edit#responses

RA Meet and Greet

Monday 1/10 at 6:30 pm – Sandy attended meeting that touched largely on Electric car charging stations.

A copy of the presentation can be found here.

The whole meeting was on electric car charging. Falcon Group came out and they are private contractors that act similar to parking lot advisors. They  help clusters navigate the evaluation of installing electric car chargers. There is a new VA law that allows a resident to put in a car charging unit and governing bodies can’t prohibit you from doing that. However, Reston has put into regulation what they consider appropriate charging stations. If a cluster doesn’t have set charging station standards then whoever is the first to put in a unit usually sets the standard. Even if we aren’t prepared to finance charging stations as a cluster, we should look into the available options and create cluster standards on what they need to look like. 

Reston has prohibited people from stretching cords across sidewalks and installing level 3 charging stations. They must have wheel bumper stops and balusters to protect the unit. There are also specific heights and other parameters. We can add additional requirements to the units that can be used. 

There needs to be guidelines for if someone wants to install something in their reserved space and possibly require them to carry insurance on it. If you are an independent homeowner putting a station in your spot, all the cost comes from you including egress issues for if a spot isn’t directly in front of the house. 

If we decide to tackle this as a cluster and what we need in the future, they recommend we put in place all of the conduits and infrastructure that needs to run underground when paving. Much of the expense in installing charging units comes from digging up roads and sidewalks and then repaving. Running inexpensive conduits for future electrical needs may save us money in the long run. Parking lots last 20-30 years and the reliance on electric vehicles may change drastically by then.  We may need to talk to an independent group who works with communities about how to navigate electrical charging and where the power supplies will come from. 

Falcon Group said their average budgeting cost for a feasibility study is $5k. There are some tax credits available and a $30k government tax credit that we could apply for. Dominion also offers some savings. Falcon Group estimates about $11k for getting the site ready and $4k for equipment. Some money has been put into the infrastructure bills coming down the pipeline which could help. There may also be solar options to address car charging and utilizing solar power for this. They said there are some commercial structures but not usually available for residential use.

There are lots of power and electrical line upgrades that will have to be considered and planned for; this will affect all levels of electrical infrastructure – individual, cluster wide, and on up. Existing power lines that are run throughout our community are not necessarily sized to handle all 65 homes in our cluster each having their own power charging station. This could also look cluttered and be more infrastructure and individual homeowner expense than we actually need as a cluster.

If we decide to pursue adding community chargers, we should go with one company for all charging devices. Having one company allows you to have a more integrated system. This can also lessen the overall power demand on electrical lines. We need to look at the rules we would set for communal car charging and guidelines about how long you can leave your car there. Also, how to get in contact with someone who has left their car there too long. Reston has said they are working on putting together a guidance packet for clusters. Included in this packet will be polling questions to ask residents about car charging; which should help get the conversation about electric car charging started.

The Supervisor for Fairfax County is looking into options for creating money for electric charging in Fairfax County.. 

Upcoming tree work

Work for Monday is the last of upcoming tree work. We will put out extra communication to get the word out to make sure cars are moved (update: this was rescheduled for Friday January 28th due to inclement weather)

Getting the neighborhood into parking compliance

Dominion – watchlights

Light by 2233 still going on and off

Have not heard back from Erin yet regarding Dominion’s watchlight new design without the glass panes – will check back in with her

Snow plowing

Were we going to inquire about common area sidewalk treating and shoveling for 2022? We did and are not able to contract to have the common sidewalks shoveled with our current contractor.

Financials