Welcome to the Cherry Creek Vista South HOA Website!


This is the Cherry Creek Vista South BLOG site (Cherry Creek Vista South Website is at http://ccvshoa.com)
provided by the Cherry Creek Vista South Homeowner's Association. This Blog site is set up to provide information to the neighborhood pertaining to community events, meetings and general information. Please feel free to contact us with your neighborhood events, announcements, links, etc. that you would like to have listed here or placed on the Calendar. We appreciate your support!

UPDATES: On the main page, you will find a list of updates to keep everyone informed about what is going on. The updates are tagged with labels so that you can sort them accordingly. Feel free to add comments to any update. You can also use the icons below an update to email a friend or feed your own pages. You can also subscribe to our updates to receive notifications when updates are added or modified.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Cherry Creek Vista South Home Owners,

In communications last year and our annual dues letter earlier this year, we discussed our plans for events such as the annual pancake breakfast and movie night as well as the revamping of our HOA by-laws and covenants.  Unfortunately, the HOA Board decided to cancel these events by One year due to unforeseen litigation costs.  We are very excited, however, to provide these activities and services to our community next year.  As always, please feel free to reach out to any of the HOA Board members Or come to our next board meeting (notice to be posted) if you are interested in further details. 

Please go to the website:  www.ccvshoa.com to view

  1. Current budget
  2. Minutes from meetings this year
  3. New Home Improvement Request form:  if you plan to make any changes to your home's exterior such as paint, roofing or any other architectural changes
Regards,
The Cherry Creek Vista South (CCVS) HOA Board

Saturday, April 19, 2014


CCVS Neighbors,

The very first CCVS Neighborhood Garage Sale is scheduled for Saturday, May 3rd (8:00 am -2:00 pm). 

What does this mean?

Cherry Creek Vista South Homeowner’s Association is sponsoring a neighborhood garage sale. 

What this means to you is that we will advertise for the entire neighborhood.  We will attract potential  buyers with the fact that it is a neighborhood sale with many families participating.   We will post on Craig’s list for the neighborhood as well.

You do not even have to put out signs!  We will do it for you.   Please email us at ccvistasouthhoa@gmail.com  and give us your address.  Please make sure to include if your street is an avenue, circle, street and so forth since so many names repeat.   We will mark the streets participating with an arrow (main and side streets) even if only one house on the street is interested in the sale. 

Guidelines

1.       We need to know where to place arrows to direct potential buyers, we your address if you are participating including if it is a street, avenue, circle or drive.   

2.      You are on your own for what you are selling, pricing and negotiating with buyers.  We provide nothing more than notices and marking streets for participation if we are notified. 

3.      We need to know that you want us to mark your street as participating NO LATER than Thursday May 1st. 

4.      This event is for Residents of Cherry Creek Vista South who have paid their 2014 dues.  If you have not paid and wish to participate, you can pay via PayPal on the website at www.ccvshoa.com or mail it to us at 8547 E Arapahoe Road, J503, Englewood, CO 80112 Prior to the event. 

Thank you everyone for your attention and best wishes for your own successful garage sale!

 

Cherry Creek Vista South Homeowner’s Association

CCVS HOA

Friday, March 28, 2014

Mill Levy Increase FQA

PROPOSED MILL LEVY INCREASE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 
Overview: Cherry Creek Vista Park and Recreation District was formed in 1998. The District
serves and is supported by approximately 2,400 homes. The District was created to furnish parks and recreation opportunities. Facilities, services and offerings include: a large pool facility with swim team and family membership for residents and neighbors; 5 parks that are home to 4 major playgrounds; 6 keyed tennis courts; 5 park pavilions for rental and everyday use; 4 fields and 1 baseball diamond for team practices and games; 3 concrete bridges included within many miles of improved concrete trails, suitable for pedestrians/runners, cyclists, child carriers, horses, and disabled use, some of which connect and fill a former gap in the Cherry Creek Trail system; 3 miles of brick security fencing surrounding the District; miles of treed, grass-covered, hedged and floral landscaping surrounding District Right-of-Ways as well as parks; and, snowplowing services for sidewalks, park parking lots and drives.

1. What is the District asking voters to approve?
 

The District is asking its voters to approve a mill levy increase of 1.8 mills that would generate to the
District additional property tax revenue of $114,286 per year.

2. Why is the District only now asking for an increase?
 
 
The operating and maintenance property tax mill levy for the District has remained at 2.473 mills since the District’s inception in 1981. Up until 2008, the District was able to rely upon new home development to provide additional revenues to pay for its operations. However, the District is now fully built out and costs continue to increase. The District has seen its costs for water, landscaping and park maintenance continue to escalate. A recent inspection revealed a list of maintenance items that cannot even be addressed for years to come, and that list is sure to grow over time. The District’s emergency fund is only at the bare minimum requirement of 3% for all operations and maintenance of parks and recreation, landscaping and greenbelts, trails, and pool services ($8,000); if a major item requires replacement or repair, the District would find itself unable to make such repair or would have to significantly reduce its park maintenance. A proper emergency fund is 50% of annual operating expenses, according to District best-practices and standards maintained by other park districts, which would be $100,000.

3. For what purposes will the money be used?


First and foremost, the District would gradually build up its emergency fund to recommended levels.
Second, it would begin to address its deferred maintenance projects. Lastly, it would leverage any
remaining funds to obtain Arapahoe County Open Space funds to upgrade its parks, trails and
playgrounds. Currently, the District is unable to pay for the required “match” of such funds and has seen entities such as Greenwood Village, Centennial and South Suburban Park and Recreation District awarded those monies consistently instead.

4. How much will the mill levy cost me?
 

That depends upon the value of your home. A typical $400,000 home could expect a property tax increase of less than $60 per year based upon the 1.8 mill levy increase being sought. However, the after tax cost of such increase could partially be offset by the fact that property taxes are usually fully deductible by taxpayers who itemize. You can check with your tax advisor for how this would apply to you.

5. How can I be sure the money won’t be wasted or used for such things as “overhead,”
administration and salaries?
 

First of all, the District has never had, does not currently, and does not ever foresee having ANY
employees. All of its services are contracted by way of competitive bid. The Board runs a frugal
operation and even conducts its meetings in donated space at the St. Peters Lutheran Church on Belleview Avenue (Come to our meetings to see for yourself !). All of the monies will be used in the manner described above, will remain in the District and benefit your facilities that you use and see on an everyday basis. Unlike most tax increases, ALL of the tax revenue being sought would be used right in your neighborhood and benefit you directly.

6. What steps has the District taken to reduce costs instead of asking for a mill levy increase?
 
As mentioned above, the District operates frugally. This includes competitively bidding of its contract services, such as landscaping, pool management, legal, financial and audit, on a periodic basis. It has had its landscape contractor implement maintenance and watering schedules to reduce its water usage and install water-saving devices to do the same. It has negotiated a lease with its pool concession to generate revenue to the District. The District also has taken steps to save money for you, the taxpayer, by refinancing outstanding debt, that has resulted in a debt service savings of $120 per year per household.

7. Why couldn’t the debt service savings returned to taxpayers cover the District’s operations
shortfall?
 
Because that is not allowed under state law. The law requires voters to approve tax expenditures for
certain specific reasons.

8. What would happen if voters fail to approve the mill levy increase?
 

The District would be unable to build a proper emergency fund. Any major failure of any facility, such as a pool boiler, playground, court, etc. could leave the District in the position of closing that facility or severely cutting back on the maintenance of another one. Parks, playgrounds and other facilities would be unable to be repaired and maintained and allowed to continue to deteriorate. In addition, the District would be unable to make any major upgrade of its parks, playgrounds, trails and other facilities.

9. Who supports this? Will I lose what we have if the increase fails?
 
Many private residents, homeowners' associations, community groups, local schools, within and surround the District, including: swim teams, youth sports programs etc. support the District's ability to provide ongoing maintenance of its parks and facilities for their use and enjoyment.
 
 


Monday, March 10, 2014

Dear Cherry Creek Vista South Residents,

This Thursday, March 13th, we will hold our next Homeowners Association meeting at 7 pm at Cottonwood Creek Elementary School. 

This meeting will focus on the research and discussions with regard to Covenants and specifically speak to proposed changes in the Articles, Bylaws and Protective Covenants for the neighborhood.  We will go over a proposed process and timeline in addition to suggested changes. 

While this all sounds overwhelming and a lot to digest, we will break it down and want to hear your ideas, thoughts and questions.  We understand how valuable time is, please consider coming and giving a little of your time to help us in this endeavor; for our neighborhood. 

Thank you and we hope to see you there,
Cherry Creek Vista South HOA Board


CCVSHOAupdateprocess_031014

Wednesday, January 8, 2014


Cherry Creek Vista South Neighbors,

Please note a CORRECTION in the Homeowners meeting:  While the meeting is next Thursday, that date is the 16th and not the 14th.  The usual time of 7:00 pm at Cottonwood Creek Elementary.

Sorry for the confusion,
CCVSHOA Board

Tuesday, January 7, 2014


Dear Cherry Creek Vista South Neighbor,

Happy New Year and welcome to 2014!  We will be holding our next HOA board meeting on Thursday, January 14th at 7:00 pm at Cottonwood Creek Elementary

Every January the current board holds elections for officers and members at large whose term has expired.  It is a great time to get involved with your neighborhood Homeowners Association as a member, meeting attendee for neighborhood information or just a part-time volunteer for events.   All neighbors are Welcome. 

During this board meeting we will be discussing the following items:

1.      Review and voting on minutes from previous meeting

2.      Analysis of current budget and finances

3.      Dialog with regard to Dues

4.      Discussion on events for 2014

5.      Conversation around potential changes for HOA bylaws from previous Covenant meetings in 2013 and type of neighborhood communication to distribute to said information and materials

6.      Open/new items for discussion

Please join us at this upcoming meeting if you would like to provide input or send us an e-mail at ccvistasouthhoa@gmail.com.

Regards

The CCVSHOA Board

Friday, November 8, 2013

Cottonwood Creek Elementary - Veteran’s Day Patriotic Program - Monday, November 11th 2:30 pm


Veteran’s Day, Monday, November 11th     
 
All Veterans and active military are invited to attend a Patriotic program performed by the Cottonwood Creek Choir. The afternoon performance is at 2:30 and the entire school will take part in recognizing our neighbors, family, and friends who are Veterans and active military. Please come join us as we celebrate those who serve our country. 

Friday, October 4, 2013

Cherry Creek Vista South HOA Meetings


Dear Fellow CCVS Homeowner,

As you may have read in a previous communication from the Cherry Creek Vista South (CCVS) HOA board, we are currently reviewing options for changes to the structure of our HOA to improve the way in which we support our neighborhood through community building activities and the way in which we manage our protective covenants.  At our board meeting earlier in September we had a handful of neighbors join us for a conversation on this topic.  What we heard from these neighbors was that we needed to (1) more clearly articulate the issues facing our HOA and proposals for changes to address these issues and (2) open this discussion to a broader set of neighbors for input.  This letter is a start to addressing the first request and we plan to organize a series of meetings to address the second request (more on the dates and times later in this letter).

To help you understand the impetus for the changes we are proposing, we think it is important to give a brief description of how our HOA works and some of the challenges it faces.

  • The regulatory environment in which we operate has changed – New HOA regulation put forth by the Colorado DORA (Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies) has presented Colorado HOA boards with new challenges regarding the administration of property and covenant management.   We are still reviewing the new regulations and how they affect us.
  • Our covenants are not consistent – The HOA represents seven distinct filings on record in the Arapahoe county land book.  While there are many similarities in the various covenants in place for these filings, they are not entirely consistent.  This lack of consistency makes managing these covenants very difficult.
  • Our HOA board is a volunteer group with no professional management support – Our board is made up of volunteers from our neighborhood representative.  As such, we lack consistency over time in the way our HOA affairs are managed as the board turns over.
  • We lack the tools to effectively communicate with the neighborhood – Consistent and effective communication from the HOA board to the neighborhood is difficult given the limited tools we have.  This leads to a perceived lack of transparency and limited engagement with the HOA.
                                                                                
To address the issues outlined above we are proposing the following broad changes to the way in which the HOA operates going forward:

  • Consolidate and create a consistent set of covenants across the seven filings to enable more efficient and effective management of covenants in our neighborhood
  • Engage a professional property management company on a permanent basis (one has been retained on a test basis this year) to drive consistent management of these covenants and to improve communications with the community
  • Increase HOA revenue to cover the cost of engaging the property management company while continuing community building activities

To further work through the details of these changes and to make sure we incorporate input from a broader representation of our neighbors, we will be holding three “discussion sessions” and invite any CCVS HOA dues paying members to join us at these sessions.  We will be holding these sessions on the next three Wednesday or Thursday evenings of October 9th, 17th and 23rd at the Starbucks on Arapahoe and Clinton (Northeast corner, in the Home Depot Parking lot) from 6:30 – 8:00 pm.  During these sessions members of the HOA board will be present to discuss further details solicit input for crafting the final solution we will take to the residents in our neighborhood for a formal vote.  Please join us for one of these sessions and help to spread the word so we can get as much input as possible.

Lastly, in preparation for these discussion sessions, we have posted on our website at www.CCVSHOA.com a copy of the existing covenants for the seven filings with a summary of the differences among those filings and a copy of the proposed new covenants.  Please review in advance of the discussion session you intend to attend.


Regards,

The CCVS HOA Board