May 2015 HRB Meeting Minutes
The May meeting was held on May 5, at 4pm in the ICHA boardroom. Steve, Barb, Sandrine, Jan, Brad, Katie, Hobart, Andrew, and Ron were present.
Upcoming Events
Hobart has organized the UHills Baseball Outing for 5/10, this coming weekend. Participants will meet at the Community Center beforehand for food and fun, then take a shuttle to and from the UCI baseball field. UHills kids will be allowed on the field for the player introductions before the game. HRB pulled names of those who RSVP'd out of a box. Hobart will contact them for confirmation until all available tickets & shuttle seats are distributed.
Recycling day will be 5/30 at the community center. E-waste recycling, large item disposal, shredding, Salvation Army, and an IRWD representative (with water-saving tips & info) will be present.
We have typically held a yard sale around this time of year as well, but this year it will be scheduled for mid-September, to coincide with the arrival of grad students and new faculty.
Catherine Liu's documentary series is ongoing — film #2 was shown on 5/3. Upcoming dates are 5/16 and 6/13. The list of films:
April 4: Ivory Tower (2014) (Andrew Rossi);
May 3: 50,000 Balls (2008) (Tom Purva);
May 16 (7 pm): 56up (2012) (Michael Apted);
June 13 (7 pm): Watermark (2013) (Jennifer Baichwal, Nick de Pencier and Edward Burtynysky)
HRB is hoping someone will take the lead in continuing the film series after Catherine's sabbatical is over, perhaps with short series in various genres. These events seem to work well in the Community Center media room.
Campus Recreation is holding Summer swim lessons at the Urey pool, for UHills residents. See http://www.campusrec.uci.edu/youth/summer-swim-uni.asp for information.
HRB brainstormed movie ideas for the summer Movies in the Park series. We will rank our suggestions to determine the winners. We also plan to show a scary/fun film on October 30 (Friday night preceding Halloween).
A resident suggested holding a "Coffee With a Cop" event. We think it is a great idea to invite local PD personnel to our next coffee-on-us event. It may also be possible to arrange presentations on topics like disaster preparedness.
Field Reservation Request
A soccer group requested an exception to our recently updated policy of not allowing standing reservations of the soccer field on Sunday afternoons. The request was denied, because the policy was intended to prevent monopolizing the field by any one group during a period when the park is extremely busy. HRB is continuing to monitor usage patterns under the new policy, and may revise the policy after a trial period, but feels it is too early to start granting exceptions.
Water Conservation Initiative
Steve prepared a draft Water Conservation Initiative as the starting point for a joint ICHA/HRB plan to reduce fresh water use in University Hills. ICHA is taking some steps proactively, such as converting the last few common area landscaping zones that use fresh water to use reclaimed water instead, and planting drought-tolerant plants in the front yards of new homes. HRB supports the following efforts to promote water savings by residents: (1) improving communication of water usage to residents, (2) improved communication regarding incentive programs, (3) negotiating group discounts on water-saving devices from selected vendors, and (4) targeting residential landscape irrigation, since it accounts for around 60% of our fresh water use. HRB members discussed various strategies for water conservation.
Details of the smart irrigation controller offer from Blossom (myblossom.com) are nearly worked out. Blossom is setting up the sign-up forms on its website, and when it is ready we will announce the program to the community. UHills residents will be able to purchase the controller for 50% off the $200 retail price. The Blossom controller accesses web servers to obtain weather forecasts and adjust watering (for example, if rain is expected in the next few days, the controller will water less, but if the rain does not materialize, the controller will then make up the difference).
Parks & Fields
HRB is planning to conduct a survey to collect community input on our parks and playgrounds. We hope to collect opinions about which features are most and least popular, and which programs & activities are the most and least valued.
New Home Drawing
ICHA held the New Home Drawing for Phase 10-2 earlier today (5/5). The number of applicants on the list was double the number of available homes. Those who are unable to be accommodated will remain on the priority list for resale homes.
Miscellaneous
The umbrellas are finally installed at Coltrane Corner!
The new signs for the tennis courts are still in process.
It appears that existing penalties for parties staying past 10pm at Community Center are not sufficient. Several recent parties have failed to close up by the required time, subjecting neighbors to late night noise and requiring staff to stay later than scheduled to close up. HRB concurred with ICHA that steeper penalties may be needed.