NEIGHBORHOOD STATUS UPDATE 12/13/16
Hello All, I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful and happy holiday season.
We have some further updates regarding changes within our neighborhood that I thought I would pass along.
1. Intersection Signage along Windhaven and Winehart-
As many of you have noticed, intersection signage has been added on the approaches on Windhaven to the intersection at Winehart street. Although we are appreciative to the water district for erecting this signage, we do not feel that it is adequate in its own right to alleviate the danger at this intersection. More explicit signage, a better marked entrance and the addition of a street light at this intersection in the median of Windhaven is truly needed. The CHNE committee will request these items at the next water district meeting scheduled in January 2017.
2. Speed control and STOP signs within the neighborhood-
As you may have noticed, we have some additional STOP signs at high speed and traffic intersections along Highwood and Winehart streets. Again we are appreciative to the water district for recognizing this need and installing these signs. However, the committee has a map proposal that includes the addition of several more STOP signs, "Children at Play" signs and "No Outlet" signs throughout the neighborhood to help make our neighborhood safer. Again, we will make this proposal at the January water board meeting.
3. Additional Street Lighting-
It is generally agreed upon that the neighborhood needs much more lighting at night. However, the generally agreed upon needs far outweigh what the water district would be able to do year 1 and thus we were tasked with identifying the few key areas that we felt were in the most need. These areas are as follows: (1) Along Warwick Blvd between Vera and Del Molin streets (2) along the northeast corner of Wiltshire Blvd. (3) as previously mentioned above, in the median of Windhaven at the intersection of Winehart street.
Additionally, the water district states they will be adding a light at the park and replacing the damaged light at Highwood and Engleswood Trail. The committee will also bring the above requests to the water district at the January meeting. The lights are very costly so there is no guarantee that we will get any of the additionally requested lights at this time but we will certainly put our best presentation forward.
4. Addition of Swings and Park benches at the park-
The Castle Hills HOA has stated that they have added a new park bench in the budget for 2017 and it should be added some time next Spring. However, they have categorically stated that they will not be adding a swing set or any other type of playground improvement to our park area regardless of what the other communities may have. Additional park benches throughout the community would once again fall under the jurisdiction of the water district and we will approach them with this request in January.
5. Holiday Lighting at the Community entrances-
We have had several complaints about the lack of or embarrassing poor quality of the holiday lighting at our community entrances and I could not agree more.
Unfortunately, the Castle Hills HOA has no plans to improve upon our pitiful little wreaths at the entrances despite the fact that the other Castle Hills communities have more improved and lighted displays. They assured this committee that all communities would have the same quality of holiday lighting. That is absolutely false.
It is with reluctance and disappointment that I post the following commentary regarding items 4 and 5 above and the Castle Hills HOA but after attempting to work with them on several occasions, I am forced to conclude that our community is an afterthought in the eyes of the Castle hills HOA and they are more interested in collecting expensive HOA dues and improving the other Castle Hills communities than actually providing quality amenities and services in Castle Hills Northeast. In short, we are paying for the upkeep of other communities and are being severely shortchanged by this HOA.
The only way to change this culture is to voice our displeasure directly to the Castle Hills HOA regarding the items above and lack of representation in our community.
This can be done by contacting Retta Rosi at the Castle Hills HOA at 972-410-6614 or email her at retta.rosi@brightrealtyco.com
6. LISD and new school construction-
The LISD is in the planning stages of putting together a bond proposal for the purpose of improving existing and adding new campuses to the school system in 2017. LISD does own land along Josey lane just south of Windhaven and plans to construct an elementary and middle school campus there someday based on need and growth patterns. None of this is definitive yet although there is discussion about proposing construction of at least the elementary school with bond funds should they be granted in the next few years. There are no current plans to propose bond funding for a middle school campus at this time so that project would likely be at least 10 years out.
I hope you all have a great holiday season and we will provide additional updates as we receive them.
Comments
All - Hoping that everybody has received the HOA statements early this month and there is an increase in the HOA fee but very far from the facilities.
I have also received a note from our resident this morning about the lighting compared to Castlehills West.
1F and 1G districts are considered as retail spaces but rest are residential. The reason behind that is 1F includes the area above the Del Molin until 121 (including all the retail shops). 1G includes the area below the Del Molin until Windhaven PLUS Future commercial and Crown Centre (Office Park) between 121 and 121 Business. I will try get the map for 1F and 1G during my next visit.
If anyone wishing to join the District Board meetings as well, to represent our voice, I can pass you on the message as and when I receive from Water District. Unfortunately, 1F/1G Board meetings occur in a LaQuinta hotel and at 11:30 and 12:30 on days planned. Whereas the well established 1B meetings happen in Water District office (Village shops).
About the school district LISD owns 110 acres (92.7 + 17.5) along side of Josey, attaching the LISD property map for your reference. This is the very large land they have in one place. As this is a big area map, you can zoom in to our area to know about this.
Hoping to have more voice at HOA/Water District to help our community.
So far, many residents put lighting in the community, which is making the community bright. :)
HAPPY HOLIDAYS..!!
To make this task easier, the LISD has assigned priority levels to each project on a scale of 1 to 3. Priority 1 projects are those identified as being of the most importance or highest critical need. However, even if the list was scaled back to just Priority 1 projects, the needs are so vast that not all of them could be done. Thus there will still need to be some compromise and decision making within all of these projects to decide which ones will be proposed to be funded in the bond election.
To handle this task, the LISD has appointed a citizens review committee made up of about 90 LISD residents from all areas within the district to assess all the needs and decide which ones will be put forth to the school board for consideration into the bond election. The final list will likely be a mixture of recommended improvements and campus additions as seen as most important by the committee. I am a member of this committee.
It is important to note two things. First, a new elementary school campus on Josey Lane is being proposed as a priority 1 project for this bond election. However, the citizens committee would have to recommend this priority 1 project as one of those to put forward for the bond election. So, this is not a done deal yet. Also, even if the new campus does get recommended, the citizens would still have to vote to approve the cost of construction in the bond election. This is not an automatic either as we have seen in Frisco recently where the citizens rejected the construction of new school campuses within the Frisco ISD. Lastly, if the school construction is approved, the estimated time of completion is three to four years so it will take some time before we have a functioning school in this area.
The second thing to note is that the LISD did not put forth a proposal to construct a new middle school on this campus. The administrators stated that there simply is not enough population yet in the area to support the construction of a middle school campus at this time. That means that based on the typical timing of bond proposals within the district we are likely looking at a minimum of ten years before middle school construction would be funded and completed on this same site. There was no consideration at all for a high school campus at this time. it appears that the LISD plans to funnel all students in our area to The Colony High School as part of future plans.
Hope this helps put things in perspective.
Speeding on Windhaven is still a big problem even though Police has started watching occasionally. Traffic on Windhaven will be hectic as more apartments are under construction near the Plano Parkway and more establishments including Aldi are on the way. The current sign board near the blind curve is not enough to reduce the speed on Windhaven.
I also have the same feeling that the HOA fee is high and after all they are collecting additional fee for the usage of the pool. They haven't even done a holiday decoration in the community like other places. I remember that the HOA lady was informed me and Scott in our last meeting that they will decorate both entrances with lights. But they did nothing other than the 2 dollar wreaths. We have to inform them our disappointment in this matter.
Also let us plan for us first quarterly meeting for 2017. We have to fix a date tentatively . Do we have the time to arrange a New Year Party? Let us think about it.
Iam very happy to see that more people are participating in the conversation. This will help us to deal with the issues we are facing as a community.
Thank you and Wishing you all Happy Holidays
Jijo Valiyaparambil
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