Strawberry 1 at HeatherRidge WINS HOA of the Year!

STRAWBERRY 1 AT HEATHERRIDGE AND CAP MANAGEMENT WIN HOA OF THE YEAR

Strawberry HOA Replaced Toilets, Installed Xeric Landscaping and Built Community Garden To Win

The Strawberry I at Heatherridge Association, after collaborating with the City of Aurora Water Conservation Division and its homeowners association (HOA) management company CAP Management to reduce significantly its water consumption, has been declared the Colorado HOA of the Year by the Community Associations Institute – Rocky Mountain Chapter (CAI-RMC).

After realizing that there was costly leaking on the property and identifying indoor fixtures as a major contributor to said waste, the HOA decided to remove the obsolete toilets across its 328-unit community and replace them with models that use 40% of the former water consumption.

Another water saving measure was the installation of xeric landscaping. This process of removing turf grass and replacing it with plants that thrive in the High Plains climate of which Aurora is a part led to further savings in water and associated costs.

The construction of a community garden on the property was perhaps the leading factor in the Association’s win.  In addition to emphasizing the push for environmental sustainability at Strawberry, the garden worked to bring together a community that was experiencing a level of internal hardship.  The community togetherness created by the garden will surely exist for a considerable period of time if not in total perpetuity.  For this reason and the impact of the meaningful water conservation projects seen this summer, the Strawberry 1 at Heatherridge is the 2013 HOA of the Year.