Savanna Ranch Pool Petition
Brandon Lakey 0

Savanna Ranch Pool Petition

107 people have signed this petition. Add your name now!
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107 people have signed. Add your voice!
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Hello Fellow Savanna Ranch Residents!

This is the official petition for a neighborhood Pool/Splash Pad to be built in Savanna Ranch!

If you are interested in a Community pool for our Beautiful Neighborhood please read and consider signing our petition!

Below you will find details to get "caught up" on the current situation regard the Savanna Ranch Pool Discussion! Updates will be posted to here and to the Savanna Ranch Community Facebook Page about this issue.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/savannaranchleander/

As many of you know, most all of the new neighborhoods around Savanna Ranch have community pools included. This is quickly becoming the "norm" in the booming North Austin (CP/Leander) area especially in neighborhoods with homes at our Price Points!

Where did this Pool/Splash Pad idea come from?
Great Question!
Back when my Wife and I were looking around at neighborhoods, comparing amenities and home builders plans we spoke with Courtney of Ryland Homes! She was very enthusiastic about how great Savanna Ranch was going to be and when I asked about a community pool we were told that it was in the plans and would probably come in the last phase of the neighborhood! Great! Awesome News we thought. Fast forward a month after closing I called up the HOA lady that is in charge of our neighborhood and asked "So, when is the pool going to be built? Will it be in that large open space that is marked "Park"? I was met with a fast and angry "No! There is No Pool and No Splash pad!... I was informed that she had instructed the various home builder sales people to Stop telling people there was going to be a pool/splash pad and to stop using that as apart of their sales pitch for Savanna Ranch but apparently they had not stopped. As My Wife and I met many people in the neighborhood with Ryland AND Gehan homes it became apparent that most all of us had been told some variation of the story that there would be a splash pad or pool! Many people are upset since this information influenced their buying decision into Savanna Ranch, myself included. We want our pool!

After Talking to the HOA rep for a while I asked if there was any way that we could spin this to a positive? Was it possible (If the community wanted it) for there to be a community pool WITH the foreknowledge that it would increase the HOA Dues slightly? She pledged to ask this question to the developer and get back with me, which she did. Good News!!! The developer said they would be open to a pool of the community wanted it! Thus the reason this petition is born!

Worried about a huge HOA Increase?
You shouldn't be! Savanna Ranch will have 400 houses total when complete! According to the Wall Street Journal's study on large pool ownership costs, "Total ownership costs including chemicals, electricity and insurance range from $3,000 to $5,000 a year". Per the math ($5,000 / 400 = $12.50) per home to maintain a large pool. Since I'm no expert in neighborhood pool maintenance costs, let's double that number just to make sure we have all our bases covered. ($10,000 a year / 400 Homes = $25) So for a possible $25 a year increase in HOA dues Savanna Ranch residents could support a pool! Let's say this math is still very low. With a $100 a year increase this would put forward $40,000 a year towards pool maintenance. With $200 a year increase this would put $80,000 a year towards pool maintenance. (I included these numbers to illustrate how much money a small increase in our HOA would push towards a pool) The variable that I (admittedly) left out is construction costs of the pool which I think most would agree could absorbed by the 3 builders / developers and some of the 1st year of HOA Dues. This would be for a non-staffed pool which is what most community pools are.



Where would they put it? Have you seen the size of the Community Park? What about all that space behind the play area? Looks perfect for a small community pool to me!

But I wouldn't use the community pool so I don't want to pay for it... Consider this... "Property Values" When you go to sell you home you'll want to ask top dollar and you should! The homes in Savanna Ranch are beautiful and they should appreciate in value! You should be able to compete with other beautiful home in adjacent neighborhoods! A community pool will only help increase the appeal of Savanna Ranch to potential buyers as the largest group of people moving into the Austin area right now are young families with kids! You'll reap the benefits of a more attractive community even though you never took advantage of the pool!

Community pools offer so many awesome things to young families and as I have spoken to so many people in the Neighborhood, most everyone agrees it would provide the kids of Savanna Ranch an awesome place to cool off during the summer!

***UPDATE***

Good News! I've had some concern about how much it "really" costs to maintain a pool so I spoke with Dewaine. His company builds and maintains pools so he is an expert authority on real pool costs. What I learned is that to maintain a junior Olympic size pool and a small kiddie pool cost $22 a month. Yep $22 a month. So add in the Misc cost of landscaping, etc and it is perfectly reasonable for our HOA to go up $25 to $100 but it shouldn't be more than that to MAINTAIN the pool. If they are passing the cost of building the pool on to the residents then it could be a more than $25 a month. That's something we'd have to consider at a later point when we have that information. This petition is for the developers to build a pool and the community to maintain it. Many HOA's pack large landscaping contracts, community centers, etc into their dues so if you were paying hundreds for your last HOA, according to the pool expert, it wasn't for the "Pool" and your HOA may have been the most profitable business in your neighborhood. Just wanted to get the info from an expert out there.

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