There’s a reason for long-term planning –

….because not thinking about it usually leads to problems, or even a disaster.

Utility costs are going to continue to go up, so why not plan for converting the high cost items to energy and cost savings items.  Now is not a bad time as there are grants floating around to help.  One association in Illinois got a grant for over half the cost of installing new street lights that had their own power source.  In some cases it might save money to make the change even before your current systems are worn out.  Just replacing  things without checking to see if something better is now available, is wasting your residents’ money.

High rise condo’s that were built before interior sprinkler systems were required are going to find that their local or state governments are going to force them to install them.  Every time there is a major fire in a building without sprinklers, the issue is raised, and recently states have begun to actually enact legislation and, to make matters tougher, they haven’t been very generous with the time frame.  Associations are looking at huge dollars and very little time to collect it, so the special assessments are very large.  Planning for a project that would bring additional safety, and would not force the owners to come up with a lot of cash in a short period of time, is a good thing – what you were elected for.

Do you have an actual reserve plan in place, and more importantly, do you understand it?  The development, management and distribution of reserves is, in my opinion, one of the major criteria for being a successful board.  Short of an unexpected disaster, natural or otherwise, no association should ever face a special or additional assessment to repair or replace items they are responsible for.  A special assessment for roof replacement is a major failure by the prior boards.  A capital repair and replacement reserve study and plan is the essential long-term planning.

It’s past time to begin converting your landscaping to use less water and fertilizer.  If you haven’t, develop a long-term plan to replace shrubs, flowers and trees with ones that use less water and look seriously at the grass on your lawn(s).  Do you really need that much green.  Set a goal to cut your common area water consumption in half. The cost of water is going to continue going up and up.  During the last couple of years, a number of areas have had severe droughts and associations that hadn’t converted their landscaping just watched it die.

Establishing committees to look into long-term projects is a great way to introduce people as to how their association works, without burying them right off the bat.  Why not take a look at some of the things that you think will need to be done down the road and get some people looking into them.