Having Trouble with Your Low-Maintenance Zone? Try This! [408]

When erosion and inconsistency in low-maintenance zones arose, Rivendell took action to straighten things out for the better.
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The experience here in Rivendell with low-maintenance maintenance zones is that initially we asked people to do this voluntarily and that was actually fairly successful. But the problem with it was that wasn't completely successful. There were many people who chose not to implement a low-maintenance zone and the way they maintained it, its size, its appearance was highly variable. So the idea of making this a mandatory standard in the community arose since the shoreline actually is property of the community and the community has responsibility for maintaining the pond and the shoreline so that the stormwater management system is functional. So basically because of erosion problems, the shoreline was changing and the functionality of the ponds was changing. So the case could be made by the ponds and preserves committee to the board that some action should be taken now to avoid future, very costly problems with remediating erosion-induced changes to the pond. This turned out to be the key to getting not only the board on board, so to speak, but also the community. So that when we went to a mandatory avoidance of mowing to the edge here, that implementation was successful in about 98, 99% of the property around the ponds. And having the maintenance company here perform the trimming of those zones I think has really led to wide acceptance in the successful implementation of the program.