Repairs & Maintenance “Cheat Sheet”

Ever want to know who’s responsible for patio fence repairs or garage door replacement?

Since 2017 the Board has maintained a “cheat sheet” for repair and maintenance responsibilities throughout the community, based on the Camino del Prado CC&Rs and legal advice. Check it out on the Repairs & Maintenance page.

And please remember:

  • Repairs and maintenance must be pre-approved by the Board case-by-case to have their costs covered by the HOA.
  • Each homeowner is responsible for any repair, replacement, or maintenance resulting from modifications not included in the original unit.

Painting project complete!

I’m pleased to share that our painting project has finally completed. Throughout the project I’ve been really happy with how well the community has engaged with the process, from everyone who trimmed back their trees and bushes, to the 33 homeowners participating in our color vote, to the 67 members who pre-selected their door color, and to the 16 people who reported painting issues that needed correction. It’s always my goal as a board member to solicit and share information with the community as much as I can, and I’m so proud of what we accomplished together. 

And here’s some of the best news – and news we so rarely get to share – the painting project has come in significantly under budget! The painting project consisted of 3 major components, each of which was estimated by an independent third party as a part of our reserve study: wood trim repair, wood trim painting, and stucco painting, for a total of $517,325 estimated. Our actual cost was only $290,540, or 44% under budget! (To be completely transparent, this isn’t some master stroke by board – the third party projection was simply overly pessimistic.)

I’m sure you’re wondering – what does this mean for the dues? It’s hard to say exactly, though we can certainly say that dues will be better than if we hadn’t been able to come in so well under budget. With the management and vendor changes that have happened this year there are several factors we need to assess the impact of. We’ve also just commissioned an entirely new reserve study, with the aim of producing a more accurate estimate of upcoming large expenses. Rest assured we’ll be evaluating these very carefully going into our 2025-2026 budgeting session, and all homeowners will have access to all the information in our annual report this summer (or even earlier if you tune in to board meetings).

Looking forward to a great 2025!



Painting Issues – last call!

We need you! Everyone, painting is now complete and the painters have indicated that they have addressed all previously reported issues. Inevitably, a few things will still not quite be correct. You have until Sunday Dec 8th to report issues for the painters to fix.

If you previously reported an issue, we need you to verify that it is addressed. If your issue was not addressed, please help us by re-reporting it in the form.

https://forms.gle/2mdtcNtgHRNLZXxc9

Fireplace inspection and dryer duct cleaning results

Thank you all for coordinating with us and having your fireplaces inspected and dryer ducts cleaned. Almost every unit passed inspection! Units which passed inspection can be found listed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jey9WWs2qb2d_sPcePV4V8B587Ji6BayT_jlO027l00/edit?usp=sharing
(We’ve also separately reached out to units which did not pass.) Please also note that the clubhouse fireplace should not be used at this time.
I am so happy that we have finally made real headway on this longstanding concern, just in time for the weather to start getting colder! 😁
If you have any feedback pertaining to the fireplace inspection or dryer duct cleaning, please let us know at help@caminodelprado.org.

How to Go Paperless

To all homeowners, please consider going paperless. Not only is this good for the environment, but it saves the HOA a little bit of money each month.

When you log into your account on the portal, on the left side is a menu: select “My Profile,” then “Profile Settings,” and then go to the “My Login” tab there you can set your general communication preferences and billing communication preferences.

(If you prefer paper communication, that’s perfectly fine – but we want to make sure everyone knows how to go paperless if they want.)

Paint Vote Winner

The voting has concluded and Color Scheme B has won! (To help refresh people’s memories I’ve attached below a photo I took, but note that this is not properly color calibrated at all.)

Thank you everyone who took the time to review the mockups and vote – we had 33 members participate. We really appreciate everyone ranking their preferences. For those who might be curious Ranked Choice Voting is also known as “Instant Runoff Voting”. It’s a way of running “primary” elections and the “final” election in a single go. Most elections boil down to 2 real candidates because that way you don’t “waste” your vote (e.g. voting for an independent for President – we know an independent won’t win). By gathering people’s ranked preferences, we instantly know the following:

  1. Color scheme E is people’s least favorite option overall, so we can eliminate it (moving those votes to their second choice).
  2. Of A, B, C, and D: A would be people’s least favorite option, so we can eliminate it too.
  3. Of B, C, and D: C would be people’s least favorite option, so we can also eliminate it.
  4. Then, between B and D: B wins. We know we could re-run the vote again, with just B vs D, and B would win.

A good video explainer of Ranked Choice Voting is here: https://youtu.be/gq7N2hmX9FI

And the full results for our color vote are here: https://www.rcv123.org/results/5SfPZs6GcGFUCE5mWFPDS7/ff8juhBbA2ETyzfUAtWWnG?_secure=xwxIoedJlD

As next steps the board will be selecting a matching color for the front gates, and updated door color options for each unit to choose from. Stay tuned!

Emergency Shelter Project in our Neighborhood

Dear Owners/Residents,

I just learned about an emergency shelter project possibly coming to our neighborhood and though I let you all know in case you want to engage. There is a petition going on against the project and a community meetings scheduled.

  • March 1st at 6:00pm, in person at Mission City Church, 1290 Pomeroy Avenue
    ● March 9th at 6:00pm, in person at Mission City Church, 1290 Pomeroy Avenue

Save Our Neighborhood flyer 02.08.2023_2

The petition can be found here:

https://www.change.org/p/say-no-to-the-homeless-shelter-at-corner-of-benton-street-and-lawrence-expressway-in-sant

–Mehmet Musa