Good news!  The Saddle Creek CSD will be reestablishing turf and other grasses, and installing some non-irrigated landscape features in the areas with the unsightly dead turf at the community entrance and on the road medians in the heavily traveled areas.  We are only waiting for cooler weather and precipitation to help support the plantings; possibly November of early December.  To learn more about the what’s and whos read on.

The Saddle Creek CSD is responsible for maintenance of the common area landscaping including the entrance area, near the entrance gatehouse, on the road shoulders adjacent to the sidewalks, in most cul-de-sacs and the traffic circle at the clubhouse entrance.  As a local government agency, we are responsible to closely follow the state’s prohibition on irrigating turf in road medians adopted in 2015.  As a customer of  CCWD we were also required to meet their specific water use restrictions, just like all other water customers in the community.  Unfortunately the prohibition or irrigation caused the turf and some ornamental plantings to die, and even though CCWD was able to lift the drought restrictions this summer, the state kept its median irrigation prohibition in place.

The community landscaping was initially installed for the most part by Castle & Cooke during development of Saddle Creek, and the CSD was formed to own and take care of this landscaping and other community attributes in perpetuity.  The CSD funding from the special tax was intended to cover the cost of maintenance of this landscaping, but never expected to be enough to replace large portions of the landscaping due to drought damage.  With the high cost to reinstall the community landscaping with drought tolerant plantings, the CSD has been seeking other sources of funding to at least improve the look of the dead turf.  With no sources of grants available the CSD has decided to simply do what it can within the limited funding to beautify the landscape.

The golf course has also offered to assist in the re-beautification by offering grass seed and equipment which is very much appreciated.   The CSD is in the process of conducting a long term plan that includes significant road maintenance and resurfacing work, and is including money in the project budget to continue to improve the landscaping and its irrigation to improve the water use efficiency of our community.   Please give any feedback related to common area landscape beautification to Site Manager Greg Hebard, at sccsd@caltel.net.