Benefits for Homeowners Associations

Benefits:

The California Landscape Budgets Program provides you with a FREE water management tool to help your association:

  • Easily track irrigation water use
  • Determine if your sites are being properly managed
  • Reduce water bills
  • Improve the health, appearance, and value of your sites’ landscapes
  • Protect the environment by decreasing urban runoff
  • Maintain compliance with NPDES requirements

Two Simple Questions:

  1. Do you know how much your association paid for water used to irrigate your landscapes during the past month?
  2. Do you know how much your association SHOULD HAVE paid for water used to irrigate your landscapes during the past month?

The California Landscape Budgets Program gives you the right answers to both these questions, month after month, at NO COST to you.

How It Works:

The California Landscape Budgets Program creates a loop of accountability between the HOA Board, the Property Manager, and the Landscape Contractor.  A customized water budget is created for each irrigation meter using:

1. Data from Your Site

We take certain basic information from your property, such as contact information, location, and irrigated landscape area for each dedicated irrigation water meter, and store this information on our secure webpage for your viewing only.

2. Consumption Data from Your Water Retailer

Every month, your water retailer sends us a download of the consumption for all your irrigation accounts.

3. Data from Weather Stations

We obtain a daily data download from the (California Irrigation Management Information System) CIMIS network of stations.  We use data from a local weather station closer to your site.  Contained within this information is an “index” number known as the Evapotranspiration* (ETo).

*Evapotranspiration: The combined process of both evaporation from the soil and transpiration through plant foliage.

4. Putting It All Together

We then create a water budget for the site.  This budget is an estimate of the monthly water requirements for a specific irrigation meter, and is calculated by using the same formula currently applied to calculate water budgets determined by the Calfornia’s State Legislature Assembly Bill AB 320 or by a formula approved by your water retailer.
Sample pages (link to pages)

How to enroll:

In order to qualify, you must own or manage a property within the program’s participating agencies or water retailers.  For a list of participating agencies click here.

If these requirements are met, contact your local water agency’s water conservation representative that will help you with the process.  Once we obtain your contact information as well as your site’s area measurement, you’ll be ready to start receiving your FREE monthly performance reports.

Check out if your water agency is participating in this program in Contact US page.