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6 | LIFE IN SOLERA | JANUARY 2026 | Happy New Year to everyone living in Solera and to your families. The members of this committee include John Crawford, Leo Jusay, Marcia Casem, Dianne Coffman, Dave Gilford, and Peter Marchi. We are proud to serve the Solera Oak Valley Greens Association community and are thankful for the trust and support you have given us. We will continue to do our best to ensure accuracy, compliance, and thoughtfulness in executing our responsibilities. Since the beginning of our current fiscal year, this committee has been working with other committees regarding various projects and ideas for the future to ensure we stay financially healthy when these projects are approved and completed. One project which will be ongoing over next year is our Greenbelt and the effect the new laws will require. AB 1572 (2023-2024) will require municipalities to self-verify that all no recreational turf is removed by January 2027. HOAs will be required to do the same by January 2029, which means the Greenbelt, Pocket Parks, and Parkways would require the turn to be removed, unless it qualifies under the exemptions. The exemptions are if the turf area is used for Community Events, Recreational Activity, and/or Pet exercise. It also states, if the turf is watered unintentionally while watering the trees, such as the parkways, it will be okay to keep the turf because they do not want to harm the trees. This is something CALAC is trying to determine the best solution. It was determined by our landscape architect that the cost of converting the Greenbelt to drought tolerant plant and pathways, while removing only 52 percent of the turf, would cost more than $800,000. We have tried for four years to get a grant to cover half of this cost without success. Based on this cost, it is estimated that to remove all the turf would cost more than $1.5 million. Thus, the plan is to convert the Greenbelt to recreational turf. A large portion is already used for our Concerts on the Greens and movie nights. The funds for these new activities would be paid for out of Capital Improvement. This project will be over the next three years. We don't want to rush; we want to do it right. This committee has also been working closely with the Streets Committee to ensure we have the funds in place to replace and repair all our streets. This month, the contract manager will be obtaining bids for the first area of the project to begin when weather permits in early spring of this year. Another project involves the Fountain Committee, which is near completion. ~ Marcia Casem Finance Committee

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