The elected TIPOA Boards of Tolomato have historically taken a custodial approach, as outlined by the by-laws, to managing the community. While this has been adequate in the past, it is becoming more important for TIPOA leadership to focus on the future. As Tolomato continues to grow, a Master Plan for the future development and associated capital improvements and reserve accounts for the community is becoming critical.
There are a number of compelling reasons to have a Master Plan:
1. Provide direction and focus on objectives and results; and
2. Anticipate issues and work to address them; and
3. Establish a basis for teamwork and the use of committees, thereby broadening support on issues facing all of us; and,
4. Provides guidelines for decision making.
Tolomato's Master Plan should be both physical and procedural. The physical plan might address, but not be limited to, the following issues:
1. Infrastructure such as water, sewer, power, health of community wells and perhaps wider roads in some places.
2. Amenities such as expansion and/or cleanup of the storage yard; expanding the club house to have a meeting/social room; expanding the pool and tennis/pickle ball courts; building a playground for kids and grandkids; and a maintenance plan for existing amenities (i.e., pool, amenity center, Savannah Square, Highland Square, community dock, historical ruins, mounds and other common areas).
3. A plan for the health and beauty of the community pond and its resident wildlife.
Procedural aspects of the master plan might include, but not be limited to:
1. Periodic audit of the communities' books.
2. Management company. Criteria and thresholds triggering the hiring of same.
3. Capital accounts and reserve study. The health of the communities' investments and mechanics for funding capital accounts for specific events.
4. Updating the Tolomato governing documents to be more community focused rather than developer focused.
Our community already has a master plan for landscaping and historical preservation.
Comments
PhilS
on Wednesday, 11 October 2023 11:42
Duh! As the Historical Preservation Committee was "encouraged" to present a Master Plan when seeking funds for our historical and pre-historical assets. the current Board remarked that they did not need to develop a Master Plan as the Committees are doing their work for them. Really?!!! There are SO many items for the Board/Community to consider.
1. Infrastructure. Water, sewer, power, wider roads in some places, the health of community wells,
etc.;
2. Amenities. Storage area, club house (w/ meeting room), expanded pool, expanded tennis/pickleball courts, bocce court, a playground (since the demographics are changing and we are not solely a retirement community) etc.;
3. Pond. Plan for maintaining health and beauty of same, etc.;
4. Reserve study. The health of our investments and future needs, etc.;
5. Management Company. A session where they sit down with all of us and share their experience with other communities’ lessons learned, etc. I had asked Emilie about this related to an ARB and she agreed but I never followed through. My bad.;
6. Historic and Pre-Historic Assets. We need to have a better sense of how the Community thinks about our responsibility for these Community assets. and
7. Input. How to solicit input from the Community at large, etc. This, of course, I needed to list as the first item.
JimandGinny
on Wednesday, 11 October 2023 13:04
As I have been told on many occasions by many different people, the developer built the amenities in just the right size to service the community when fully built. Of course that doesn't make sense to me for 261 lots.
I think I got clarification from one community member who stated--his vision of fully built is 181 houses. I guess the other 80 lot owners can.....
PhilS
on Wednesday, 11 October 2023 16:05
I found an old email of mine and the only thing I would add to the preceding extensive list is the need for a Communication Plan. How would a Board keep its finger on the pulse of the community? Making impactful decisions without comprehensive input doesn't seem to be our best approach. This also speaks to the Community being involved and responsive.