Dear Members of the Kensington Farms HOA Board,

We are a group of  Kensington Farms homeowners with a proposal to reduce Kensington Farms' turf grass maintenance expenditures and simultaneously help pollinators such as the monarch butterfly, threatened by habitat loss. Our tentative plan would, after its initial implementation, save Kensington Farms approximately $6,000.00 to $8,000.00 per year. 

Before you read further, please note that our goal is to create defined spaces within specific areas, that strewing wild- flower seeds haphazardly through Kensington Farms resulting in clumps of unsightly overgrown vegetation is NOT how this will be done. If properly installed and maintained, the plantings would look like the Ridgefield subdivision pictured under the Success Story tab of the Hamilton County Urban Conservation Association:http://www.hamiltoncountyuca.org/project.html

Grass serves a purpose because it creates areas where families can throw frisbees, kids can play soccer and baseball, and dogs can frolic with their owners, but there are issues with grass, too. It takes a lot of gas and manpower to mow the acres of grass, and a lot of fertilizers and pesticides are used on it. We do not want to get rid of all the turf in the  Kensington Farms common areas because there are areas which are used for recreational and entertainment purposes, but do we need 15 acres of it? Couldn’t we have a blend of turf and native habitat? 

  In Kensington Farms the 2021 budget allotted $25,000.00 for the upkeep of 15 acres of turf. Over the course of the year the cost is $1,666.00 per acre. The turf is mowed 28 times a year, at a cost each time of $59.00 per acre. Converting several acres to fields of wildflowers would, in the course of a year, save thousands of dollars.

Determining where the plantings would be would necessitate opportunities for suggestions from the homeowners and it would also require an accurate and updated map of the common areas.

We look forward to your response to this proposal. We are so excited about taking positive action to reduce  Kensington Farms’ expenses, make it an even better place to live, and help our environment.