The IHCA Annual Report

A Letter from the Board of Directors

By Rossie Cruz, IHCA Board of Directors President

This year, the IHCA Board of Directors and staff have strived to maintain the smooth operation of Issaquah Highlands, making it the great place we call home.

Within this edition of Connections, the IHCA annual report provides a comprehensive snapshot of our financial health as well as community-wide accomplishments since July 1, 2022.

IHCA Executive Director Sarah Hoey, who has served the community for the past eight years, continues to collaborate with various City of Issaquah departments such as public works, parks and recreation and Issaquah Police Department. Additionally, she works with King County, Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and surrounding large-scale homeowner associations (HOAs) in the Pacific Northwest region on our community’s behalf.

Her persistence, care and devotion to our community exemplifies excellence in all she does. This is evident by her Professional Community Association Manager (PCAM) designation, which she achieved in 2022. Sarah was formally recognized for the achievement at the annual Community Associations Institute (CAI) national conference in May 2023. PCAM is the highest award available on an international level for HOA management.

We have continued to improve our Issaquah Highlands community this past year. A few highlights include the completion of Westridge Community Garden, upgrades at Daphne Park, and general landscaping and maintenance throughout. There is always room for change and improvement, and we strive to create better communication and efficiencies collectively.

Thank you to all the owners who took the time for our community survey. The board and staff appreciate hearing from you more than you know. We compile this data to make our little piece of the world that much better. This is one of the main ways for us to address areas of concern in order to change and create effective policy for us all.

Of course, we can do this even better when we work with Highlands Council, Highlands Fiber Network, City of Issaquah, Eastside Fire and Rescue and King County—to name a few.

On behalf of the entire IHCA Board of Directors, we wish you a wonderful summer!

New Faces in the IHCA Office

Issaquah Highlands Community Association (IHCA) has welcomed some new faces in the past year, making it an exciting time in the IHCA office!

Susan Carlson joined the IHCA team as the new community manager and compliance coordinator. Susan fits right into the office dynamic and we are so grateful to have her positive energy. She comes from a property management

background and has been a resident of Issaquah Highlands for the past few years. Thanks for joining the team, Susan!

In the landscaping and maintenance departments, we welcomed Esteban Jimenez back to the team and hired Harrison Castillo as well. They have meshed well with the guys and we are so thankful to have such a dedicated crew working hard to keep our community beautiful.

Susan Carlson, Community Manager & Compliance Coordinator

Esteban Jimenez, Groundskeeper

Harrison Castillo, Groundskeeper

COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT REPORT

A Busy Year Maintaining and Improving Community Assets

By Blair Kreig, Senior Community Manager, and Susan Carlson, Community Manger & Compliance Coordinator

Annual Tasks:

• Performed new reserve studies for all supplemental communities.

• Completed monthly management reports, which are distributed and posted to the IHCA website for 12 supplemental communities.

• Ratified annual budget for three neighborhoods and 11 supplemental communities.

• Completed another successful Board of Directors election.

• Managed monthly Architectural Review Committee (ARC) meetings and homeowner applications.

• Managed Covenant Committee meetings and homeowner appeal process.

• Emailed welcome packets to hundreds of new homeowners on behalf of IHCA, HFN and Highlands Council.

• Performed weekly compliance site visits and processing.

• Coordinated and attended neighborhood and supplemental committee meetings for zHomes, Crofton Springs, Dahlia Park and Grand Ridge Drive.

• Continued homeowner education through management of Ask IHCA, community emails and Connections articles.

• Continued education by regularly attending Community Associations Institute (CAI) certification course. Both community managers are CAI certified.

2022–23 Achievements

• Performed exterior painting at Concord Commons buildings 4–7, High Street Townhomes, zHome and West Highlands Park. This included phase one for Sunset Walk, Villaggio, Crofton at Village Green 29/30/40 and View Ridge.

• Installed weather cameras on Grand Ridge Drive, along with annual street sweeping.

• Completed building façade projects including dry rot repairs, siding replacement and caulking at Concord Commons, Crofton Springs, Crofton at Village Green 29/30/40, View Ridge and Villaggio.

• Completed common area improvements at West Highlands Park including walkway stair painting and hazardous tree removal at multiple supplemental communities.

• Upgraded to LED lighting at Sunset Walk, Concord Commons, Crofton Springs and West Highlands Park.

• Rebuilt and repaired Crofton Springs dumpster enclosure.

• Repaired map enclosure at Crofton Springs.

• Completed evening site walks to locate areas where additional lighting would be beneficial at Crofton Springs.

• Evaluated multiple estimates at committee’s request for Crofton Springs including gazebo repairs/painting, pressure washing, handrail powder coating, trellis repair and staining, interior walkway signage, and landscape remodeling.

• Replaced multiple curbs and performed re-striping of the parking lot at Crofton Springs to include space numbers and visitor parking.

• Replaced multiple concrete areas at Crofton Springs.

• Management obtained hundreds of proposals for projects that included painting, dry rot repairs, deck repairs/ replacements/staining, landscape replacements and stair repairs/replacements.

• Placed deck overhangs for two units at Concord Commons.

• Installed bait stations at multiple supplemental communities to deter rodents.

• Continued project management for three neighborhoods and 11 supplemental communities to include general building and property maintenance such as roof and gutter cleaning, dryer vent cleaning, power washing and management of third-party landscape vendors.

• Completed Dahlia Park major landscape enhancements including large tree removal and stump grinding, vegetation clearing, bark installation and new plant installations.

• Completed irrigation and drainage repairs at Dahlia Park.

ACCOUNTING REPORT

Maintaining Financial Security for a Growing Community

By Kristyn McKinnon, IHCA Accounting Manager

Development & Real Estate

Since July 2022, 102 new homes have been completed and sold in Issaquah Highlands and 37 homes are still under construction, bringing the total number of IHCA-owned units to 3,581. When combined with the current 958 rental units, our community is at 99.9% of “Total Allowable Residential.” There were also 102 resales throughout the year.

Annual Audit

We have completed another year with a “clean” audit (unqualified opinion), while maintaining strong controls over the accounting environment. By providing complete and accurate audit schedules to our auditors, we keep our audit fees low and our auditors happy.

Investments

We analyze our cash deposit positions persistently to attain the highest interest yield while maintaining 100% Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) insurance on all of our deposits.

Our interest income for 2022–23 is estimated to be $65,000, which is about $5,000 more than last year due to interest rates increasing later in the year. We have a very effective CD purchase program with our bank, enabling us to be efficient with cash management while receiving very competitive CD interest rates compared to other banks. Our master reserves remain funded at 118%, which is a phenomenal achievement.

At the end of February, $4.7 million in CD’s were purchased for the IHCA master and eight supplemental neighborhoods. The monthly interest income will increase from roughly $3,000 per month to $11,000 per month. Terms range from 1–4 years, with interest rates ranging from 4–5%.

Master Assessments

Master assessments for the upcoming 2023–24 fiscal year will increase by $12 annually ($1/month) to $972. This is needed to cover increasing costs for our aging community. We have continued to encourage the participation of the monthly auto debit payment (ACH) program for collecting assessments, in which 86% of our homeowners participate. This keeps our cash flow even throughout the year and our delinquencies low at a rate of 1.5%.

How We Do It

The community managers and accounting manager work tirelessly for months on creating the budgets for 14 supplemental neighborhoods and the master community. Many of them have a high level of complexity, and the managers spend countless hours researching costs and reviewing to ensure the numbers are accurate and fair to all homeowners in the community. These budgets are then reviewed and approved by the IHCA Finance Committee and IHCA Board of Directors.

Lastly, we always want to thank the incredible Finance Committee and Board of Directors for their determined support all throughout the year. The Finance Committee meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. The board meets every fourth Monday at 5:30 p.m. All meetings are open to the public. Find more details at issaquahhighlands.com/events.

MAINTENANCE REPORT

From Parks to Playgrounds: Maintenance Team Revitalizes Community Spaces

By Matthew Hendrikse, IHCA Maintenance Manager

With the end of another fiscal year, it’s a great time to look back and reflect on the dedicated efforts of the IHCA maintenance team on various projects around the community. This year, we have been able to complete multiple reserve projects such as Dahlia Park, Verenna, The Terraces and Valais/Hudson. We also updated common area signage for parks, the playground at Daphne Park, paint on fire hydrants, and the Sport Court.

Daphne Park’s play structure was removed and replaced with a new one in March. This new structure is larger than the original one and it also allows for more age groups. The old structure was wood, while the new one is metal, which will ultimately result in a longer life span. The original swing was left in its location and we were able to freshen it up with a new coat of paint.

The Sport Court on Park Drive is another play area in the process of being replaced. It will hopefully be completed

before the end of summer. The new surface will also have the markings for pickleball, which was requested by residents. This change will allow for us to transition the court during certain times of the year from soccer to pickleball. It should make this court kid-friendly as well as adult-friendly, fostering a safe environment and promoting a healthy community for all ages.

Other projects included powder coating handrails and benches, leveling concrete, adding lighting, replacing old lighting, painting large light poles, jetting drainage and painting fire hydrants.

We are grateful to everyone that is a part of this community and thankful to be able to help maintain it. This year has been very challenging financially with the soaring inflation on all things, so I want to give a special thanks to the IHCA Board of Directors and Executive Director Sarah Hoey as we have navigated this fiscal year.

LANDSCAPE REPORT

Landscape Crews Enhance Our Open Spaces

By Lyle Dickey, IHCA Landscape Manager

The IHCA in-house crews and our two landscape contractors, Landcare and Bear Creek, have all been very busy making landscape improvements throughout the community.

The crews have been working on tree and plant replacements, soil and sod installation, drainage and irrigation updates, trail improvements and more. Bark was also installed in parks and residential neighborhoods throughout the month of June.

In February, the crews added stepping stones in the planter strip adjacent to the road to make it easier for people to exit their vehicles. We also added plants around the trees in high traffic areas to elevate plant damage by foot traffic. Additionally, we upgraded the median planter beds at the Vista Park crosswalk to make it more visible to vehicles and keep pedestrians safe.

In March, the crews replaced 22 trees on Katsura that were damaged in a storm. Landscapers had to cut and remove the old stumps, repair damaged irrigation, and replace the sod that was damaged in the storm. There is still work to be done to the damaged sidewalks this summer.

Bear Creek landscapers worked on improvements to several areas of our streetscape and open space slopes. Crews worked throughout the months of January and February to complete the installation of 4,000 one-gallon plants to enhance damaged streetscapes. They also focused on fixing settled areas in the turf to improve pedestrian safety. Fresh bark was added as a finishing touch to the improved areas.

Landcare, our other contractor, has been working on landscape improvements to residential areas under our care. The crews have been planting trees and shrubs along with soil and bark to make it complete.

They also finished a full landscape upgrade to a couple of community/neighborhood parks. The crews tore out damaged or aged plant material and added soil to fix the grade. Plants and trees were then added, with bark as a finishing touch.

Landcare also helped the IHCA crews complete the new landscape in the median island on Park Drive as you approach the town center. Please slow down, take a look and enjoy the view.

Local residents Gray, Lauren and Harley hang around on the new play structure at Daphne Park.

Photo by Elizabeth Gregg