Sprawling across 30 lush acres in San Rafael, California, Smith Ranch Homes Homeowners’ Association is a luxury independent living and active lifestyle community.

It is imperative that the grounds always look pristine as residents are on the property 24/7 enjoying resort-like living with top-notch amenities like sparkling fountains, glistening pools and hot tubs, an upscale putting green, and a lively bocce ball court. 

Challenges

1) When our team assumed maintenance work on the property, an irrigation system audit revealed there were no working system controls and no regulation over how much water was flowing at any given time. Our team discovered that 17-18 gallons per minute were flowing and being wasted with no monitoring system to show where it was being distributed on the property. The 35-year-old system was costing the HOA $20-30k per year on repairs due to weak points that improper fixes made by previous contractors had created. Due to the antiquated system, many pipes were leaky and rusted. The irrigation map of the community was also inaccurate, so our teams consistently found pipes they had not been previously aware of.

2) With water restrictions constantly changing in California, the HOA previously installed a catch basin to “catch” rainfall to be utilized for irrigation on the property. However, with heavier than average rainfall, the basin tends to overflow, putting the community at risk of violating county and city restrictions regarding reclaimed water runoff.

3) The property is located over an hour’s drive from the branch that maintains it. This means that if any irrigation emergencies arise, it would be difficult for our team to be on-site in a timely manner to solve the issue. With water restrictions constantly changing in California, irrigation control and usage tracking have been paramount to the teams and general manager on-site.

Solutions

1) Upon learning that the irrigation system had 35-year-old hardware, a looped 2″ mainline with 2 reclaimed San Rafael water meters, 11 original/offline Rainmaster controllers, and 6 battery controllers, our team transitioned the old system to a more efficient one. Since maintaining the property, we have eliminated all battery controllers and combined the 11 old clocks into 2 Baseline Online controllers with a Flow Station communicating via 900 MHz Radio transmitters through their network for remote access and weather-based control. Both POC’s have been retrofitted with master valves, flow meters, and filtration for real-time flow monitoring and usage control throughout the site. We have also installed 6 in-ground soil moisture sensors, providing data for automated scheduling adjustments. We connected a large fountain in the entrance plaza to the Baseline irrigation system and automated the water fill using a master valve, flow meter, and soil moisture sensor.

2) When presented with an overflowing catch basin for reclaimed water, our team ensured to factor in water flow control for all reclaimed water. Now, utilizing the newly updated irrigation system, our teams can remotely monitor the catch basin and ensure no runoff occurs.

3) With the property being a considerable distance from the branch that maintains it, our team thoughtfully installed remote controls for all the irrigation on the property, so much of the irrigation can be handled even when our teams are not on-site. Now, if there is ever an irrigation emergency, it can be solved by our teams in the branch without the hours-long wait.

LandCare was awarded a Silver NALP Award of Excellence in 2022 for its work at Smith Homes Ranch Homeowners’ Association. For photos and more, please visit the awards photo gallery here.