Level 2 drought alert for Mission Valley residents

Good morning, and welcome to class, Class! Hope everyone had a great weekend. How about them Celtics. Was that not the best seven-game series in the history of the National Basketball Association?

Today we're going to talk about droughts since it doesn't rain much here in San Diego and about 75% of our water comes from the winter snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains. They are being stingy up there for some reason, so I guess we'll have to cut back on water down here until their mothers contact them and teach them how to share again.

Following are two pictures of the same lagoon, horizontal mirror images, one looking north and one looking south. I want you to tell me what the difference is between the two pictures.

    

If you guessed that the left picture is the way the lagoon normally looks, and the right picture is the way the lagoon looks under a Level 2 drought alert, you'd be right.

>A Level 2 drought alert here in San Diego means there are mandatory water restrictions, and when they say "mandatory," they do, indeed, mean "mandatory." Talk to my neighbor -- LOL. Here are the restrictions:

1. Residential and commercial landscape irrigation is limited to no more than three assigned days per week from June through October, and no more than once a week from November through May.
2. Residential and commercial lawns and landscapes irrigated by sprinklers are limited to no more than 10 minutes of watering per irrigation station per day.
3. Residential and commercial landscape watering is restricted to morning and late evenings.
4. Washing down paved surfaces such as sidewalks, driveways, tennis courts, patios and parking lots is prohibited.
5. Water waste resulting from inefficient landscape irrigation, such as runoff, low head drainage, or overspray is prohibited.
6. Vehicles must be washed using a bucket and a hand-held hose with a positive shut-off nozzle, mobile high pressure/low volume wash system, or at a commercial site that re-circulates (reuses) water onsite.
7. Water leaks must be repaired within 72 hours of notification by the local water agency.
8. Restaurants and other food service establishments must serve and refill water for customers only upon request.
9. Hotels, motels, and other commercial lodging establishments must offer guests the option of not laundering towels and linens daily.
10. Recycled or non-potable water must be used for construction purposes when available.
11. Operating ornamental fountains or similar decorative water features is prohibited unless they use recycled water.
12. In addition, nine local retail agencies have provisions at this level that restrict or potentially restrict new water service unless the increased demand is offset. Some retail agencies also plan to use tiered rates or water allocations based on meter size or individual property characteristics (such as lot size, landscaping, number of residents) to help reduce demand.

What does this mean for your sellers? Well, in the case of that lagoon at Mission Greens condominium complex in Mission Valley, it's obvious that they were not using recycled water (see #11 above), so they had to shut it down. Now every condo in four buildings that used to look down on that lovely lagoon look down on a lagoon partially filled with oogy, yukky stagnant water. It's an eyesore, no doubt, and we all know how curb appeal affects the sale of property.

If you're a Realtor helping people buy or sell homes here, manage the expectations of your Clients in these trying economic and drought conditions. It's probably not that the HOA that has no money to run these water features, or water the lawns and other lush landscaping, it's that they can't under the Level 2 drought restrictions.

If your Client's house looks like this as you sign those listing papers, or as your Buyers sign the purchase contract:

It won't in a couple of months, so again, help manage your Client's expectations to prevent bad feelings down the road.

That's all for today, Class. Please leave a comment to let me know how you did on our Manic Monday pop quiz. And be sure to study for our next pop quiz on Frenetic Friday. If you missed a previous pop quiz, you can find them here.

*****

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