Everywhere you seem to drive and look, new construction is all around SunBird and the South Chandler area.
New commercial construction and the real estate market developments in Arizona are on the rise again. Almost all vacant land in Chandler seems to be under construction for new commercial buildings or residential homes. A new home development is currently being planned for the northeast corner of Riggs and Cooper Roads. This area is existing farmland that has been used for years, harvesting alfalfa just catty corner to SunBird at this intersection. The 92-home new development is called Windermere Ranch by home builder Maracay Homes. It is planned to be a single-family home community with larger size lots. Final approval by the City of Chandler is anticipated this spring.
With all of the growth and expansion of commercial and housing developments, it also increases the traffic and demand for wider roadways. The City of Chandler is in the process of approving plans to widen Cooper Road. Design efforts are underway on a project that will widen Cooper Road to four lanes from approximately 3,500 feet north of Chandler Heights Road to Riggs Road. The improvements will include the construction of raised medians, bike lanes, left turn lanes, sidewalks, curb, gutter, street lighting, traffic signals, storm drains, landscaping and irrigation and utility relocations. Construction is anticipated to begin in late 2018. Community input was received from two public meetings, and revisions were made to the design, narrowing the road by 13 feet on average to reduce impacts to adjoining property owners, removing raised medians in many areas and reducing the number of storm water retention basins. The project alignment will go the Chandler Transportation Commission for approval.
SunBird homes continue to sell at a good rate, with property values on the rise. Twenty-six homes sold in the first quarter of this year with an additional 30 homes in escrow. Realtors report, as of the end of March, that the MLS system shows only four homes listed or available for sale in SunBird. We have had many potential buyers recently touring the clubhouse and facilities looking and waiting for homes to become available for purchase in SunBird. The most common comments from potential buyers are 1) how nice the clubhouse is and the number of facilities it has to offer, 2) the new clubhouse swimming pool, 3) number of activities, 4) plans of SunBird to continue to update and progress with new ideas and 5) the friendliness of the community.
The Horizon Room had the largest month of monthly sales of all time this March. It surpassed the previous record of March of 2015. Food and beverage sales, with an emphasis on food sales, has increased nearly 40% over the past two years. Due to this growth of business and increased foods sales, the existing Horizon Room kitchen is out of space for additional equipment and has been outgrown. The Horizon Room kitchen is scheduled for expansion this summer. The kitchen expansion project will begin June 5 and is anticipated to complete by August 31. A City of Chandler building permit has been obtained, and the Maricopa County Environmental Health Services permit has been submitted awaiting approval. For the schedule of weekly projected kitchen construction plans, please refer to the Horizon Room Kitchen Plans in this issue of the SunBird News. The food and beverage operation will be moved during this time period to the ballroom. Normal daily breakfast, lunch, beverages, Tuesday night dinners, Friday night fish fry’s and Sunday breakfast buffet will continue. With limitations of the ballroom kitchen and equipment, some changes will be made to stay in compliance with code. Please refer to the SunBird News, SunBird website and email notices of the specials and menu options. We are looking forward to this expansion to better handle the increased food service. See you in the ballroom this summer.
This past season, the Jacuzzi at the clubhouse has been closed a half-dozen times due to an emergency shut-off switch that has been turned off. When the clubhouse swimming pool was enlarged and remodeled recently, we were required to update equipment to current code by adding an emergency shut-off switch. We believe it is inadvertently turned off by users of the Jacuzzi thinking that this switch is to turn off normal operations use was completed. The emergency shut-off switch is for an emergency only. When switched off, it turns off the entire operation of the Jacuzzi. If the Jacuzzi has been off for several hours, the chemicals become unbalanced, water loses heat and many times we have had to drain, re-fill, re-heat and re-balance the chemicals for safe use. We have received permission from Maricopa County Environmental Services to add a cover over the switch to help people think twice before turning it off. The Jacuzzi is set on a timer for normal use and will automatically turn off the jets and aerators when the cycle is complete.
Most of the SunBird community was recently affected by a short electrical power outage for about one hour in April. With the summer months approaching and the monsoon season, it’s a good idea for SunBird and everyone staying in SunBird for the summer to develop some emergency plan including supplies, lighting and a place to go if power is out for an extended period of time. In the event of an electrical power outage, the clubhouse building and swimming pools will be cleared out and closed for safety purposes. The Project Review and Long Range Planning Committee is looking at ways to prepare the clubhouse better for these types of emergencies. SunBird Patrol and staff are reviewing existing emergency procedures for the clubhouse and facilities for improvement and additional training.
SunBird’s email group has 1,115 people on the list; are you? This is over 68% of SunBird’s membership. The service is free to the recipients and is a great communication tool to keep our membership notified quickly with information and important notices. To subscribe, go to sunbirdhoa.com and click on the monkey/chimp icon at the bottom of the home page. Register and submit your request. A confirmation email will be returned to you to verify delivery. If you do not receive a confirmation email, please check your spam mail box or contact your email service provider. (Large email groups are sometimes filtered or blocked by them as a precaution against unwanted emails.) For further assistance with this, please contact the SunBird office.
We look forward to a busy summer with maintenance and improvement projects at SunBird. Have a safe summer wherever you may be!