By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News

Red, white and blue is preferred over brown and grey in the Steiner Ranch logo and for proposed, future signage upgrades, according to a significant number of residents who voiced their concerns about the direction the homeowner’s association board was taking with the community’s logo.

Four Points News first reported in November that all of the seven-member, Steiner Ranch Landscape Committee resigned on Oct. 30 after what committee members say were multiple attempts to work with the shifting ideas of the Steiner Ranch Master Association board of directors. 

“After many emails with the board I resigned on Oct. 30th because the committee has no real voice,” said Jannine Farnum, former chair of the Landscape Committee in an earlier interview. “Later that day, the rest of the seven-member committee resigned also.”

The SRMA board hired a consultant in July who came up with the idea to change signage throughout the community as well as plantings at a projected cost of some $500,000.

Fast forward to January, the SRMA board shared an opinionated email with residents on Jan. 11 stating:

We have received community feedback about the logo colors (red, blue, white) change recommended by the Landscape Architecture consulting firm as part of the Landscape 2.0 project (new plant materials, monuments upgrade, backlit letters, signage, logo colors to revamp our badly outdated inconsistent and inadequate landscape environment that is 20-30 years old). Thank you! We haven’t approved the front entrances logo color change for production/implementation yet as we have the firm do due diligence in total cost evaluation.

Considering community feedback received to retain current logo colors (red, blue, white), we will stop the effort. Whenever this effort resumes, will ensure community feedback is incorporated by the consulting firm, develop options that retain red, blue, white, and share with homeowners for final input.

This email came after several social media postings about the subject of changing the color scheme of the logo. One engaging post from former SRMA board member and 1835 Realty broker/owner Craig Smyser.

Many residents commented on the Steiner Ranch Social Facebook page the same day the email from the HOA came out, applauding the news that the red, white and blue are back, at least for now.

Here is a sampling of a few of the 71 comments on the Steiner Social page:

Kevin Phillips

Outstanding. When did “red, white and blue” become outdated? Would also like to see cost/benefit study of benefits to average residents. Does this improve our already high property values, schools GPAs, homeless problem, world peace? What’s the benefit of doing this at all?

Erin Anne

I did notice though that they took the liberty of changing the logo colors in January’s Ranch Record prior to gaining the community’s opinion…… (looks awful!)

Christopher Stiehl

So, no more brown stars on muddy water? I’m good with that.

Kathy Hung Li

It’s encouraging to know that the HOA does care about what its residents value as important. Thank you for heeding our concerns!!

Linda Jaszczyk Mikolajek

Thank you. It’s nice to be heard. Glad the residents will be involved and our opinions considered.

Kristin Henke

Whoop! Very happy about this. Seems trivial, but we are obviously proud of our community and want it reflected in our decor. Glad the voices are recognized.

Iris Mok Hamon

Thank you for not spending money on something we don’t need to spend money on.

Steven Donnelly

I hope there is more transparency moving forward. After attending the HOA meeting (in January), I do NOT think the current logo is 100% safe. 

If you read the communication on the HOA events page, it says “Considering community feedback received to retain current logo colors (red, blue, white), we will stop the effort. Whenever this effort *resumes*, will ensure community feedback is incorporated by the consulting firm, develop options that retain red, blue, white, and share with homeowners for final input.” 

Spending money on very large capital expenditures like a new logo and signage, a 300-person event center, a skate park & gymnasium in Town Square are decisions that merit more feedback from the community that pays for them.

According to Donnelly’s post on Steiner Ranch Social, he raised concerns at a SRMA meeting in January but was told that “ACC variances” are only discussed in closed, executive session due to the HOA property code. Texas property law also gives homeowners rights to this type of information.

He reached out to the HOA to express his concerns and was told there would be more communication around future HOA meetings. 

Donnelly’s post went onto to say: 

I am supportive of the landscaping improvements, but not the logo changes or replacing the monument. I’ve probably been distracted by everything going on in the world and not paying close enough attention to the HOA decisions, but still think we should have had a chance to provide more feedback. While they may have been discussed pre-covid, I doubt many homeowners were aware of the large decisions being made.

When I asked about previous communication and transparency on these decisions, I was told that they had been under a discussion for a long time and that they hired consultants because they are experts. 

I asked why the landscaping committee wasn’t given an opportunity to provide feedback on the community’s behalf and resigned as a result and didn’t get a clear explanation other than those were old issues this person wasn’t here to witness. 

I expressed my view that these committees have a purpose and a mass resignation was probably a sign that communication fell short or that we might need to get more feedback. 

Frankly, the plant selections while important are the least of my concerns at this point after hearing about the additional initiatives for Town Square 2.0, etc. My primary concern is how these decisions are getting made and having an opportunity to voice concerns, if any.  

I know residents will always have different points of view on things like this, but we elected a board to represent us and share different perspectives so we can arrive at the best decisions for all of us. I hope we see more of this moving forward.

As cited in Donnelly’s post, the Jan. 11 SRMA board email detailed several  other initiatives: 

To ensure we meet a broad set of Steiner Ranch homeowners’ needs and to remain competitive in the large scale community market, the board of directors has been actively pursuing over the last 18 months several capital investments and projects, including:

• Towne Square 2.0 (300-person event center, business center, gymnasium, additional lap pool, dog park, etc.)
• Lake Club 2.0 (includes secured parking area with a gated entry for cars and boat trailers for residents use only)
• Security Cameras 

For now, the Steiner logo and signage are to be left alone as many residents keep a watchful eye on next steps by the SRMA.