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Web site for the Pondapple Maintenance Association.

This un-official site is for members of the Pondapple Maintenance Association -- the HOA governing the majority of Vista Verde.





Notices:

Garbage: Garbage is picked up on Tuesdays and Fridays. Recycling and yard waste are Friday. Please leave all waste, including yard waste, near your driveway: crews are instructed to haul from "residential addresses" only, which means tree limbs left on the pathways or near the public areas will just sit there! Speaking of "trash just sitting there", please wait until at least 7:00 pm the evening before pickup to put out trash or recycling bins. Also please remove bins as soon as possible after the pickup, that evening at the latest. If you're going on vacation, please make arrangements for this to be done. As of January 1, 2020, garbage is now being picked up by City of Boca Raton employees; we are no longer in the Palm Beach County Solid Waste Authority district. For questions, call Boca customer service at 561-416-3367 (Mon-Fri 8:00am-4:00pm). The city's sanitation website has this info, the holiday schedule, and instructions for obtaining new recycling bins. From the Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions for Vista Verde, Article VIII, Section 13:
"All garbage or trash containers must be underground or placed in walled-in areas so that they shall not be visible from adjoining Lots or public areas." This means you put them inside your fence or inside your garage, not at the side of your house where your neighbors have to look at (and smell!) them.

Association Maintenance Fees: Recently you received notice that our Board finally voted to raise the maintenance fee from $125 to $150 per month. If you're a new homeowner, you may not realize that our fee has remained unchanged for fifteen (15) years! (The previous increase was a whopping $7 per month, back in 2004. The most recently any fee increase was even proposed formally for a vote at an annual meeting was in 2012, but did not have support at that time.) Inflation continued to compound, and finally we were pinching pennies too tightly for our suppliers, or to accomplish any meaningful updates around the property. This new rate goes into effect for the month of April 2019, the beginning of our next fiscal year. You should also have received an invoice for the annual total amount (thru March 31, 2020).

House Appearance: If you want to change the exterior appearance of your home in any way, you must contact the Pondapple Architectural Review Board (either at the address below, or give your completed form to a Board member). This includes painting, roof, awnings, tree removal, etc. etc. etc. If you fail to get the approval form, you may be asked to redo the work to meet community standards. (Take this editor's advice: it's far more likely for someone to complain about the color you've chosen to paint your house when it's staring them in the face, than to complain about a little color chip -- so get permission in advance.) Roofs in particular have been a problem recently, and they are expensive to re-do -- so please remember to read Exhibit A of our covenants (see below) and get approval from the ARB (form below) before you begin.

Trees: Our neighborhood was designed for each yard to have at least one mature shade tree. When the neighborhood was developed, this meant Fig (Ficus) trees, because the developer needed fast growth of shade trees, to sell beautiful lots! These were interplanted with the existing Slash (South Florida Long-leaf) Pine and miscellaneous other species which were then present on the property; many Black Olive trees were planted because they would grow well even when shaded by the houses and the Ficus. Between root overgrowth of the quick-growing trees and the recent hurricanes, many of these have had to be cut down. Each homeowner is expected to maintain the number of shade trees on their lot, by re-planting at least one shade tree for each which has been removed or destroyed. Because the front of the property is subject to review by the Architectural Review Board, these trees must be approved individually, too. Here is a list of trees which are more likely to receive approval. (Of course this isn't absolute, because some fast-growing trees might be appropriate, and over-planting in any one row of houses of a single species might be inappropriate. But when you submit your ARB form for your new tree, please consider these, which are both native to South Florida, and wind resistant!)
Common NameMature Height
Live Oak40'-50'
Mahogany30'-40'
Gumbo Limbo25'-40'
Silver Buttonwood20'-35'
Wild Tamarind40'-50'
Geiger Tree20'-25'
Other great trees can be seen at University of Florida's Agricultural Extension web site, under Landscape Tree Selection -- South Florida.

Pets: Palm Beach County has a leash law. And it doesn't apply just to dogs. Please clean up your own pet's excrement -- that's why there are multiple trash cans near the pond & park... The duck excrement is harder to pick up, so residents are strongly discouraged from feeding the Muscovy Ducks.

Go-Karts, Scooters, Motor-Bikes, etc.: The State of Florida prohibits the use of unlicensed motorized vehicles on the roadways. If you drive them on our streets, you can be charged with a moving violation. Furthermore, "No person shall drive any vehicle other than by human power upon a bicycle path, sidewalk, or sidewalk area..." (F.S. 316.1995) So you can't drive them on the paths in the neighborhood, either. Nevermind that it's a huge liability and that parents have been held responsible for the (inevitable) accidents... (Only an actual Moped may be licensed for operation on streets, and then only with motors of certain sizes, by riders of a certain age. (F.S. 316.208 et. seq.))

Correspondence & Payments:

All correspondence, including monthly maintenance fees, should be sent to:
      Pondapple Maintenance Association
      6611 Sweet Maple Lane
      Boca Raton, FL 33433
It's wisest to put any complaints, or maintenance requests that seem too big for one person to handle, in writing. They don't have to be formal, but please do drop them in the mail. For more general suggestions about the running of Vista Verde, you can write to the Board of Directors at the same address, or send E-Mail to "board". They are @pondapple.org. (Note this is slightly cryptic, to prevent web-bots from harvesting our e-mail address.) If you wish, you can write to the current Board President directly: She is biancaautuori, who has an account with gmail.com.
(Please don't just toss your payment into the house's letter box! Put a stamp on your envelope and drop it in the regular mail. USPS regulations prohibit private delivery of mail into mailboxes. Besides, if your un-stamped envelope gets picked up by accident with the outgoing mail, USPS will simply discard it as a piece without postage!)

For older notices, click here... (These notices are very old, but will give you an idea of what challenges the neighborhood has faced before.)

Unofficially, here's what happened in recent Board meetings:
August, 2021


Unofficially, here's what happened in Board meetings long ago:
May, 2013 (special assessment notice)
December, 2012
September, 2012
March, 2012 (annual meeting)
January, 2012
October, 2011
March, 2011 (annual meeting)
March, 2010 (annual meeting)
July, 2009
March, 2009 (annual meeting)
September, 2008
March, 2008 (annual meeting)
September, 2007
March, 2007 (annual meeting)
February, 2007
2006 Meetings (partial list)
2005 Meetings
2004 Meetings


Documents Online:

Covenants Declaration of Covenants & Deed Restrictions scanned, PDF, ~1.9MB
Exhibits A & B Architectural Planning Criteria (& legal property desc.) scanned, PDF, ~700KB
Exhibit C Articles of Incorporation scanned, PDF, ~1.4MB
Exhibit D By-Laws of the Association scanned, PDF, ~1.2MB
Amendment 1 1983 Amendment (parking & developer "sunset") scanned, PDF, ~200KB
Guide "Homeowner's Information" (1999, summary of above) scanned, PDF, ~500KB
Architectural Review Form Fill out & submit this form before making any changes to your property. (paper copies available at any Board meeting)
Address Map Hand-drawn map, showing addresses. (unknown provenance)
Simple Plat Map A combined Plat map, showing property boundaries & easements. (from Palm Beach County, cleaned up in 2004 by VJ.U.)
County Plat Maps Original surveys, scanned by Palm Beach County; ugly but official.
Includes Vista Verde Sections 1 & 2 (Pondapple Maintenance HOA), & 3 (Hackberry HOA).		 (from Palm Beach County)
F.S. 720 Florida laws governing Homeowners' Associations (Courtesy flsenate.gov)

Other Useful Websites:

Look up property records, using the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser's data!
The website of the City of Boca Raton.
The official Code of Ordinances for the City of Boca Raton.


Disclaimer:

This site is provided as a public service only. Neither the Pondapple Maintenance Association, Inc., nor its officers, directors, employees, or contractors make any representation as to the accuracy of the information contained herein. For specific questions or official interpretation of the covenants, by-laws, or rules of the community, please contact the aforementioned parties directly. Nothing on this web site has been copyrighted, and much of the information presented is a matter of public record.