Project overview
This project seeks to promote healthy coastal ecosystems, including inland lakes, rivers and streams, by assessing knowledge, behavior, barriers, motivations, and education support needs for homeowners' associations (HOAs) and commercial property owners, related to stormwater and green stormwater infrastructure practices.
According to statistics from iProperty Management, there are 7,725 homeowners' associations (HOAs) in Minnesota and 26.7% of the state's population lives in HOAs. HOA communities offer a variety of housing types and prices for residents - townhomes, condominiums, single-family detached units, multi-family rental units, and senior housing - but can be challenging to work with from a stormwater management perspective. HOA boards and property management companies often lack the technical expertise to properly maintain stormwater and green infrastructure practices such as ponds, raingardens, and vegetated swales, and can also negatively impact water resources through their irrigation, lawn care, and winter maintenance practices.
Lessons learned through this research project and education materials developed in the future will be relevant for communities across Minnesota and in other states that are working with HOAs and commercial properties.
Research findings
- HOAs can be hard to engage with and often don’t consider stormwater and green infrastructure maintenance to be a major concern
- Stormwater ponds are the most common treatment practice at HOAs
- HOAs are unclear on how much to budget for stormwater infrastructure maintenance or how to conduct routine inspections and long-term maintenance
- Property managers lack the proper tools to support their HOAs
- HOA board members and property managers are most interested in simple, infographic style fact sheets and short, how-to videos.
- HOAs are very concerned about financial impacts.
Key innovations/contributions
This project surveyed HOA board members, property managers, and commercial property owners to assess their knowledge, behavior, and motivations related to stormwater control and treatment and to identify barriers that prevent HOAs from properly maintaining their stormwater management structures. The survey contributed to the development of resources, tools, and information delivery strategies that can help HOAs to properly maintain their stormwater infrastructure.
What does this mean for Minnesota?
By better understanding where HOAs and property managers need support concerning stormwater green infrastructure, practitioners and managers can better work together to support the water quality of their neighborhoods.
Project assets
Reports and Presentations
- Final report 2024.pdf
- Summary of survey results .pdf