Highland Park: A neighborhood with amenities
It’s a quiet neighborhood and, while all the homes don’t look alike, they all look nice with well-tended lawns and closed garage doors.
You don’t realize what a difference the closed doors make, HOA president George Wuhs of Highland Park said. But the closed doors with few vehicles parked in sight do make the entire area look neater.
Highland Park is a neighborhood of about 157 homes just off of Highway 340, not far from St. Bernard’s Catholic Church. The homes range in size from 1,100 square feet to 2,500 square feet with colors that are approved by the HOA, so they coordinate well together.
Residents of Highland Park are members of the Bella Vista POA and the Highland Park HOA. The HOA takes care of outside maintenance so every lawn is carefully tended. But since they are all stand-alone homes, it’s not a big change for many new residents. Most of them, Wuhs said, are downsizing from a larger home in Bella Vista.
The development doesn’t have a minimum age, and occasionally a young family moves in, but they don’t always stay. They just aren’t comfortable with their mostly older neighbors.
The HOA amenities include a clubhouse and outdoor pool. The clubhouse has a kitchen, a small fitness room and a library. It is used by many card clubs and is often the site of neighborhood potlucks. There’s also a paved walking trail for the residents, but the quiet streets are also popular with walkers, many of them with dogs.
It’s a safe neighborhood, HOA vice-president Carolee Starovich said. There are many single women in the homes and everyone watches out for each other.
Because the residents are older, many are retired, which means that there are lots of people home during the day, Wuhs added. The Bella Vista Police drive through on a regular basis, too.
Residents who want to garden are free to do their own planting, close to their homes, and care for it themselves. One amenity that people don’t always appreciate is the well water provided by the HOA. Homes use Bella Vista water inside, but watering gardens and lawns can be done with well water and that’s a significant saving, he said.
The maintenance crew will clean gutters and do some power washing, Wus said. They paint or stain decks on a regular schedule.
A vacation rentals representative takes care of the schedules and most of the day-to-day problems.
When people move out of the neighborhood, they have little trouble selling their homes. There are always people wanting to move in, Starovich said. They don’t even have to list their homes. Word will get around through the neighbors.
The best thing about the neighborhood isn’t the maintenance or the amenities, Wus and Starovich agreed; it’s the sense of community.
“It feels like a neighborhood,” Starovich said. “People look out for each other.”