Who handles what?

Some of the best things in life are what you don’t give much thought to when you use them. For example, fixing toast in the morning means grabbing two slices of bread, but all that concerns you is that the bread you need is in the pantry. You don’t have to think about wheat seeds, rainfall, tractors, transportation of ingredients to the baker, shipment of finished bread to the store or anything else.

The same is true for appreciating the many benefits of living or working in Valley Ranch. Open spaces, maintained landscaping, beautiful waterways, paved walking and biking paths… the list goes on. Yet, if a question comes up about any of these features or if a maintenance need arises, who takes care of it? Here’s some simple pointers:

  • IFCD 3: The District maintains the free flow of water through streams, canals, lakes, ponds and other system features used to direct precipitation from throughout Valley Ranch to the IFCD 3 dam and pump system for discharge into the Elm Fork of the Trinity River. With few exceptions, the District’s property are waterways that end at the shoreline, including canal walls and natural erosion control plantings at water’s edge, as well as the IFCD 3 sluice gates, the pump station, emergency power equipment and other support facilities.
  • Valley Ranch Associations: The residential, commercial and master boards of VRA oversee nearly all of the property that makes up the common areas of Valley Ranch. Professionals with the VRA’s contracted management team and outside service providers attend to tasks such as landscaping, mowing and general maintenance of community areas that are IFCD 3’s immediate “neighbors”.
  • City of Irving: As part of their broad set of functions and services, the city provides for general construction, maintenance and repair of key assets that also are connected to IFCDD 3’s waterways. These include sidewalks, streets, storm and sanitary sewers.

There are numerous times when two or three of these organizations work together to support the overall Valley Ranch community most efficiently and effectively. For example, while our goal is to construct and maintain efficient and effective flood control facilities with clean, simple lines, our mission does not allow for construction of community amenities. A great example of teamwork was the development of the Campion Trails Extension along the eastern boundary of Valley Ranch. The City of Irving and Dallas County provided for construction of the trail and necessary bridges, VRA delivered landscaping for the finished project and IFCD 3 revised flood control facilities along the right of way to facilitate the project.

As a responsible steward of taxpayer resources, IFCD 3 focuses on making strategic, intentional decisions on construction, maintenance and repair of flood control assets and facilities. Working individually and collaboratively with the Cit and VRA, we contribute to keeping Valley Ranch an attractive place to live, work and play.

Want to learn more about Irving Flood Control District Section III? Read other installments of WaterWays, follow the District on Twitter and Facebook.

Irving Flood Control District III