Architectural Guidelines Should be Retricted and Committees Elected

Most Covenants give too much authority and control to unelected, Board-appointed, architectural control or design review committee members.

These committees directly impact the quality of life within a neighborhood and limit what can be done to personal property without restraint. People with this much authority should be elected not appointed.

Some guidelines are overly specific but a majority are so broadly written that however the committee interprets it is valid and can not be challenged. Committee members may impose their own personal taste and prejudices on the neighborhood. In the name of preserving property values, they can deny anything they don't personally like. They can foot-drag approval and require endless and costly design modfications and resubmissions. For example, they can thwart the law requiring HOAs to allow front yard gardens by creating expensive burdensome restrictions on vegetable garden fencing. As these decisions can be enforced by fines and requiring homeowners to remove unapproved modifications, committee members should be elected and subject to removal by vote of the homeowners.

In addition, there is no penalty for their not complying with the law or Covenants as individual homeowners can't afford the time or money to bring enforcement action. For instance, despite the Colorado open meeting laws, CCIOA and our own Covenants and by-laws, our ARC has never in over 20 years had an open meeting or published minutes. Our committee is two people. One has been a member for over 10 years and a second member for over five. The Board won't appoint anyone new despite a large number of new homeowners.