Restarting nonactive small HOA

We have an HOA that has not had meetings or any filings to keep it active and registered for 10 years. There are only 7 homes in the subdivision. We do have CCR's which call for a BOD and ARC. Most of these members have moved from the subdivision over time. We had a major contentious meeting amongst all homeowners for a building site proposal which clearly violated the covenants from someone wanting to buy a property in the subdivision . Needless to say, it has brought to the forefront our need to reestablish our HOA with a BOD, ARC, and enforcement of the CCR's. Our CCR's do call for a BOD and ARC.

My question is that with such a small subdivision, should we have a separate BOD and ARC? Could the BOD do both jobs? Or should there just be a BOD and when someone wants to do something on their property should it be put to the entire subdivision for a vote since we're such a small HOA? Part of the problem is that we have apathy from half of the homeowners and I doubt that we could even fill both a BOD and ARC. We are also looking at changing our CCR's since this traumatic event so we could modify it to fit the current needs/interest of the HOA.

Ask for volunteers to sit on the ARC.
Twist your board member's arms to volunteer.

Use board members to fill any vacant seats on the ARC that aren't take up by non board volunteers.

When someone complains, point to the process, and ask "Are you volunteering?".

The ARC reports to the board anyway and should probably have at least one board member on the team already.

And remember, the most efficient committee is three people, one of whom is sick that day, and another who couldn't make it.

Greg,

You mentioned that there are seven homes in your subdivision and at least one in the planning stages. What is the total number of lots in the subdivision?

As for the one that is proposed: Based on court decisions, you would be wise to advise the owner of that lot in writing that there are covenants, what the covenants are, and which covenants he is proposing to violate. The courts have held that when a person is aware of a violation of covenants and builds anyway that he does so at his own peril. Implied in this is that failure to object at an early stage may be grounds to allow construction to continue. You or any other owner in the subdivision may take this step with or without having a formal association or an ARC.

The entire subdivision is 7 lots. One homeowner is trying to sell their home and a major remodel with numerous accessory buildings was submitted to the HOA by the buyer which is contingent to approval for the sale to go through. The problem occurred when half the homeowners wanted to approve whatever the buyer wanted so the homeowner could sell their property. The other half felt the proposal was in clear violation of the CCRs and felt they needed to be upheld or anybody could do whatever they pleased on their property due to the precedent being established. The final outcome of this dispute is now in the courts.

I'm looking head to the future of how we can tighten things up so we avoid this sort of thing in the future. Some homeowners just want to vote the easiest way to make this dispute go away and do not want to be involved with adhering/enforcing the covenants so we can move forward in an unbiased manner. I am in the camp of strictly looking at the covenants so we have a consistent policy that no one will feel slighted or point to favoritism.