Just some concerns

My questions are
We have know clue who the ARC committee is?
If we don't have one, how do we go about getting one?
What if the BOD decided themselves to be the ARC committee or decided not to have one?
If we have a ARC committee, why are our ARC forms being sent to the CM?

If the BOD is to decide; why are our forms being sent to the CM? Why is the CM responding to our changes? We just sent our ARC forms by email and the CM responded OK, but denied another change, which we can not seem to locate in our CC&R.

My partner and I looked through our CC&R for changes to front door. We are wanting to add a storm door (with a screen to it, for more air). The CM responded by saying the storm door was to be FULL VIEW (all one piece). If I can not locate the detail on the Storm Door in my CC&R, what can I do.

In response to the above...

Your "ARC" is who your governing documents has dictated it to be. If you do not have one, your governing documents should point to how to create one (usually "ARC" is such a "standard" committee, it is mentioned in most - but not all - governing documents - it can also go by many other names, but generally they have the same functions).

Often if there is no "ARC" or it is not fully staffed, etc - the Board DOES have the authority to act as the "ARC" on reviewing applications. Remember the "ARC" is a committee, so often it recommendations ultimately need board approvals to be valid.

I am going to assume that "CM" = community manager. The "CM" acts in an administrative capacity for "ARC" applications. Ensuring that the application is properly completed, and that the requesting owner is fully up to date in their responsibilities to the community. Also the "CM" would be the initial reviewer of the application to assure that the general provisions of the community standards are properly addressed (correct type of wood, colors, structure height/width limits, property line issues, etc).

On issue of "full door" most doors with double-paned glass, have either one or both panels which will open to a screen. If I am to read that the door must be "one piece" to mean one glass piece top to bottom, there should be mention of this in your "ARC" guidelines, if not the other governing documents should address (although they probably are describing/defining in general terms). If the "CM" rejected the application or that portion, I would expect them to have at least provided the cite (references to the governing documents) to the authority by which they are stating the error in the application.

It's asthetics reason why the doors must be one-piece. In a HOA, you basically have to get what everyone else has. It's called "Uniformity". For example, in our HOA a few houses have garage doors. Those doors have no windows in them. A few residents have decided to close off the garage and make it into an "extra room". However, the garage area has no windows anywhere. The homeowner's were granted they could enclose the garage but they can NOT remove the door nor can they install a garage door with windows.

This technically isn't in the CC&R's but it does fall under "uniformity". If the houses were to remove the door and put up siding, it wouldn't match the other houses. Plus now they could be considered 4 bedroom houses which would mess with the home values. House values are what other comparable houses have sold for in the area. We only have 1 - 3 bedroom houses. A house with a 4th bedroom would be more "desirable" than the rest but wouldn't match in comparible sales. Adding a garage door with windows would have an almost equal effect.

It's important in a HOA for the homes to be uniform in not only appearance but floor layout. You may think a simple door change doesn't matter. However, just drive around a non-HOA and check out the mismatches. You will see how much of a difference it is to have homes that are similar together. It's more appealing to the eye. Plus the most important detail a HOA is reponsible for is keeping thing uniform and neat. It doesn't matter how nick picky that can be. We aren't even allowed anything other than WHITE shades in our front windows! Now that is picky and is in our CC&R's!

It's hard to understand the "Extra bedroom" scenerio at first. It was something I missed a few times myself. A good example of what I am saying is this: It's much like building a million dollar house amongst homes that are worth $100K. When the million dollar house goes up for sale, what will it sell for? Will the houses around it raise in value or will the million dollar home value go down?

Most likely the million dollar home will devalue a bit and the homes around it will stay the same or raise a bit. You can't make a million dollar home out of $100K house. A million dollar home can't become a $100K house either. This is why houses of the same style, floor layout, and square footage are built in groups/subdivisions.

You can basically price yourself out of your neighborhood by making too many improvements. Adding pools, huge additions, or adding other extravagant expensive items. If your neighbors don't have expensive items, then you shouldn't either. I remodel homes and I never remodel a home better than the ones around it. I won't get my investment back. It's also harder to sell if they buyer doesn't think they would recoup paying for the "extras" when they sell in the future. Why install marble flooring when everyone else has home depot tile?

Very few homes in our community have the same or similar floor plans.

We have 275 homes and many are custom homes. We had about 5 builders who put in a handful of spec homes, and you can't tell them from the custom since they are all spread out.

I don't know what we would do if we had to make sure they all stayed so close in appearance! LOL

Right now the ONLY thing that is the same on all homes is that we have a standard mailbox we mandate. Well, a standard mailbox STYLE. Black, metal on a black steel post with the newspaper holder on the bottom.

However, we will soon be having someone submit a request for a bricked box, since the main drag gets a lot of vandalism drive throughs (the "baseball" game with mailboxes).

Our arch committee is reviewing and will probably approve on a case-by-case basis as long as the brick is identical to the house and the brickmanship is decorative and not just a brick column with a paper and mail hole in it.

Thank you all for respoding. However, I still could not locate this "FULL VIEW" for the storm door. I did email the CM, who has not responded as today.

In community, you buy whatever mailbox you want (most of us have one that matches some color of the home.
If it's brick, you must get it approved.
We have nothing in our CC&R about alarm signs (most people here have the same company-they work with the builder).

We can not convert our garage, it must be used as a garage. We can put up whatever blinds we want. Some people still have none. Most of us have 2 car garages, some have 3 garages. Some of us have 2 doors, while others have 1.

One the main street, a couple wanted windows in their garage, so they replaced it and got fined (WHY? they did not ask), they said their neighbors had windows and that's what they wanted. I don't know what came out of it.

When the HOA become very picky or too picky, this why people move out or won't move in. The fence we can not have is chainlink, it can be any height, but nothing over 6feet. You must have a inground-pool, with a fence of 5 feet surrounding it.

Alot of homes here are the same, reversed floor plans, but the outside are different elevations. In this community, you did not have alot to choose from. I think there were 5 homes with 2-3 elevations.