Variance Request

A month ago I asked one of the Board Members if I could remove one of the bushes in my front yard and he told me I could. To be safe I later decided to submit a maintenance request. Today I received an email telling me that I need to fill out and submit to the Board a Variance Request. In my HOA people remove and replace bushes on a daily bases. Most never get approval to do it. My question is would replacing a bush with another different bush be considered a Variance when the community is full of changes. I thought that a Variance is something that is requested that is totally different than anything in the neighborhood. Example, If I wanted to put in a brown wood fence, when the neighborhood is all white vinyl.

Does this make since?

To answer your first question one of the board members told me that he took all the buses out and totally replaced everything with out permission. This wasn't my question. I want to know if this is considered a Variance. I think a Variance is more complex than just replacing an old bush. Isn't it

I would think a "Variance" would be a request for something that isn't allowed under architectural guidelines or rules. If your rules require 20 bushes and you want to remove some and only leave 10, that would require a variance. If your CCRs require 20 bushes, then I don't think the board would even be allowed to grant a variance.

It's also possible that your association is using the term "variance" to refer to what most associations would call an ARC request. ARC requests are often required even if the change appears to meet rules/guidelines so that the ARC can review and make that determination.

Per Merriam Webster:

Simple Definition of variance

: an amount of difference or change

law : an official decision or document that allows someone to do something that is not usually allowed by the rules