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Posted By ElleN on 05/28/2023 5:20 PM
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The covenants are contractual terms. Even though the declarant is still in charge of the HOA, case law says in general that the declarant cannot do things that result in a drastically different scheme for the HOA. The meaning of "drastically different" often involves subjectivity.
There are exceptions to this.
Back during the Great Recession/Housing Downturn, builders who found themselves in financial trouble often had to change course in mid-stream or risk going bankrupt. Some of the changes involved building smaller, cheaper homes (because that was the only thing selling), or they sold off some lots to a different builder altogether whose homes didn't necessarily fit in with the previous style, or they decided not to build a clubhouse or other amenities. I vaguely remember hearing of at least one case where the builder sold off some of the originally platted area to another developer who got the land re-zoned to commercial.
It's always a risk to buy in a community that's still under development. Aesthetics and ambitious plans sometimes must bow to economic realities. In the OP's case, who knows what the developer's plans are for that model home. A small clubhouse or pool house? An office for an on-site manager and other employees? Could be anything.
(My condo community was originally platted for 76 units, but we have 74. Around 2010 the builder began putting up a different style of townhome - not glaringly different, but you do notice them - because the market for the originally planned condo and townhome buildings evaporated. We lost two units because the site for the originally planned 8 unit condo building could only accommodate a 6-unit townhome building - different size units plus a site that needed walkout lower levels.)