Architectural Review Committees

I am trying to find out if other HOA's have an Architectural Review Committee (ARC) & what role the committee plays? Is the ARC the final decision maker on building, landscape, & other external issues or does the Board makes those decisions? Is there an appeal process if someone does not agree with the ARC? Our HOA is having a difficult time with this. We have an ARC that has been in place for 13 years with no major issues. Now, there is a Board member that is unhappy with the ARC's decision on not letting her build a guest house on her property when the CCR's clearly state that only 1 single family residence is allowed. She now wants to shut the ARC down & have the Board make all of the decisions regarding building, etc. Any insight into this situation would be helpful. Thanks, JosieD

Josie,
First of all, your own Documents should have the provisions for operation of the ARC. They will have a statement as to what can be done if an applicant does not get an approval and an appeal process. Hopefully! No single Board member can shut down the ARC because most likely, it is required by your Documents.

My ARC committee makes the final decision or approvals or denials. We have a process where an applicant can appeal back to the ARC if they make any nescessary changes or alterations which were reccomended by the ARC. If the application is denied again, the applicant can write an appeal to the Board of Directors. The Board then has 30 days to approve or deny the applicant. In the event of a committee or Board member being the applicant, they must recuse themselves from the decision.

We rarely ever have a final denial because our ARC will give any applicatation at least 3 times to make the reccomended changes in order to comply with the restrictions.

From what you posted, there should be NO approval for a guest house.

First - you've got a BOD member who is involved in a Conflict of Interest and the rest of the Board needs to address that with her.

We do have an ARC (ours is called ACC) - the docs state what they state and the ACC/ARC has the duty to uphold the documents and respond to the applicant when it is clearly against the documents - and provide a reason (we specifically copy the info from the documents and I back that up by relaying the info directly to the homeowner as well so communication and effort has been shown.) The homeowner THEN usually has the right to appeal to the BOD if they do not agree with the ACC/ARC. The BOD will have the obligation of upholding your legal documents unless the BOD decides to alter the documents at that time and will comply with the requirement for any such alterations.