Committees and "Ex Officio"

DonnaS - Great story. What blows me away is that one of the members who lives near the house went ballistic as to the vote of the President. Cry me a river. She bought into a property regime where the rules are that the Board must vote on the matter. Too bad about the process. Be that as it may though, you do admit the Board approved a color scheme that was a bit off of the "normal" guidelines of earth tone. It seems the outcome may be questionable but what more can any one Board member do but to vote and make sure it's documented in the minutes. What are you feelings /perspective on the divergence in the color guidelines??

Gerald,
I'll give you a little background. Our ARC "guidelines" as we call them is a manual that ever resident is required to have per law. It is 35 -8-1/2 X 11 inches and 35 pages long. In it we spell out landscape requirements, setback allowances, additions, fences, colors and every and any item concerning architectural elements. We have diagrams on many items with the purpose of informing all members what they can and cannot change.

I am chairman of the Docs committee who just spent a few months rewritting it to make it easier to understand and got rid of items that no longer are pertinent. That is why I am the Liaison to the ARC group. Also, I am a watercolorist so colors are something that I can work with and understand what they look like when you greatly enlarge them to house size.

One of the things that we did when addressing the color restrictions was to go to Sherwin Williams and we bought a color swatch stick from them. (The ones with a thousand or so colors) We showed the ARC that what they can do is to determine which colors were acceptable to fit in with the scheme of the developement and eliminate all that were determined to be not appropriate.

Now, our Developement has 565 houses done in developer colors--palest of green, tan, pink, beige and every shade of white that there is. I call it the vanilla neighborhood. The ARC manual(guideline book) and covenants state that houses should be in earth tones. We looked that up and found that earth tones cover much of the tones in the world minus purples, pinks and blues. This approval was for a pale olive green for the trim and a soft yellow for the body of the house. The colors are within the swatches that were approved by the committee. And it looks awesome--at least to me and most others.

I'm sure it looks lovely - but that's not the point!!.

If there are "adopted guidelines" about what the color palette is for your subdivision, then 'outside the box' colors should not even been entertained. Your presidieng officer should have stopped the motion because it was in conflict with an existing rule.

Now, because it looks so good, everyone is second-guessing your Board's ability to make a decision and enforce it.

So, tell me - just WHAT colors are OK, now!!?

The Pandora's box is open, I'm afraid.

Sorry, I didn't understand. Green and yellow are not earth tones, IMHO.

But back to your statement:
"So, the moral of this story is that Board Presidents have the ability to vote on any and all committee matters in order to get a vote accomplished per "EX OFFICIO" in Florida"

Can you site your source for this? Normally, at the COMMITTEE level, the president attends but is not a voting member of a committee, (ex-officio just means due to his/her position) so I'd like to read that law.

On the Board votes, he could be the tie-breaker.

Regardless of color - If a member of the Board, serving on a committee were to participate in a discussion and vote on a committee matter, if the matter were appealed to the whole board.... there is a question if that same board member could vote as a Board member on the matter or ethically, if they should abstain. Just bringing in a new wrinkle to the discussion. (Personally, I like yellow houses with white trim - and we actually have a few in Las Vegas that break the mold of stucco and tile.)

donna,
i am interested to se how your your hoa might differ from mine.

1, are your arc guidlines part of yourgoverning docs. or policy from the present or former bod?
2, when you say you have rewritten the docs do you mean your governing docs which in my assoc. require a majority vote of the membership to change?
3 how old is your assoc. and has each bod adheard to the same color pallette through the years?
4 do your governing docs. say homes shall be painted "original builder colors" or do they provide for like mine,discreation of the bod and or the arc.?
5 do you have separate sub divisions within the community and if so do they have separate coplor pallets?

DonnaS - Has the ARC presented the color options and schematics to the entire community in an open meeting, duly called with the matter as an agenda item? Seeing it is believing it.

DonnaS - Where in my email did I state that 565 members, or all members have to agree??? You have missed my point 100%, please don't read into what I've asked. My point is not in getting all to agree, clearly that's not necessary based upon what you've posted are your ARC rules and ability for them to amend or decide. My point is that in presenting the color choices and variety to the entire community, it will present them visually with the options that exist in earth tones. The act of presenting, or attempting to present, should quell those not in agreement with the color choices and show owners the variety.

Regarding your statement, "There has to be a time and point where an owner has some rights to chose options for his home." you are correct. However don't you think that presenting those options will assist?

DonnaS - Once again I never said to go to the 565 for approval. A good ARC and Board isn't about just making determinations, it's about pro actively communicating why those determinations are made; the basis for doing so. Your concern that some precedent will be set in showing owners the variety of color choices will probably perpetuate the "vanilla" color choices. Your intent for the post aside, the story itself to me is telling in how things work in your association.

DonnaS - Your original ost stated, "...his color choice were just a bit off of the "normal" scheme of the neighborhood. There have been many nasty e-mails from those who live near by but others love it's new fresh look.". You also state, "They pass huge amounts of changes and allowances and rarely have any unhappiness from the residents". Well of course the residents are happy, because it seems that exceptions (allowances) are being made.

Is the swatch guideline accessible to owners before they submit their ARC application? Do the owners know it is accessible, how and when to view it? Don't confuse my question as a knock on the intention and hard work of the ARC and you as a liaison. But, information is only as good as it is published and accessible.

DonnaS - You state, "But I think that a person has to have some ability to paint his house or plant a garden or move something in his yard without going before everyone, people who could care less or care way too much. Where are some of our personal freedoms going and where does the community not have a right to control that.".

In answer to you, the community technically only has a right to control what the by-laws, cc&r's, state/local/federal laws permit. Within the structure of the by-laws the community can amend what they wish. The community is bound to accept the property regime they purchased into. Otherwise, technically it could become anarchy. The Board has to weigh violations with a good business judgment and reasonableness rule. If the rules say an owner only has A - X options on painting a house, than Y & Z are a no, no.

There's something to be said for limiting options. I too was the primary developer our townhouse association ARC guidelines. I've a landscape architecture/environmental planning and design degree and background. We were primarily concerned with developing guidelines for the placement, quantity, and installation of landscape and other elements on the outside of units. We developed a recommended annual plant list, and a limited perennial plant list (apprx. 2 feet of mature height) to be intermingled in very wide and long planting beds in the front of each two story colonial style townhouse. These types of modifications required written notification to the Board and ARC, but not pre-approval. There in lies the freedoms we provided. Owners were anxious to personalize the planting beds so height and placement restrictions were the way we decided to go, not limiting color scheme. Anything that fell outside of the guidelines required pre-approval and submission of an application. There was a review process involved for that type of submission. The Board has the power to develop rules and regulations so long as they don't conflict with the Master Deed and cc&rs. By publication of the ARC guidelines the Board provided written approval to the owners. There will always be those living in associations governed by rules and regs that think they are immune (condo or single-family homes), that think they are living outside of the particular property regime. It takes a strong Board and community to not feel guilty to make owners abide by the agreement upon purchase.