A Response To Defenders of Architectural Control Committees
August 07, 2021 09:39 Filed in: architectural control committee | HOA's
I received a tart email in response to a prior blog post about architectural control committees, and I want to respond to it here. The sender defended architectural control committees on two bases, which I address in turn.
(1) The homeowners who serve on the committees are volunteers. Yes, they are, and with distressing frequency precisely because they wish to exercise control over people. The problem is not, at heart, the volunteers, who are often excellent people trying their best. The problem is the whole premise: that laypersons volunteering from year to year, without construction, design, or architectural backgrounds, are the appropriate way to dictate the development of a subdivision over the course of decades. The system invites incompetence and abuse. Architectural control ought to be a technical exercise carried out by compensated professionals not beholden to any HOA, association manager, HOA lawyer, or subdivision owners.
(2) Some homeowners who serve on ACC's are excellent. Absolutely 100% true. But I am in the unique position of seeing the abusive situations because I get the calls from all over the state. I have no idea what the percentages are, and hopefully it's not more than, say, 10% of the ACC committeemembers who are crummy. But that's in a state of 25 million people, the majority of whom live in subdivisions, and the majority of which subdivisions have some form of architectural control committee.
(1) The homeowners who serve on the committees are volunteers. Yes, they are, and with distressing frequency precisely because they wish to exercise control over people. The problem is not, at heart, the volunteers, who are often excellent people trying their best. The problem is the whole premise: that laypersons volunteering from year to year, without construction, design, or architectural backgrounds, are the appropriate way to dictate the development of a subdivision over the course of decades. The system invites incompetence and abuse. Architectural control ought to be a technical exercise carried out by compensated professionals not beholden to any HOA, association manager, HOA lawyer, or subdivision owners.
(2) Some homeowners who serve on ACC's are excellent. Absolutely 100% true. But I am in the unique position of seeing the abusive situations because I get the calls from all over the state. I have no idea what the percentages are, and hopefully it's not more than, say, 10% of the ACC committeemembers who are crummy. But that's in a state of 25 million people, the majority of whom live in subdivisions, and the majority of which subdivisions have some form of architectural control committee.