Protective Covenants Part Four

Rambo and Bubba Review Revisions to Protective Covenants

Bubba and Rambo returned from their daily, morning, tree watering exercises. Bubba moved the over-stuffed chair a little closer to the fireplace so he could start warming his nose, toes and fingers in front of the fireplace. It was cold outside, just the kind of weather Rambo liked and he was feeling frisky so he headed for his toy box. There were only two toys left in the box. The rest were scattered around the TV room where his toy box was kept. They were everywhere. Rambo poked his nose into the box and pulled out his favorite toy, the sock monkey.

Time To Play

Bubba was just about to doze off into a nap when Rambo came trotting into the living room and plopped the sock monkey down in Bubba’s lap and started whining for Bubba to throw the monkey so Rambo could go fetch. Bubba’s eyes popped open and he looked at the monkey and said, “Rambo, is that your monkey?” Rambo started jumping around and barking, trying to get Bubba up to play with him. His desire to play fetch, of course, had nothing to do with the fact that Bubba always gave him a doggy cookie after playing fetch.

Bubba smiled and wagged the monkey in front of Rambo’s face, then tossed it into the next room and Rambo bolted after it. He came trotting back with his head held high, proud of himself for retrieving the monkey. He had to be coaxed into dropping it though. It was Rambo’s way of teasing Bubba.

Bubba Rewards Rambo

Bubba grabbed the monkey and gave it another toss laughing at Rambo’s eagerness to retrieve it. This went on for another 5 minutes or so until Rambo took the monkey over in front the pantry door and dropped it. Then he sat on the monkey and started barking at Bubba. He wanted a cookie. Bubba chuckled and got up to get Rambo his reward. When he opened the pantry door he didn’t see any Rambo cookies. He looked at Rambo and said, “The cookies are all gone lil buddy.” Then he heard a voice from down the hall say, “Look on the door shelves in the pantry.”

There they were. Right where she said they were. He opened the package and pulled out a cookie. Rambo took off like a shot down the hallway with the cookie in his mouth. Bubba chuckled again because it made him think of how Rambo loved to play outside and how much fun he had walking the many different well-marked trails in the Village.

Bubba Comes Up With Inexpensive Solution to Sign Problem

Sometimes the signs identifying the trails and parking for the trails were difficult to see, especially at night. Bubba figured that was okay though because nobody used the trails at night anyway. During the day they could be seen but they were not real easy to see because they were forest colors with the dark wooden frames and background with light color lettering. He agreed that many of the signs were too small, but that would be easy and inexpensive to fix with a little help from the HSV Woodworkers club.

Bubba Has Mail

Bubba went downstairs to the computer office and checked his email. There was a posting notice from Facebook about a Protective Covenants Review dated 02/18/2019. Hmmm… he wondered what this was all about. Did they finally scrap that ridiculous 115 pages of restrictions? He opened the attached document and began reading. 

The very first paragraph said, “Following the process adopted by the Board of Directors at the August 15, 2018 regular meeting and contained in Hot Springs Village Policy Article 8 Section 5, the Architectural Control Committee (ACC) met on December 12, 2018 to review and recommend clarifications to the Protective Covenants. Their suggested changes were reviewed on January 7, 2019 by ACC Chair, the Board Liaison to the ACC, the CEO, and the ACC Staff Liaison.

Bubba Studies Onerous Rules

About here is where Bubba almost dozed off. These covenants were incredibly important, and even more boring. They did NOTHING to reduce the cost of keeping the properties and amenities well maintained. He thought about it for a little while then decided, “Okay. That’s enough. We HAVE to do something to get this mess straightened out.”

Bubba read this through three times and took notes before he understood what it said. Basically it said, “The ACC met on December 12, 2018 to make some changes to the Protective covenants and the changes were reviewed on January 7, 2019.”

This made Bubba grimace. He thought, “Here we go again. Another set of rules written by a committee.” Rules written by committee are usually loaded with “here-tos and what-fors” designed to confuse anyone trying to make sense of them. And why were the changes written in December, reviewed by yet another committee four weeks later in January and changes made again by this second committee, then the changes once again reviewed by the first committee, then reviewed once again by the second committee and not confirmed until February 8, 2019?”

Sounds Like Micro-management

It sounded like micro-management to Bubba. These changes are scheduled to be “reviewed and adopted” by the Board in their 03/20/2019 meeting. He wondered why the Board was waiting until March 20, 2019 to review then approve them after they had already been modified, reviewed, approved, and confirmed by the same people. But, he continued reading anyway.

Bubba Forsees More Problems for Contractors

The first change listed was, ” Permits may be revoked and fines assessed per the POA fine policy when the terms and conditions of the permit are not followed.” UH OH. Bubba sees another argument starting between the ACC and the contractors that work in the Village for the home owners. That will drive off even more of the contractors than they drove off during their first meeting with the contractors to explain the new PC requirements a couple of months ago. If this keeps up there will soon be no more contractors willing to work in the Village. He hoped that he could attend the meeting where the ACC was going to explain these changes to the contractors again. Bubba thought those high tech crayons were really cool and any meeting with free cookies was a MUST ATTEND meeting.

The next change was to part 5.1.3 of the PCs. It says, ” Any activities that require a permit and are carried out without a permit will be fined and may be required to be removed or remedied.” Well, this is not the amended part. The amendment just added that it was in accordance with the General Administration Policies. This policy predates the new PCs. He wondered why this one was in the changes.

ACC Chooses Exterior Colors

Bubba was puzzled about this next one. It says, “Modifications to roofing material or color, modification to exterior material or color, require Level 2 approval. See Ch. 7-13 and 15;”  Is that so all of the ACC can vote on whether they liked the colors or not? They have to vote on colors? Really? Bubba muttered, “That is silly.” Rambo immediately jumped up and started running in circles and having one of his barking fits. Bubba told him, “Rambo, INSIDE VOICE, INSIDE VOICE.” Rambo naturally ignored the command and as usual, he kept barking until he got it all out of his system.

Rambo Reacts to Word “Silly”

Bubba said, “What’s the matter Rambo? You don’t like the word Silly?” Rambo immediately began running in circles and barking again. Then Bubba remembered when he was trying to get Rambo to act silly upon command two weeks ago. The training didn’t stick back then but Rambo had a “convenient memory”. When he finally quieted down he sat in front of Bubba and gave him Rambo’s best “Gimme-a-cookie” look. Bubba laughed and gave him a little piece of a doggy cookie.

35% Minimum Organic Surface in Yards

The next changes were fairly minimal until he got to Continuous Yard Planting. Table 9.8-4 is about Continuous Yard Planting and it says, 3 trees (1 large tree, plus 2 small or medium trees), per 1,000 sf minimum, and foundation shrubbery planted on all sides of the house facing the street; 35% minimu organic surface. Bubba thinks they HAVE to be kidding. They are going to tell us we have to have 35% minimum yard coverage of “organic surface”. Bubba wondered if that includes in the set-back area between the drainage channel along the front of the property line and if it does, are the few weeds that pop up in the springtime included in that 35%. Bubba thinks this is another silly idea that was taken from that ridiculous CMP plan the BoD approved.

No Above-Ground Swimming Pools

The next section appeared to be all new. It was all about swimming pools and the first item says, “Above ground swimming pools are prohibited.” Bubba frowned at this one. He just knew the kids up the street a few houses were going to be very unhappy when the Compliance Police came knocking on their door to tell them they could no longer play in their above-ground pool. They always cleaned up any mess they made, drained their pool and put it away in their storage room in the back of their carport. He remembered an old saying by his favorite western movie actor, John Wayne about being stupid. Now he really felt sorry for the Board of Directors. They must have a REALLY TOUGH life.

The rest of the many additions to the Swimming pools section talked about the required screening, landscape permits, exterior materials, Health Department permits, Screening requirements, fencing and barrier requirements etc. It appeared the ACC was concerned about the aesthetics and safety issues of a pool but they forgot about getting it properly installed and efficiently functioning. Bubba started to mutter something about “stupid requirements” but stopped short and only got the “stu…” part out because he noticed Rambo’s ears perk up. He didn’t want to set off another round of hysterical barking.

Rambo Escapes to ‘Safe Place’

Bubba reached in the doggy cookie bag and got another piece of cookie. He reached down and gave it to Rambo who very delicately took it between his lips and trotted around with his tail wagging excitedly. Bubba got up to pet Rambo for being a good boy and Rambo took off toward the bathroom like a shot. He was afraid Bubba was going to take his cookie and eat it so he crawled in behind the toilet. It was his ‘Safe Place’.

Driveways

The next section talked about Driveways. It made some minor changes to the size of the driveway entry point and a change to allow regular pavement instead of the previous exposed aggregate requirement. “Hey”, Bubba thought, “That is a good thing. They eased up on one of the restrictions.” Then he frowned because at this rate it would be sometime in the 23rd century before they got all the baloney carved out of these PCs.

 “Wait a minute here, “Bubba said, “Section 10.1.2 a. says Carports and covered parking, excluding garage parking are not permitted. I guess I’ll either have to park in the driveway or build a garage. I’ll just keep parking on the gravel beside the driveway and see what happens.”

Enough was Enough

At this point in his studies he decided enough was enough. He called out, “RAMBO… Wanna go Walkies?” That was all it took to get Rambo to come out from behind the toilet. He ran to the front door and began trying to pull his leash off the door knob. Bubba laughed and said, “I guess that’s a yes, eh lil buddy?”

Their “walkies” took them by the home with the kids that have an “above ground” pool. The kids were out front of their home and Bubba decided to stop and chat with the kids about what a POA Compliance vehicle looked like and how to put their pool away in a hurry.

That’s all for this one my friends. I hope you enjoyed my little tail… I mean tale, about the adventures of Bubba and Rambo. Please take care and have a wonderful day.

Regards,
Bubba/Frank Shears, Managing Editor at Hot Springs Village People

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