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By:
Stephen C. Anderson, President
Sun City Anthem Homeowner’s Association Board of Directors
Tomorrow, September 22, 2022 the Board of Directors will be voting to approve the revised Sun City Anthem Design Guidelines and the Sun City Anthem Rules and Regulations. It is our hope that these documents are easier to read and to locate the relevant information. With the exception of the nine listed items listed that do not require ARC approval, please know that all other installations and modifications that you make to your home and its front yard, side yard, and back yard (including the patio) do require Architectural Review Committee approval.
The Rules and Regulations include the use restrictions; conduct; guest policy and fees; activity cards; leasing or renting of a dwelling unit; and the age and occupancy requirements.
The development and revision of these Design Guidelines and the Rules and Regulations have been carried out by volunteers from the Covenants and ARC Committees, management staff, and Board members. We have presented these documents to you through a community forum and have listened to many homeowners who have spoken at the forum and have taken the time to write emails. In the end, these represent the rules that every resident and homeowner has agreed to live by when either renting or buying a home in Sun City Anthem.
I want to be clear that these rules and standards are not just for your neighbor but also for you. Keeping your trash and recycling cans behind an approved enclosure or keeping them in your garage is not just for the person across the street, but also for you. I know that all of us, including me, like to feel “well, it is my house and property, and I will do what I want to.” However, please remember you have agreed to follow and abide by these rules.
From my service on the Board, I have often heard that Board members are just seeking power and like to play dictator, telling others what they can or cannot do. Nothing could be further from the truth. This Board has worked to be clear with what we have come to believe are the collective set of rules and standards that we all agree to live by as a way of keeping our property looking good and maintaining an aesthetic appeal and uniformity to the community. We do this as a way of maintaining a community that, along with all our amenities, is appealing and encourages people to buy a home here. These are not the Board’s rules, but they represent your rules. It is the Board’s role to vote on their establishment and to then enforce them.
If you ever get a violation notice you should not ever be surprised, because if you have read these rules and standards, you should immediately know what rule or standard you have not followed.
In knowing these rules and standards, please work at being a good neighbor. You want your neighbor to follow them, and they want you to follow them also. If you are concerned about a violation on your neighbor’s property, be a good neighbor and talk to them. Listen to them and maybe learn whether they have had health problems or other issues that have prevented them from taking care of the problem. Don’t just assume that they are arrogant, stubborn, or do not care.
If talking with your neighbor does not yield results, you can easily file a violation complaint with the Community Standards Department. You can do this by submitting a hard copy of the complaint on the forms next to the complaint box adjacent to the entrances in Anthem Center, submitting it online or by calling the Community Standards Office. Please remember that the owners of the property you are complaining about will never know who submitted the complaint. This information is confidential. Also, Community Standards will never tell you anything other than advise that they have received your complaint. Violations and dispositions of those violations are also considered under law to be confidential.
If you receive a violation notice, please do not get angry; instead, remember that you have agreed to abide by these standards and rules. The first notice you get is a courtesy reminder that you have violated a rule and standard and will ask that you correct it in 30 days.
Most owners who receive a violation notice cooperate and the issue is taken care of in this time period. If it is not corrected in 30 days, you will get an official violation notice and have 30 days to correct the issue; if you do not correct it, a hearing will be scheduled with the Covenants Committee.
This committee is composed of your fellow homeowners who volunteer to hear these violations, decide whether the violation took place, and decide on whether to issue a fine or to work out another resolution with the homeowner. Well over 90 percent of all issues are taken care of in this time frame.
There are a small number of cases where violations will go on for a year or more. Please know that the Association is doing all we can to resolve these issues. We are always limited by law, and if we have to get a district court order to go onto a person’s property it may be tied up in the legal system for several years. I realize it is frustrating that we cannot tell you what is going on, but do know we are doing all we can.
The bottom line is to work at being a good neighbor and settle concerns and issues between yourselves as two caring human beings.
The revised Design Guidelines & Rules & Regulations will be mailed out with the age survey. Most likely they would go into effect, January 1, 2023.
Some notable quotes:
“The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.”
Hubert H. Humphrey
“Your best friend and worst enemy are both in this room right now. It’s not your neighbor right or left – and it’s not God or the devil – it’s you.”
Edwin Louis Cole
“When one neighbor helps another, we strengthen our communities.”
Jennifer Pahika
Stephen C. Anderson, President
Sun City Anthem Homeowner’s Association Board of Directors
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