Update on Architectural Design Guide and CC&R Working Document

November 6, 2021 We are pleased to announce several important projects being completed by the Architectural Control Committee and the Board of Trustees. We said at our opening meeting that one of our goals was to make the CC&Rs and Architectural Design Guidelines (ADG) easier to follow, and we have been hard at work to accomplish this.

Anyone that has tried reading the CC&Rs that govern our community has probably been frustrated by the difficulty in reading the Original Set of Documents and each of the 5 Amendments. In order to make the document easier to read, John Watson volunteered to complete a project to create a working copy of the CC&Rs that reflects the contents of the original document combined with each of the 5 Amendments. We tried very hard to ensure it is an accurate combination of the documents, but our Combined Working CC&Rs is an Unofficial copy, if you find any errors, please notify me. In the event any inconsistencies are found, the original CC&Rs will prevail as the ruling document, and the Working Copy will be corrected.

Our ACC, in conjunction with the Board of Trustees, next set on the task of updating the original Architectural Design Guidelines, which were last revised in 2007. Our goal was to make it both easier to read, remove some restrictions that we felt were unnecessary, confusing or burdensome . We also decided to make it more comprehensive by including relevant sections from Articles 5-8 of the CC&Rs. Members, Builders, and Architects should be able to use the new ADG in their planning process as the main resource to facilitate creating a plan that meets the requirements.

The ADG now contains text in two formats, regular and Bold. Bold Text should be interpreted as Required, if it is in regular text, it is included for recommendations or guidance. In many cases, text from the paragraph of the CC&Rs have been included to make the section clearer.

The early homes constructed in 2007-2008 are excellent examples of the style and character envisioned for Rio de Sion. When the bank assumed control of the development, they took no action to enforce the existing CC&Rs and Architectural Design Guidelines, and Members had no easy resource to have their plans reviewed and approved. Consequently, some homes were built without full compliance to the standards prescribed in the CC&Rs and ADG.. It would be unfair to require those homeowners to do expensive retrofits or remodels of their homes, but their homes also cannot be used for establishing a precedent, except as specifically outlined in the updated CC&Rs.. Effective from this date forward, all projects will be required to obtain ACC approval as outlined in Section 5.1 of the CC&Rs, which reads:

Architectural Control Committee.  A committee (the “Architectural Control Committee” or “ACC”) shall be established to finally Approve all aspects of the excavation, construction or remodeling of any building, structure or improvement on the Property.  Prior to the commencement of any excavation, construction or remodeling of any building or structure or of any addition to any building or structure, or modification of the natural topography of any Lot, or installation of fences, walls or landscaping (all of the foregoing referred to in this Declaration as the “Work”), Approval of the ACC is required in accordance with the provisions of this Section 5.

Any work so described that is proposed by a lot owner will require ACC approval. Obviously this includes new home construction, but also includes remodeling of a home. Major construction will require a full set of plans and a $500 Plan Application fee.

Maintenance needs such as changing front landscaping details or repainting a house, will require approval by the ACC, but the $500 Application Fee may be waived. If you are planning to do minor maintenance work, we suggest you apply using the ACC Approval for Minor Maintenance form in Appendix Exhibit C. If the ACC determines that it is complex in nature, they will notify you that you will need to submit with a $500 Plan Check Fee.

Finally, we revised the Construction Checklist for new Homes to include the elements the ACC is seeking, along with reference to the page numbers from the ADG. Use of this checklist should help you in your design and submittal process, as well as speed up the approval process.

All of the documents can be found on our website www.riodesionsubdivision.com

The CC&Rs can only be modified by a vote of 75% of the Members of the Community and our attorney has advised us that we will likely need to update some of them due to technical changes in Utah law. If you have recommendations for changes to the CC&Rs, and believe that the change would be likely to be approved by 75% of the Members, please give us your suggestions by emailing the Board.

We are here to serve you, please let us know how we’re doing by emailing riodesionbod@gmail.com

Sincerely,


Loren Campbell
President