SFV Board Meeting Dec. 17, 7PM

The next Victor Gardens Single Family Village Homeowner's Association Board of Directors Meeting will be held Thursday, December 17 at 7:00pm. The location has not yet been determined. An agenda will be released prior to the meeting.

Builders Downsize the Dream - from the Wall Street Journal

Here's a interesting Wall Street Journal article describing a new approach in home building: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125807017854346243.html

Your Opinion Requested

An agenda for the next Master Board meeting has not yet been set. As of today, the next quarterly Board meeting has not been scheduled either. I thought now might be a good time to ask if there were any items that residents would like to bring to the Board's attention. Of course, its usually better if residents bring up the questions themselves during the meeting's homeowner forum. Sometimes that isn't always practical though. Please feel free to add your constructive comments to this post. I'll ask that the comments be used to draft the upcoming Master Board meeting agenda. I'll start it off with a few questions I've been asked by residents since the last meeting. Thanks for your participation.

Please be aware that architectural and landscape issues in general will not be discussed much at the Master Board meetings. Those question are better addressed in writing to the Architectural Review Committee, who have decided to meet at separate monthly ARC meetings.

Master ARC Meeting Agenda Available

The Master Association's Architectural Review Committee (ARC) will be meeting tomorrow evening, November 10,6:00 PM at Victor Gardens Neighborhood Activity Center.

The meeting agenda is available (here).

Centex Drops Effort to Build in Victor Gardens

According to the City of Hugo, as reported to me by a resident yesterday, Centex is dropping plans to build new homes within Victor Gardens Single Family Village. The merger of Centex with "The Nation's Largest New Home Builder", Pulte Homes, was cited as the reason for Centex's change of plans. Further research confirmed that Victor Gardens was removed from Centex's website.

Regularly Scheduled Master ARC Meetings Planned

In an effort to improve the Master Architectural Review Committee's process of reviewing new home plans and new landscape applications, a number of meetings have been scheduled. The meetings are scheduled for the second Tuesday of each month. Other additional Master ARC meetings may be scheduled as needed.

The next ARC meetings will be:

Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 6PM at the VG Neighborhood Activity Center

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009, 6PM in Sertino's Cafe meeting room.

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010, 6PM in Sertino's Cafe meeting room. Tuesday, February 9th, 2010, 6PM in Sertino's Cafe meeting room.

Sertino's Cafe doesn't have their 2010 calendar available yet. Julie Bixby work with them next month to schedule ARC's regular meetings further into 2010.

Master ARC Meeting Minutes - October 22

The Master ARC met on October 22. June Fulton generously volunteered to take the meeting's minutes. They can be found on the Master Association's page, along with other Master documents, financials, minutes, and contact information. You may also view/download the meeting's minutes by clicking on this link: http://www.victorgardensnews.org/files/minutes/vgca_arc_minutes_10_22_09.pdf

The Emphasis on Architecture

From the inception of this neighborhood, Victor Gardens' developer and builders often described the importance of historically styled homes, attractive landscaping, and a "Traditional Neighborhood" design approach. These all took a prominent role in Victor Gardens sales pitches, brochures, and websites.

In addition to the marketing approach, the developer, builders, homeowners, and the City of Hugo literally signed-on, and formalized this approach in the form of governing documents. As a result, all were required to comply with the same set of "rules" designed to complete the idea.

More recently, with the downturn of the housing market, homeowners became concerned about the Master ARC and Board's willingness to maintain the commitment to those documents and ideals. Some expressed concerns at Board Meetings and with City officials.

I thought it might be helpful for everyone to understand what the governing documents require, and which documents need more subjective judgement. The covenants, bylaws, disclosure statements, etc. are relatively straight-forward. Other documents, such as the Design Guidelines are not "black and white". They are, however, essential to clarify what's appropriate for this neighborhood.

For the benefit of all, and to keep some of these "rules" straight, we've developed a document that summarizes a lot of the architectural information found in the governing documents. As a reference point, I think it may be very helpful:

http://www.victorgardensnews.org/files/arc/arc_governing_document_references.pdf

It's clear that a comprehensive "Traditional Neighborhood" approach does not appeal to everyone. It isn't meant to. The vast majority of most other suburban neighborhoods don't look like Victor Gardens- and that's perfectly appropriate. Some might think Victor Gardens' "rules" are too restrictive or rigid. Others understand that they're in place to preserve the character that began here years ago.

- Mark

SFV ARC/Board Meeting Minutes Posted

Minutes for the most recent SFV Board & ARC meetings are now available on our Single Family Village page.

Master ARC Meeting - October 22

The next meeting of the Victor Gardens Community (Master) Association Architectural Review Committee will be held at 6:00pm on Thursday, Oct. 22 at the VG Neighborhood Activity Center.

There currently are no pending applications for the ARC to review. The meeting is expected to be a workshop between Board/ARC members, and a time for the ARC to further develop an architecture and landscape checklist based on the Covenants, Landscape Requirements, and Architectural Design Guidelines.

At this point, it is unclear whether the Board/ARC will open the meeting to homeowners.

SFV Volunteers Needed for Resident Welcome Packet

The Single Family Village Board is looking for talented volunteers to help with a "Welcome Packet" for new (and existing) residents. Years ago, CPDC gave welcoming packets to new residents, and the Board was hoping to revive a good idea, and update it with new information.

Do you have writing, marketing, or publishing talent? Do you have ideas that would be helpful for residents old and new? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please contact Mark to volunteer. Thanks!

Mark Youngdahl's Opinion of Centex's Home Plans

For those who have asked to see it, I have shared my copy of the Centex plans for new homes in Victor Gardens' Single Family Village. A few weeks ago, after seeing my copy of Centex's second ARC submission, Josh Berger asked Mark Youngdahl to provide his opinion of the plans. Mr. Youngdahl's firm, Senn & Youngdahl, is one of the founding builders in Victor Gardens' Single Family Village.

During last night's SFV Board/ARC meeting, Josh provided copies of Mr. Youngdahl's written opinion report to the Board/ARC members. The document was placed into the meeting record.

You can view/download copies of the opinion letter by following this link: Youngdahl opinion letter