Do I need Anthem HOA approval for Yard Art?
If you live in Anthem Arizona, and you are considering incorporating any kind of artwork into your outdoor spaces (including the exterior walls of your home), you NEED to be asking yourself that question and we are going to help you with the solution…stick with me!
Hey everyone, welcome back! I’m Carolynn, with the Wise Move AZ Team at Realty ONE Group. If you want to stay up to date on all things Anthem and real estate then you’re going to want to subscribe to our YouTube Channel. Pro Tip: You’re also going to want to hit that little bell icon so that you’re the first to know when our new videos are posted every single Thursday!
As your Anthem, Arizona REALTORS® and as Anthem homeowners, we have worked through and helped friends and clients work through the HOA approval process. We are the proud recipients of recently obtained HOA approval for the addition of a new piece of artwork to our backyard (watch the video above to see it)! I am pleased to tell you that the HOA was easy to work with and helped to ensure a smooth and successful conclusion to our story.
The Basics:
Lets start with the basic rules for determining if you need approval for your yard art, they are really quite simple:
- If you live in Anthem Parkside all decorations, art, and ornamentation must be approved by the HOA if it is visible from neighboring properties, the street, sidewalks, trails, paths, walkways, or other common areas. If it can only be seen by you and people inside your yard, you should be good to go! Be creative!
- If you live in Anthem Country Club, all outdoor decorations, art, and ornaments must be approved by the HOA.
Prohibited Items:
Both Parkside and the Country Club have a list of items that some of us might consider art and are in fact prohibited. Examples of these items are:
- Driftwood
- Wagons
- Wagon wheels
- Skulls
- Sculptures
- Artificial Plants and Flowers
Some items that I think could fall into the “art” category and you need to exercise caution with are fountains and other water features.
The truth is that an exhaustive list of what is and is not allowed not possible, in fact, is limited only by the creativity of our collective artistic brains.
Our Recommendation:
We recommend that if you are thinking of putting something non-organic in your yard, first check the relevant guidelines and if you are unsure or cannot find what you are looking for, contact the HOA for clarification BEFORE you commission or buy the artwork you are considering for you yard. This just might save you time, frustration and money.
More Information:
Both the Anthem Parkside and Anthem Golf and Country Club Residential Design Guidelines are available by clicking the links below:
Anthem Parkside Residential Design Guidelines: http://cms6.revize.com/revize/anthem/parkside_document_center/APCA-Residential%20Design%20Guidelines%202018-11-15.pdf
Anthem Country Club Residential Design Guidelines: http://cms6.revize.com/revize/anthem/accca_document_center/ACCCA%20Residential%20Design%20Guidelines-Home%20&%20Yard.pdf
Anthem Parkside Exterior Change Application for Home and Yard: http://cms6.revize.com/revize/anthem/parkside_document_center/Parkside%20ARC%20Application%20rev%202017.pdf
Anthem Country Club Exterior Change Application for Home and/or Yard: http://cms6.revize.com/revize/anthem/accca_document_center/ACCCA-Exterior%20Change%20Application-Home%20&%20Yard.pdf
Our Experience:
I promised to tell you about my own personal experience so here it is. I have to confess, I made some mistakes along the way and by sharing my story I hope to help you avoid them.
My experience started with a great idea! A beautiful, one-of-a-kind stained-glass window in my backyard. The artist is a local Anthem resident and the subject matter of the stained glass is local as well. Just as I was about to permanently cement my beautiful stained-glass artwork permanently into my yard, I heard a little voice in my head saying “Do I need HOA approval?”.
Can you feel it coming? My first mistake was to commission the artwork before checking the Residential Design Guidelines and my second was to fail to apply for HOA Approval in advance. Let the application process begin! Both the Anthem Parkside and Anthem Country Club Exterior Change Applications – Home and Yard are available by clicking the links we have provided above.
The application is straight forward to complete (name, address etc.). It requires you to submit plans for the artwork as well as where you intend to locate it in your yard. I just submitted a photograph of the artwork together with a photo of my husband holding it up in our preferred location.
We heard back from the HOA fairly quickly, the first time with a question about our application and the second time the HOA made an appointment to come to our home…yikes! It was nothing, they “encouraged” us to choose a slightly different location (less visible from the path behind our home). As a bonus, the HOA’s suggested location gave us a better view or our artwork from inside our home and made it less visible from the path behind our home.
In about a week we had our approval and gleefully set out to install our precious stained glass in our yard.
We were lucky, the actual artwork met the basic requirements of what is acceptable under the guidelines. Our experience could so easily have gone awry and ended up being something that the HOA could simply NOT approve and I would have had a big beautiful piece of stained glass with no place to go. Don’t make the mistakes I made, ask first! Seeking permission after the fact is fraught with the potential for danger and heartache.
If you have any HOA approval stories that you’re willing to share we would love to hear about them. If we all share our experiences maybe we can collectively learn from each other’s mistakes.
See YOU, next Thursday!
