The Architectural Review Committee Attempts to Get Some Answers

Following the builder’s confusing email to the neighbors in which he claimed he would be building essentially the same houses that had already been built in the Overlook development, he nonetheless continued to market the “3300+ square feet” homes on four levels (which would be nearly twice as large as what was indicated on the original site plan for those lots).

The new Architectural Review Committee (ARC) for the neighborhood decided they had better obtain something clearer than the hand-drawn “plans” that had been nominally approved for Phase II by the outgoing ARC in the fall, on the day the builder purchased the lots.  The section on architectural review in the HOA documents required substantially more than those hand-drawn plans in order to review and approve new construction in the neighborhood.  Among other things, it required a “schematic and detailed drawing…showing the nature, kind, shape, dimensions, material, floor plans, color scheme, and location of the proposed Structure,”  an estimated cost to complete the work, a proposed construction schedule, and a designation of parties to perform the work.

On January 10, 2013, the Overlook ARC sent the builder a letter requesting that he submit plans for ARC review before starting construction on the remaining eight lots.  The letter also reminded him of his duty to obtain all necessary government permits before beginning construction.

In light of the mixed messages from the builder, it seemed prudent for the ARC to obtain assurances that the small number of remaining homes to be built would be in keeping with the thirty existing homes in the neighborhood.

Many residents had one concern in particular.  It had become apparent over the previous years that the Phase II lots were simply much less desirable than the original thirty lots, because  they are very close to two commercial buildings (one of which is used as a parking garage and is in a state of disrepair), a gravel parking lot, and an intermittently sluggish stream which is often sludgy and foul smelling in the warmer months.

View of the stream from one of the Eric Shaefer Way lots:

  

Some residents worried that in order to sell homes on these lots, a developer would attempt to dramatically increase the size of the homes and lower the overall price.  All these concerns were made even more acute because the Overlook development was originally intended to become the first residential LEED certified project in Maryland, its “green” aspects having been the initial attraction for many buyers.

On January 17, 2013, a week after the ARC’s letter requesting copies of plans for review, after asserting in phone calls and conversations with members of the ARC and the HOA board throughout the prior week that he had no obligation to submit to any oversight by those bodies, Mr. Davies wrote in an email to the ARC chairman:

I want to confirm that I will deliver to you tomorrow (Friday January 18^th), for record purposes only, copies of the approved architectural drawings and site plan, for the entire Clipper Overlook project.

Mr. Davies dropped those plans on the chairman’s doorstep the following morning. 

The plans Mr. Davies delivered “for record purposes only” did not entirely clarify matters.  They included architectural drawings of the two Overlook home models that had been approved by the City Planning Commission in 2006.  But they also included a modified plot plan, dated October 27, 2012, in which the smaller, shorter 1-car garage homes approved for Eric Shaefer Way in the 2006 plan had been replaced with larger, taller 2-car garage units including 12-foot sunrooms extending from the sides.  There was no evidence that the Planning Commission had approved these larger, taller homes for Eric Shaefer Way.  Nor was there any indication that the new, larger homes would have 4 levels (as suggested in the hand-drawn plans Mr. Davies had submitted to the former ARC in September 2012), which would depart from the 3 levels of all existing Overlook homes.

The same morning that Mr. Davies delivered his “record only” plans to the ARC, construction equipment appeared on Eric Shaefer Way and excavation of new foundations on the first two lots began, with Mr. Davies himself operating equipment at the site throughout much of the day.