ACC standing by fence policy

Several Bella Vista property owners showed up at the office of the Bella Vista Village Architectural Control Committee on Feb. 17 hoping to speak to the committee during its monthly board meeting about its recent decision to enforce a “no white fence” policy in Bella Vista.

But because the ACC is a self-financed, private organization, whose meetings are therefore closed to the public and media, the individuals, as well as a camera crew from a northwest Arkansas television station, were asked to leave the building and no discussion was held.

“The ACC does not receive any money from the city tax dollars and no funds from any of the (Property Owners Association) dues. It is a self-financed organization,” said ACC Administrator Buddy Vernetti. “The money to run this business comes from fees. When a builder builds a new home he buys a permit from the ACC. So we’re a non-profit organization, and because we are that way we are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.”

The group of individuals was led by Lt. Col. Jim Parsons (RET), the chairman of the Bella Vista Patriots and Benton County chairman of the Transparency in Government Group (TIGG).

“This morning, Mr. Jim Parsons had gathered up some people to come and crash our ACC meeting,” said Vernetti. “We’re not open to the general public. I had to call the police and have that group of people, along with KNWA-TV, which was also here to crash our meeting, leave the building.”

Vernetti did say property owners can go through an appeals process in front of the committee if they receive a notice of a policy violation, but there is a process they must go through to be placed on the agenda.

“Any property owner, a member of the POA, who has a violation and would like to talk to somebody other than the administrator here, which is me, about their violation, can write us a note or email us that they would like to appear before the whole committee and we’ll schedule them to come in,” he said. “So there is an appeal process, but our meetings are not open to the general public.”

Vernetti said individuals desiring to speak to the committee regarding an appeal must send in an email with that request. They receive a return email telling them at what point during the meeting they will be allowed to speak and how much time they will have to speak.

“We usually only have about enough time for four people to speak,” he said. “We put them at the first of the agenda so they don’t have to wait through the whole meeting. They come in one at a time and are given 10 minutes to present their case. Then, after they’ve presented, any committee member can ask a question. The case is not discussed until later in the meeting when we get to new business. Before the day of the meeting is over, anyone who appears before the committee will have a letter mailed to them telling them the outcome of their appeal.”

One person who did get to address the committee during its Feb. 17 meeting was Vicki Bronson, who had received a violation notice regarding her fence. She said she did get to speak, but said after the meeting she wasn’t allotted the full 10 minutes and was asked to leave before her time was up.

She also said the ACC has not been consistent in its communications with her on not only this issue, but also a previous construction issue she had going on at her address, and that letters she has received from the ACC have even had incorrect names written on the envelopes.

“I am a person who follows the rules, but you have to tell me what the rules are in order for me to follow them and they have been inconsistent in doing that,” she said. “They were remiss in their duties and I think I should be granted a waiver. I think it’s fine if for every new subdivision they want to outlaw white fences, but to make this retroactive is mean spirited and foolish.”

The policy of no white fences is one of many that have been put in place since Bella Vista first started being developed as a village.

“When Bella Vista was started in 1965, the developer’s goal was to build a community, or village, and nestle it into the woods,” said Vernetti. “In their opinion, the color white did not fit in the woods. So, at that time when they filed (that document), they also filed a document that gave the developer, Cooper Communities, Inc., the right and obligation to form an architectural control committee, which is where they got the right to have this.”

The policies are enforced by a committee, the members of which are appointed by Cooper Communities, Inc. (CCI).

“The only thing the developer has to do with ACC is they have the right and obligation to appoint three people, and they necessarily do not have to be employees of Cooper,” said Vernetti. “Those three members appoint up to seven ACC committee members. So our ACC committee is independent of Cooper Communities, with the exception that they appoint the members.”

He added, “I don’t get calls from Cooper that say, ‘I don’t like green.’ They don’t set our policies, they just appoint committee members.”

Some of the policies instituted by the ACC have to do with which colors are acceptable to be used on structures like fences, sheds and houses, which, for example, can’t be white either.

“No white houses,” said Vernetti. “White was not a ‘happy color’ for Bella Vista. Over the years this document has been massaged, changed, brought up to date many, many times. It’s done in the committee meetings.”

The fence issue began to boil on the first day of 2022, the day the ACC said it would start enforcing the policy.

“Sometime in the past it was decided, maybe 15 years ago, that white fences would not be allowed,” said Vernetti. “The idea was that white sticks out at you. At that time the committee said, ‘We will grandfather in the white fences that are here.’ From that time up until November of 2020 there have been hundreds of white fences built, and about 90 percent of them did not have a permit (to build the fence). So our inspectors got to the point where we couldn’t tell who’s in violation and who’s not, so we went to the ACC’s attorney — which Cooper has nothing to do with, we hire our own attorneys — and said, ‘How do we solve this problem?’ We were advised by our legal people that the policy can be changed, but you have to give ample notice. So, on Nov. 19, 2020, the ACC committee passed a procedure that there would be no white fences in Bella Vista — none — come Jan. 1, 2022. So we’ve given ample notice.”

Vernetti said the ACC ran newspaper ads and placed inserts inside water bills advising homeowners of the policy enforcement date.

“On January of 2022 we started enforcing it,” he said. “And we’re on legal ground because we gave ample notice that we were going to do it. The hubbub going on today with this (group being at the meeting) is because the deadline got here.”

He added, “People in general don’t like to be told what to do. When you buy a piece of property in this village, you automatically become a member of the POA and are subject to ACC rules.”

With only two inspectors on staff, Vernetti said the ACC isn’t spending all day driving the 563 miles of Bella Vista roads looking for violations of its policies.

“If you’re building a new deck, and you notify us and tell us the deck is finished and you’d like it to be inspected, my inspector comes out to inspect your deck and notices a white fence across the street,” he said. “We write that down and I mail them a letter. But Bella Vista is so big that we can’t spend days and days out driving around looking for white fences.”

Some residents are apparently assisting the ACC by calling in with locations of white fences.

“There is a certain group of people in this village that’s taken it upon themselves to be the police in this matter,” Vernetti said. “They’ll call in and leave a message. I don’t care who turned it in, I go out and look.”

Once the letter detailing the violation is mailed out, recipients have 10 days to respond in person at the ACC office with a paint chip of the new color they will be painting their fence. If that color is approved, the homeowner will receive a permit — at no charge — for painting the fence and will have six months to get the fence painted.

If the homeowner doesn’t respond during that 10-day window they will be assessed a $50 re-permitting fee.

The ACC has mailed out 90 notice of violation letters since Jan. 1. Forty recipients have come in to get the new painting permit.

“The way it’s supposed to work, and I know it doesn’t, is that when you buy property in Bella Vista, I’d say probably 90% (of buyers) go through a Realtor,” Vernetti said. “It’s the Realtor’s responsibility to notify the potential owner that Bella Vista Village is a covenanted subdivision, that it has a Property Owners Association, that it also has an Architectural Control Committee, and they are to inform Mr. Buyer of that. That’s not happening.”

Vernetti said his office tries to inform anyone who comes in to get a permit for a fence that white is not an acceptable color.

“With everybody who gets a permit for a fence we try to stamp ‘No White Fences’ on the permit,” he said. “We have a big red stamp with that on it. Now maybe 100% of them didn’t get stamped — we’re human beings and may miss one or two — but I’d say of the 90 letters we sent out, about 90% of them did not get a permit (to build the original fence) so they’re also in violation of having a fence without a permit. Had they came in and gotten a permit they would have been told no white fences.”

Vernetti said while white is not an acceptable color for houses and fences, it is approved in other situations.

“Per our guidelines and procedures, white doors, white trim, white railing and safety guards, all those are allowed but white fences are not,” he said. “I read the (letter to the editor) about (white picket fences being) ‘the American dream.’ If that’s your dream, you better not buy in Bella Vista. But that’s also true if you tried to buy in Pinnacle (in Rogers). They have protective covenants. They have a POA in there.”

Because a lot of the white fences in Bella Vista are vinyl, Vernetti said he’s received a lot of comments from homeowners that if they paint a vinyl fence it will soon peel and look bad.

“There is a paint you can use on vinyl,” he said.

While the policies established by the ACC are seemingly set in stone, Vernetti said there have been at least two instances were a policy was changed.

“We had a policy that you could not have a (satellite) dish on the front of your house, in the front yard or on the roof,” he said. “We changed that policy because when the policy was made dishes were so big … and now they’re small. So now we allow dishes on the front of a house or in the front yard because they’re the little ones.”

The other change was made to give those building a new home more time to receive materials in the wake of the current supply chain delays.

“Up until Jan. 1, 2022, if you came in to build a new home your permit was good for six months,” he said. “It said the exterior of the home, including the driveway, had to be completed in six months. At the end of the six months, say you don’t have your driveway in or your foundation isn’t painted the same as the exterior of the house, you can come in and get an extension for 90 days at no extra charge. And if it’s not done in that 90 days you can get a second no charge extension.”

He continued, “We changed that rule because of all the supply problems that are going on. You buy a permit from us Jan. 1 of 2022, moving forward that permit’s good for one year. We’ve reacted to the market. It was unfair to charge additional renewal extensions to a builder that’s busting his rear but he can’t get windows, or can’t get deck materials. So that’s an example of where we changed the opposite way.”

When asked if there had been any discussion by the committee to change the no white fence policy, Vernetti replied, “None,” adding, “There was a ton of discussions and deliberations with the committee leading up to this. It wasn’t done lightly. But at this point and time, there is nobody on the committee saying we need to change it.”

And, he said, “This committee is not going to change (policies) based on what the general public wants. Do we listen to the general public? Of course we do. But people just do not like being told what to do.”

Vernetti said he wanted to remind the residents that the ACC “is designed, and was designed, to enhance the building of a village and nestle it into the woods and attract property values.”

As for the backlash he and the ACC have received regarding this policy, he said, “We have noticed that those who are very critical of us, without exception, they all have some type of (current policy) violation. The guy that’s living out here, playing the game by the rules, doing the things he needs to do, you don’t see him writing this trash on Facebook.”