Every design review application the ARC receives, and where it stands. When the committee approves something, you can see what was approved and why. When it sends something back, you can see that too, and the reason. When the work is finished, you can see how it turned out.
This exists for one reason: so that a homeowner planning a project can find out what actually clears review before spending money, instead of guessing or asking a neighbor. No names and no addresses are published. In a neighborhood of 538 homes an address identifies the owner as surely as a name does, and it adds nothing you can use. What is useful is the project, the decision, and the reasoning behind it.
Submitted through the Business Office. It appears on this board the same week.
Written confirmation that the application is complete, or a list of what is missing.
Approved, approved with conditions, or returned with notes and reasons.
No clock on the construction itself. The only deadline is completion.
The file closes and a photograph of the finished work is posted here.
Any ARC decision may be appealed to the LVHA Board of Directors. The Board's determination is final. (CC&Rs §9.2; Design Guidelines §2.3.5.)
Click any card for the scope as submitted, the dates, and the committee's notes. Each one is identified by file number, project type and zone.
Logged at the Business Office. Receipt is acknowledged in writing within 7 days.
Replace 62 linear feet of painted wood front fence with a wood-look aluminum slat system. Existing fence is original construction with rot at four posts.
No committee notes yet — this application has not been reviewed at a meeting.
Body in a documented LVHA paint chart color, fascia and low-profile drip edge retained. Paint chips submitted with the application.
No committee notes yet — this application has not been reviewed at a meeting.
Replace failing asphalt drive with broom-finish concrete in two pours. Adds a 9 ft × 18 ft parking pad on the north side of the lot.
No committee notes yet — this application has not been reviewed at a meeting.
In front of the committee. Site visits and neighbor sign-offs happen here.
Retractable fabric cover on an anodized frame set below the existing roof plane. Not visible from the street per the applicant's sightline study.
Site visit scheduled at the applicant's invitation to confirm the frame sits below the fascia line. Committee has asked for the frame color to be confirmed against the fascia.
240 sq ft single-story addition at the rear. Roofline and fascia match existing. No change to the street-facing elevation.
Zone C carries a single-story restriction; the application is single story and the rear elevation is not visible from the court. County planning review runs in parallel.
Replace 14 linear feet of storm-damaged unpainted wood fence with a wood-look aluminum product profile-matched to the adjoining original run.
Insurance carrier has set a September deadline. Committee is reviewing on an expedited basis; the applicant has been told the material is consistent with current guidance for partial replacement.
A written decision has gone out — returned with notes, or not approved, with reasons.
Replace 22 linear feet of painted wood front fence with fiber-cement panel, painted to match the adjoining run.
Design Guidelines §4.2 · fences — profile consistency with the adjoining run
Returned with notes, not denied. The submitted panel had an 8-inch smooth face butting directly to a 6-inch grooved wood run — the transition would read as a patch from the street. Committee asked for a grooved panel at matching plank width, or a pre-colored wood-look product, and confirmed the noncombustible material itself is supported. Applicant resubmitted with a 6-inch grooved profile on August 4.
Six-foot white vinyl privacy fence across the full front-facing elevation, set at the property line.
Design Guidelines §4.2 · front fence height and setback; Wildfire Safety Policy · combustible material
Not approved on three grounds. Height and setback exceed the front fence limits in Design Guidelines §4.2. Vinyl is not consistent with the Zone A streetscape. And vinyl is a combustible assembly, which runs against the Association's wildfire safety policy — this application would not have been supported even at a conforming height. Committee offered three conforming alternatives at the same or lower cost and invited a resubmittal. Right of appeal to the Board was stated in the written decision.
520 sq ft second-story addition over the existing garage and bedroom wing.
Design Guidelines §3.2 · second-story additions prohibited in Zone A
Not approved. Design Guidelines §3.2 prohibits second-story additions in Zone A outright — this is one of the few places the guidelines leave the committee no discretion, and the ARC cannot approve it regardless of design quality. The written decision set out the prohibition, noted the right of appeal to the Board of Directors, and offered to review a single-story alternative at no additional application step.
Convert front lawn to low-water planting with gravel bands. Remove two coast live oaks and one Monterey cypress.
Design Guidelines §4.1 · landscaping and tree removal; Wildfire Safety Policy · defensible space
Returned with notes. The committee supports the lawn conversion and the noncombustible band within five feet of the structure. The Monterey cypress removal is supported — it is a known fire-hazard species in this setting. The two coast live oaks are not: limbing up to eight feet achieves the same defensible-space clearance and the canopy is a streetscape asset on this court. Committee also asked that the gravel band be widened to a full five feet on the north elevation.
Approved, or approved with conditions. Twelve months to complete; six for front landscaping.
Replace the full front-facing fence, both sides — 88 linear feet. Wood-look aluminum slat, 3½ in. slat with ½ in. gap, dark bronze finish.
Design Guidelines §4.2 · fences — approved with conditions
Approved with two conditions: the gate hardware finish is to match the slat finish rather than the mill-standard black, and the return at the driveway edge is to stop at the existing post line so the setback is unchanged. Noncombustible assembly, profile consistent with the adjoining original fence. This is the format the committee has been pointing homeowners toward for full front replacements.
14-panel flush-mounted array on the flat roof, all-black modules, set back 4 ft from the front fascia.
Design Guidelines §3.12 · solar panels
Approved as submitted. Flush mounting and the 4-foot fascia setback keep the array out of the streetscape sightline, and conduit is routed inside the roof plane rather than over the fascia. No conditions.
Replace the original entry door with a solid-core flush door and a fixed obscure-glass sidelight in the existing opening. No change to the opening dimensions.
Design Guidelines §3.9 · entry doors
Approved as submitted. Flush slab, no applied panels or lites, opening unchanged, and the color is a documented paint chart match to the existing fascia.
Work finished and closed out, with a photograph of the result.
34 linear feet of partial front fence replaced with grooved fiber-cement panel at matching plank width, painted to the adjoining run.
Design Guidelines §4.2 · fences
Completed and closed. Worth a look if you are pricing a partial replacement — from the sidewalk the transition to the original painted run is not readable, and this was the least expensive of the three noncombustible routes the committee reviewed this year.
Full exterior repaint in a three-color scheme from the LVHA paint chart, with the garage door in the trim color rather than the body color.
Design Guidelines §3.15 · exterior paint colors and samples
Completed and closed. One of the schemes the committee has cited approvingly as widening the range of color in the neighborhood without leaving the paint chart.
Full front-facing fence, 74 linear feet. Thin-slat aluminum system, 1½ in. slat with ¾ in. gap, natural anodized finish.
Design Guidelines §4.2 · fences — approved with conditions
Completed and closed. The thin-slat profile reads closer to the community center facade than to an original wood fence — the committee has been divided on whether it belongs in the standard palette, and this installation is the reason it is worth looking at in person before anyone decides. Condition on approval was a solid kick panel at grade, which was built as required.
What is on this page, and what is not. File number, address, zone, project description as submitted, the dates, the decision, and the committee's written reasoning — the same information that is already in the file at the Business Office and already read out at ARC meetings. Not on this page: homeowner names, contact details, drawings, contractor bids, or anything from a compliance or violation matter. Applications that were not approved are published without the address: in a neighborhood of 538 homes an address identifies the owner, and it adds nothing to a refusal that the committee's reasoning does not already provide. Photographs of finished work are posted with the owner's consent.
Applications are submitted through the Business Office, 1201 Idylberry Road, San Rafael CA 94903 · (415) 472-3202 · arc@lvha.org · Design Review Form and Guidelines