Hello! Your ACC & Board here. We want to post a few friendly reminders. We know we have had quite a few new homeowners in the neighborhood lately and thought a post with a few of the common problems that are noted on drive arounds might be helpful. The ACC Committee typically does "drive arounds" on a monthly basis. For most issues that we note during these drive arounds, we will email a "courtesy notice". These are a friendly note to the homeowner just notifying you that we have noted something that needs to be resolved. If we note the same issue on future drive arounds you may get another courtesy notice or you may get a violation notice giving you a specified time frame to resolve the issue. If it is not resolved in the time frame provided or continues to be an issue, you will then get a fine notification. This places your home in fine status and must be paid or a lein is placed on your home. We would like to avoid assessing fines or placing liens. If you get such a notice and have an extenuating circumstance, PLEASE communicate with us. We are willing to work with you to come to a reasonable agreement whenever possible. We would also like to ask for your help in keeping the standards of our neighborhood. If you notice something please take a photo with a date stamp, get the address, and a description on what is in Violation and send it to HOA@nisquallymeadowsHOA.com. Someone from the Board and ACC will check it out and confirm the violation.
Some common things noted on drive arounds are:
WASTE CANS: Per CC&R, ACC rules, all garbage cans, recycling bins, yard waste cans, etc must be stored out of sight. This means they cannot be stored on the side of your home, in front of the garage, or be left on the street after pick up day. The ACC does allow cans to be placed at the curb the day before pick up and requires them to be removed from the curb by the day after pick up. For example, homes that have fully fenced back yards: some acceptable places to store your cans are BEHIND the fence along the side of the home or in your garage. If you do not have a fully fenced yard they must be stored in the garage or back of your home. An alternative is to submit an ACC request to build a fenced storage area to store your cans. If your trash cans are in view during the drive around, we will send you a courtesy notice.
TREES: Most properties in the neighborhood have one tree in front of their home. The maintenance of this tree is the homeowner's responsibility. There are a few trees in the neighborhood that are in need of a trim. For most, the issue is the branches are hanging low and either preventing people from walking under them on the sidewalk or preventing street parking. You don’t need Permission to Trim the Trees but you will need permission to REMOVE the tree.
YARD DEBRIS AND MAINTENANCE: We are getting in to the winter months and frequently have tree branches blow out of surrounding trees or other "natural" debris such as leaves. Homeowners are responsible for cleaning up anything in their yard. Weeds in the front garden areas and yard need to be pulled on a regular basis. Yards must be maintained and not overgrown. If you would like to revise your front garden area such as pulling out plants and replacing the cover material such as replacing beauty bark with rock, you must fill out an ACC request first and receive an approval.
FENCES: Before any fence repairs or replacement, an ACC request needs to be filled out and sent to the ACC for approval. If you have a stained fence, the stain needs to be maintained. If a section or board needs to be replaced it must be stained to match the rest of your fence. If the stain is peeling or otherwise wearing off the boards your fence will need to be stained to be uniform in color.
HOLIDAY DECORATIONS: Typically, decorations are allowed to be put up 30 days prior to the holiday and must come down 30 days after the holiday. This includes anything needed to place the decorations such as light clips on gutters. There are a few homes in the neighborhood who have light clips on their gutters. You may have received a courtesy notice about this in the past. Due to the closeness of the holiday season, we are going to allow light clips to remain for now. However, all light clips or any other holiday decor or materials used to display the decor must be removed by January 30th, 2022. PETS: Owners, when exercising or walking pets, shall restrict such activities to the common grounds (such as sidewalks, easements and the Yelm-Tenino trail). The pet owner must immediately remove any solid waste left by the animal while on the common grounds or private/public property. Care should be taken to prevent pets from walking on neighbor's lawns. Animals shall be walked on a leash at all times. The leash should be held by a person who is able to maintain physical control. City of Yelm and Thurston County leash laws apply. Retention ponds are NOT pet play areas. City of Yelm and Thruston County are the ones who have the power to enforce this. Per YMC 6.08.050 require a written complaint to animal services. The form for Animal services is on our website under forms.
We hope this post is helpful. Again, we are willing to work with you. We try to give ample time to resolve major issues. For example, if an entire home is in need of paint, we typically give the homeowner a year to repaint their home. If you receive a notice and need additional time to resolve an issue, please be sure to communicate with us. We will try to be as specific as possible on any notices sent out but if something is not clear please reach out. We are happy to explain. Our goal is to work with you whenever possible. you can find the ACC guidelines and ACC request form on our Website, in this Facebook group under files. Thank You, Nisqually Meadows HOA Board and ACC
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