Covenant Management Staff have a tough job

I have a great deal of appreciation for the people who manage the covenants in our government. They have to do their daily chores, trying to get the wash out as people complain and others submit change proposals. They move many changes through the Fast Track process, because the requested changes conform to the standards. They issue routine letters to advise residents when they are observed breaking the covenants. One letter often wakes up a resident to take action. We rely on our covenant staff to do that. Elected members of the Resident Design Review Committees would be overwhelmed without the professional help of these folks. Like they say, "That is my job."

Yet sometimes very significant issues arise between neighbors, often due to neglect of the inspection process. or misinterpretation of the covenants. I recently experienced one missed inspection in Grogans Mill. Two residents in one Grogans Mill neighborhood pointed out a problem with a neighbor using his home as a business. The yard is very unsightly and definitely violates the covenants. On my request, the issue is now being formally addressed. The homeowners in that neighborhood will be assisted in mitigating the problem. I wonder how this came about. Based on this case and many other covenant issues in the neighborhoods, it is apparent that we have some gaps in process and even in covenant content.

For that reason, we will have some covenant suggestions this year for the DSC. We must be fair, but we must stay current in technology and make the community a better place to live. It is time to go GREEN and support GREEN in our covenants. For example, we do not allow wind or sun power generators. Technology is emerging now that will bring the capability of solar power to many more residents; new innovations bring the price way down! Should we be preventing the deployment of solar panels? I doubt it. We must change with the times.  On the other side of the coin, we do not manage TV dishes. We have alternative sources of cable in our neighborhoods. Should we have dishes in the front of homes, visible from the street? Then again, we have people putting rocks in the grass to prevent cars from going into their yards and (teenagers) damaging their turf.  All of those cases need to use landscaping methods as stated in the covenants. The result of using rocks in the grass usually looks bad, although in one or two cases, placement and orientation of the rocks tend to make the viewing much better than those rocks placed near the road accompanied by grass growing around it. Sometimes I would swear we live in Pasadena rather than The Woodlands, when these situations are allowed to go uncontested. Another area of need is to strongly encourage residents to remove the weeds in landscaped areas; some leave the weeds for extended periods of time. Landscape maintenance should be required, at least quarterly. The trellis rule also needs to be reviewed for patio homes. These are REAL concerns of residents and need attention. Since the DSC is appointed and not elected, there is little reason and accountability to seek out these issues themselves.We have to think about that.