At the last Board meeting on August 18th, the Board voted to commence full enforcement of the “trash can rule”, as outlined in Article X, Section 33 of the HOA covenants — to date, this has not been consistently enforced. For reference, an excerpt of that section is pasted here:
No garbage or trash shall be placed or kept on any Lot, except in covered containers of a type, size and style which are pre-approved by the ARB. Such containers shall be screened from view from outside of the Lot except when they are being made available for collection.
In summary, this means that you must use the county-provided trash and recycling cans — they should be stored in your garage, or if stored outside, placed behind a hedge or fence so that they are not visible from the street. Enforcement will begin on September 15 — if Melrose can see your cans from the street on/after that date, you should expect to receive a violation letter. One quick fix may be to move the hedges already planted in front of your A/C units forward ~8ft so that your trash cans can be placed behind them — just make sure that the plants are tall enough to fully screen them from view. Any new structures or landscaping will require ARB approval. Example images of proper screening are visible above and below this post.
As a member of the ARB we have not received applications for trash can screening previously. If we are going to be doing this going forward I’m concerned that the rule is going to be put into effect on the 15th, but the ARB doesn’t meet until the 16th. Using the Snartweb as we do we can certainly try to approve as many apps regarding the coverage before then if that’s what the board would lke us to do. Also, any apps received after the 16th might not be approved for a while so homeowners could receive a violation wihile awaiting approval.
How can we make this work for everyone?