Poinciana Homeowners' Association Limits House Paint to 57 Varieties

The homeowners' association for this community of 55,000 residents has approved a plan it hopes will end a growing controversy -- what colors homeowners can paint the exteriors of their houses. The board of trustee directors for the Association of Poinciana Villages voted unanimously last week to approve 57 color groupings from which residents can choose to repaint their homes.

"This is not Utopia," board member Jeff Pashley said of colors. "I think this is the best thing we can do to control the situation."

The situation is that a growing number of residents are painting their homes using color schemes that are viewed incompatible with the general look of the community. APV manager Jeanette Coughenour said the problem became more acute following last year's trio of hurricanes that left hundreds of Poinciana's 14,000 homes damaged and in need of new paint jobs.

But, she said, association rules as to what colors could be used were vague.

"The rule reads there has to be reasonable compatibility with other approved color schemes," she said. "That's really subjective."

The rule also says no "bright, loud, very dark or incompatible, clashing color combinations," can be used and no pictures or murals are allowed to be painted on a home's exterior.

To help find an answer to the dilemma, Coughenour and her staff consulted with the homeowner's association at Hunters Creek, a neighborhood of 4,000 homes in south Orlando that restricts residents to color charts the association has approved.

Using the Hunters Creek system as a guide, Coughenour then asked paint manufacturer Color Wheel to come up with a series of paint color combinations for Poinciana. The result is the chart of 57 color combinations to which Poinciana residents must adhere.

"Personally, I think it's an exercise in bureaucratic futility," resident Chris Farrell told the board.

Farrell said that of the five homeowners in his neighborhood who have recently repainted their homes, he was the only one who even went through APV's approval process for choosing colors.

"Any Poincianan planning to repaint a home is supposed to get approval from the community's design control board. Many don't make the effort,`' Coughenour said.

In such cases, the homeowners' association has the authority to force the owner to paint over any color schemes that are not compatible with the neighborhood. In the past, the design control board has determined which colors are appropriate without really having any guidelines to go by.

"What's dark or bright to one person isn't necessarily dark or bright to another," Coughenour said. "Tastes change constantly."

"I don't see that adding Heinz 57 varieties of color is going to improve the situation," Farrell said. "What we need is more aggressive enforcement of the rules."

Board member Tony Iorio, a vice president at Avatar Inc., Poinciana's primary developer, said the new rule will be strongly enforced.

"If someone paints a purple house next to you, there'll be action taken," he told the approximately 30 residents who attended the meeting.

One woman who is upset by the rules is Margaret Hunt, whose husband is serving in the military in the Middle East. Using all her savings, she had her home painted a bright yellow because, she told the board, her husband had always wanted a yellow house.

"I wanted him to see a little bit of sunshine when he comes home," she said.

The design control board, however, disapproved the color after it was on the house. The APV board softened that decision following last week's meeting, telling Hunt that if her neighbors would come forward and agree that they don't mind the color, the board would give her a one-time variance that would allow her to keep the yellow paint job.

Earlier this year, Vince and Carole Licata got a notice from the association that the color they repainted their home on Parakeet Court three years ago was too bright and they were going to have to paint it again in a more subdued color.

The Licatas argued, however, that they used the same shade of parakeet green that was on the house when they bought it new 11 years ago. That original paint job had faded with the years, and they brought it back to the original shade.

The Licatas did not attend the meeting last week, but their argument was apparently accepted by the APV.

"The ruling that they would have to repaint has been set aside," Coughenour said. "They can keep the color that's on there."

The new program, Coughenour said, will take the guesswork out of which colors are allowed and which ones are not. The color charts will specify what trim colors go with allowable house colors to ensure the two don't clash.

Coughenour said Color Wheel will be glad to help homeowners make their choices and will even bring the paint to the home without a delivery fee. But, she added, owners do not have to buy Color Wheel brand paint. They can buy whatever brand of paint they choose as long as the color matches those on the chart.

The charts will be available through three developers that are building new homes in Poinciana -- Avatar, Maronda and America First -- and Coughenour said new homes under construction will also comply with the colors on the charts.