A Highlands Ranch seller books a painter for the last weekend before photos. Same color, fresh coat, the kind of ten-day job that should tighten a listing timeline, not stretch it. Then they read the paperwork their HOA sent when they bought the house and realize the paint crew can't start yet. Not because the color needs changing. Because nobody has approved it.
That's the part most pre-listing checklists skip. In Highlands Ranch, the exterior work that makes a house photograph well isn't a scheduling problem between a homeowner and a contractor. It's a scheduling problem between a homeowner and a committee that meets twice a month, on a fixed calendar, regardless of when a seller wants to be live on the market.
Approval Comes Before the Work, Not After
The Highlands Ranch Community Association's governing documents set up two separate review bodies: an Architectural Review Committee for residential projects and a Development Review Committee for commercial ones. Homeowners often hear both names used loosely, but only the ARC touches houses. Its own Residential Improvement Guidelines, adopted in October 2024, state plainly that approval must be obtained before the improvement is made, with a short list of exceptions where a homeowner can proceed without it and an equally clear rule that anything not specifically listed still requires ARC review and written approval.
That ordering is the whole story. A finished paint job or a new fence stain isn't evidence of good taste to the ARC. It's evidence that someone skipped a step, and the guidelines allow HRCA to require the work be modified or removed to come back into compliance. For a seller trying to time a project around a listing date, that risk is the one that actually costs money and days: redoing exterior work is a worse outcome than waiting on it.
Two Wednesdays a Month Are the Only Wednesdays That Count
The ARC meets on the first and third Wednesday of each month. HRCA reserves up to 30 days to act on a residential submittal, and most decisions land closer to two weeks, but that clock starts when a complete application arrives, not when a homeowner decides to paint. Miss the cutoff for one meeting and a project waits for the next.
Different project types move through that same narrow window at different speeds:
| Project | Who reviews it | What can slow it down |
|---|---|---|
| Repainting in a new color | ARC | Complete color chips or samples speed review; incomplete submittals get postponed |
| Repainting the exact same color | ARC | Still requires a new submittal so HRCA has current colors on record |
| Fence staining | ARC | Only two approved stain formulas exist; anything else is noncompliant even if it looks close |
| Deck or patio cover | ARC | Needs a site plan with setbacks, elevation drawings, and materials before work starts |
| Turf or landscape conversion | HRCA or a sub-association's own committee | A separate water-utility rebate application runs on its own seasonal window |
| Solar panels | ARC | Needs a roof plan, mounting details, and separate county permits |
Every row runs through the same two Wednesdays a month. A seller who wants three of those projects done before a listing goes live isn't managing one calendar. They're managing one calendar with limited open dates.
The Color Isn't a Suggestion, and Matching It Still Means Paperwork
Highlands Ranch requires every fence in the community to be stained a specific color the HRCA Board approved years ago, known simply as Highlands Ranch Fence Brown. A community newsletter from fall 2025 narrows that further: only two formulas count as compliant, one from Sherwin-Williams and one from Behr. A stain that looks nearly identical from a different manufacturer is still a violation, and using paint instead of stain is treated the same way.
The rules extend past the fence line. HRCA doesn't allow painting brick or stone. Garage doors have to match the body color of the house unless a homeowner gets specific approval to do otherwise. Sheen is capped at satin, so a glossier finish that a seller might choose to make trim pop under listing photos isn't an option. And critically, a homeowner who repaints in the identical existing color still has to file, because the point isn't just aesthetic consistency. It's that HRCA's records need to reflect what's actually on the house.
None of this is unusual for a covenant-controlled community, and the board's original decision to standardize fence color framed it as a property-value measure, not an aesthetic preference. But it means a seller can't treat exterior refresh work as a simple transaction between homeowner and contractor. Every visible choice runs through a filter that exists independently of the sale.
If You're in Backcountry or the Villages, There's a Second Line to Clear
Some pockets of Highlands Ranch layer a second review on top of HRCA's. Backcountry maintains its own Architectural Review Committee, and its process requires a homeowner to first secure HRCA approval, then submit a separate application to Backcountry's own board before work can begin. The Villages at Highlands Ranch, covering the 80129 zip code, goes the other direction: HRCA doesn't set the paint schemes there at all, and the community maintains its own separate pre-approved palette that a homeowner has to work from instead.
Landscape conversions add a third variation. Turf and ColoradoScape projects need approval from either HRCA or, in some sections, a body called the Solstice Architectural Control Committee, depending on where the lot sits. A seller planning a xeriscape refresh before listing needs to know which of those two committees actually governs their address, because assuming the wrong one means starting the approval clock in the wrong place entirely.
The practical effect is that "Highlands Ranch" isn't one governing body with one calendar. It's a master association whose committee sets the baseline, with several sub-communities that add their own layer on top, each running its own version of the same before-you-start rule.
What This Means If You're Planning to List
The mistake isn't wanting a house to look its best before it goes live. It's treating exterior prep as a task with a contractor's timeline instead of a task with a committee's timeline. A paint job that a crew could finish in a week can realistically take three to five once a homeowner accounts for a submission deadline, a meeting date that might fall two weeks out, and the standard review window HRCA reserves for itself.
That's exactly the kind of detail a presentation-first listing plan should absorb before a target date gets set, not after a painter is already scheduled. At Legacy Properties International, John and Steven Norris build staging and exterior prep into a seller's timeline from the first conversation, which means checking which committee governs a specific address, what that committee's next meeting date actually is, and whether a project needs one approval or two, before recommending a project at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need approval if I'm repainting the exact same color? Yes. HRCA requires a new submittal even for a like-for-like repaint, since the goal includes keeping accurate color records on file for the property, not just controlling what changes.
What happens if I paint or stain before HRCA approves it? The work is treated as a violation regardless of how closely it matches HRCA's standards. HRCA can require a homeowner to modify or remove the change to bring it into compliance, which means redoing finished work.
Does artificial turf qualify for a water rebate in Highlands Ranch? No. Highlands Ranch Water's turf replacement program no longer includes artificial turf as an eligible project, though HRCA or the appropriate sub-association committee still requires a submittal for synthetic turf installations regardless of rebate eligibility.
Is the Architectural Review Committee the same as the Design Review Committee? Not quite. HRCA's governing documents set up an Architectural Review Committee for residential projects and a separate Development Review Committee for commercial ones. The name that actually applies to a house is the ARC.
Ready to plan a listing timeline that accounts for the approval calendar from day one? Request your personalized market plan with Legacy Properties International and let John and Steven Norris map the prep work against the dates that actually control it.
