Dear St Martin by the Bay Home Owners:
​
The Board has a request from the owner of town house unit number 8, Riverside Drive, to
change the color of the exterior trim on his building from brown to white or off white. And
perhaps to change the exterior color from tannish to one of the Caribbean colors blue, green,
yellow, or pink.

To help us appreciate what these colors may look like mixed in with our current colors, we have
created "mock" pictures and put them on our web site for you to see. The Board has made no
decision about this request or considered paint color guidelines at this point. Before we do that,
and since this color change may affect all of us, we are most interested in your thoughts and
concerns.
​
Please call or email any board member with your questions or comments or use the comments form below to add to this discussion.

Ruth Waters
Comment
This could really change the look of the community. It would need to be uniform and ALL townhouses would need to comply. The colors would need to be assigned so symmetry is achieved. Otherwise, it will diminish property values and look ridiculous.  
Additionally, our area is very rural and the browns blend in with the landscape. I think this will turn into a battle that might not be worth fighting. 

Joan C. Montgomery
Comment
Absolutely FOR it!  Anything would look better that what’s there now! 

Rich Soistman
Comment
just saying, have you seen the pictures off the town homes if color change were to happen to one home REALLY looks like HELL,,, maybe if we all come together and fix what we have is a better solution,, i dont want to be upside down also if we wanted a white trim house maybe should not have bought a brown one HELLO

Betty Young
Comment
Unless we are changing the color of all townhouses, I do not approve. The pictures look horrible and brings down the look of our neighborhood.It looks like a circus


Craig Costantino
Comment
As a town home owner I truly think that over the years residents have not maintained what we bought into.
I have recently painted our exterior and replaced / repaired all of the trim with metal.
​Even know I have just done this I would actually be 100% in agreement with changes if our row decided as a group to have a universal color and off white trim.

I think it would have great curb appeal and would be worth the money if done as a group at the same time by the same contractor.
​Unfortunately, in reality I do not think this will ever happen. Many residents and owners in my row do not maintain there homes as we do and I can not imagine them putting in what it would take to unify them with the costs involved. We are currently having trouble just getting the rental unit beside us to repair there exterior that is rotted, falling off, and most likely has termites.

Changing just one home or having all but one changed in my opinion would not be beneficial for curb appeal.  
I have spent a good part of my life making design decisions as an occupation. I deal with interior and exterior design on a daily basis and when looking at the end product it just does not make sense unless it is all done at once.

The architecture of our town homes does not not lend itself to individual color changes especially when "Off White" and "Dark Brown" are butted up against each other.  We do not have definitive lines between units and I fear that it would create a huge visual problem. I love the color pallets chosen but only if an entire row were the same color. Breaks between town home units will look disjointed and create a disconnect in flow and unity. 

As I hate to create conflict or disagree with others, I do not think this would be something in our best interest unless done as a group. 


Jim & Katie Kosienski
Comment
We feel the townhouses do need some attention. We would hope that in each building the owners could sit down and work out something that will make everyone happy.  
We think making each building a different color instead of each unit a different color would look best. And then each color of building harmonize with the other 3.  
Keep in mind, whatever presadence you set for townhouse colors would also be the same for single family homes. You can't allow pink, blue, yellow, etc for townhomes but then not for the single family houses. 

Susan Brandwein
Comment
I must say that the color change is rather refreshing to the eye after 25 plus years of brown on brown, BUT I cannot agree on a random color scheme throughout St. Martin. Whatever the color may be changed to, it should be uniform for ALL townhouse units within the neighborhood.

Kyle Walsh
Comment
I am opposed to having different colors for different townhomes. I think when you buy into a community with shared exteriors and trim you cannot have a reasonable expectation that you can have such a drastic change for an individual unit. I do not think that pastel colors lend themselves to the landscape of the community. I worry about the impact of this type of change on our property values. The light and dark contrast does give it a kind of cartoon-ish quality that I don't think any of us really wants.

I agree that certain maintenance needs to be done on some townhouse units. I just had the all exterior trimwork, gutters and metal repainted and replaced (in brown). I think we need to work on what we have before we explore changing entire blocks of units which is really the only way this type of change would work.

​
Patty Dukes
Comment
there have been no guidelines enforced for any of the homes or townhomes. Looking at the townhomes in particular, there are many different variations of color, roofs that look like patchwork, rotting soffits, falling down gutters, and trim in horrible shape etc. I personally think the crap brown looks like tenement housing (although it was in fashion thirty years ago) and the Board needs to develop a plan to have townhouses maintained and up to date, even if it is through a special assessment. Likewise, the paint schemes and yard décor in the homes is done to their individual taste and unfortunately some of it has been done by board members without any regard for the rest of the community. Let's put together a color scheme for the entire community, mandate what needs to be done immediately and preserve the value for our investment. 

John and Shauangh Wood
Comment
Hi all, 
Rather than rewrite our thoughts, we've cut and pasted below the comments of others of which we agree with. We do not oppose to the proposed color schemes.
We would not object to a reasonable special assessment for building repairs and painting. 
In general it seems most think exterior repairs need to be made, all buildings should be painted for conformity, any color scheme should be uniform per each building group and comparable to all other groups.

Comments:
-It would need to be uniform and ALL townhouses would need to comply.
-we all come together and fix what we have is a better solution.
-Unless we are changing the color of all townhouses, I do not approve.
-As a town home owner I truly think that over the years residents have not maintained what we bought into.
-Changing just one home or having all but one changed in my opinion would not be beneficial for curb appeal.  
-The architecture of our town homes does not not lend itself to individual color changes. 
-As I hate to create conflict or disagree with others, I do not think this would be something in our best interest unless done as a group. 
-We feel the townhouses do need some attention. 
-I cannot agree on a random color scheme throughout St. Martin. Whatever the color may be changed to, it should be uniform for ALL townhouse units within the neighborhood.
-We think making each building a different color instead of each unit a different color would look best. And then each color of building harmonize with the other 3.  
-I am opposed to having different colors for different townhomes.
-Board needs to develop a plan to have townhouses maintained and up to date, even if it is through a special assessment. 


Lynne Partridge
Comment
Having reviewed the comments, I agree that some uniformity will be best for carb appeal. As far as color schemes, perhaps coastal colors may be more acceptable than the pastels and blend in better with surroundings...

As a town home owner, I welcome the change...the white trim will look fabulous!

Phil & Kim Kelly
Comment
It is appreciated that the board is open to comments from the community. However, there is one request for one town home to change the exterior at 8 River View Drive, the board needs to vote on that request and that request alone. The community as a whole is not requesting this change and changes to the community as a whole should not be a result of this request. It is the responsibility of the board to support continuity and order to the community, it preserves the architectural integrity and it maintains the common elements. We value the responsibilities of the board to promote the concept of “community” and protect the neighborhood’s property values. Thank you-


Justin McGinnis
Comment
Thank you to everyone for your mostly constructive comments and suggestions.  

We've discussed the town homes exterior colors and upkeep at several meetings and after receiving an official request to change the colors at our last meeting we felt it would benefit us to hear from the community.  

Ultimately, the members of the board must make this decision and either approve or deny the request to change the colors for this townhome. Having this open discussion for all members of the community to give their feedback will definitely help us.

The board will take a vote on this request at the next meeting. No matter the outcome of this vote, I feel it is pretty obvious that the community would like to see some changes to the town homes. It seems the community would prefer any changes should be done for the entire building or for all of the town homes, not just separate changes to individual units.  

The change that the community is looking for ranges from requiring upkeep and updates using the same color exteriors as they are currently to a new color scheme change for the entire building with colors that work well with our current colors and surroundings.  

I would be glad to hear from any person(s) that wanted to volunteer from each townhome building that would like to start a committee for their building. That person(s) could reach out to the other owners in their section and work with the other town home section committee leader. They could collectively decide on what repairs need to be addressed, report these repairs to the board to be addressed and with the appropriate buy in from all or at least the majority of their neighbors we may be able to look into a change in the long run.  

I would hope they would even go as far as reaching out to several contractors for estimates on the entire building and/or all of the townhomes. So they could educate the owners of the townhomes on the expense to make a change. A job of that size may reduce the cost to individual owners versus just having their unit updated In addition, if the entire building was repainted and updated by one contractor with the same paint for every unit. The color(no matter which color is used) would flow across the entire building giving a much better curb appeal. Anyone interested in leading this charge, please feel free to contact me!

on a personal note, I like the idea of the color change and the fresh new colors but with only one or two units interested in making the change. My vote is to deny this request. With that said, I would be glad to vote to approve a change similar to this if the owners of an entire building all agreed on a color scheme and wanted to make the change collectively. 

Also, the board needs to take a firmer stance towards the owners that are not providing the necessary upkeep and repairs to their home before these units get any worse.  

One last comment regarding a special assessment to repair/update some of the worst units. I may be incorrect but a special assessment wouldn't help us in this situation. The board can reach out to these owners and demand updates/repairs are completed in a timely manner. However, if they do not comply with the request. The only recourse we have is for the community to pay for the repairs and put a lien on the property for the work that has been done. To my knowledge this has not been favorable by most homeowners and to be honest, we have no guarantee of ever seeing that money again. This may vary depending on the dollar amount and situation of the home. 


Justin McGinnis