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IVINS — Residents of an upscale Southern Utah subdivision are upset over the pitch of roofs on some of the new homes being built there.
Homeowners in the Quail Cove subdivision have been frustrated since learning the developer has opened four lots to families who have received a federally subsidized loan to build homes in their neighborhood.
They said they are angry over an agreement between the developer and Color Country Community Housing that allows for steeper roofs on the new homes.
"That allows them to do a different couple things, including an attic space that's available and things like that," said Kent Sundberg, the principal broker at St. George Homes. "It makes a very liveable house, but it is definitely not the same architecture of what is here."
Sundberg said due to the weakness of the market, many of the subdivision's current homeowners purchased short sales or foreclosed homes at prices lower than the market value. Now, contractors cannot build the same home for similar prices.
Neighbors argue the steeper roofs block views and run counter to the regulations they agreed to when they bought their lots. They fear that will bring down their property values.
I haven't seen this before. It's interesting because people become proprietary. They are very defensive of their castle that they built.
–Kent Sundberg
The homeowners are concerned, though, that the attention their subdivision has received will focus on a problem that Gubler said does not exist: tension between the existing homeowners and potential buyers.
"There's no bad blood on our part," he said. "Our concern has all along been the fact that the homes being built were not consistent with the CCNRs that were in place when we purchased our homes."
"I think there's a pride of ownership that goes with anyone who owns a nice home," he continued. "You try to make it nice and keep it nice, and that adds to home value. So it's an equity issue."
Sundberg said the issue has blown up because of media attention, but that he thinks it is really all about communication.
"A lot of the publicity for this has been erroneous," he said. "These are really nice people. They're just concerned and don't want their values to diminish any more than they already have."
