If you appreciate the beauty of your Fountain Hills neighborhood – if properties are well kept, architectural designs pleasing and home colors appropriate to the desert surroundings – chances are you live within jurisdiction of the Neighborhood Property Owners’ Association (NPOA).

If so, you are benefiting from the NPOA’s 22 years of service to our community.

Now the NPOA needs your help.

Why should you care? The NPOA has, by deed restriction, responsibility for and control over architectural development within its 44 affiliated plats – about half the homes in Fountain Hills.

Simply put, if your property is within NPOA jurisdiction and you want to build a new home or addition, paint your house, put up a wall or make any other exterior improvement, the NPOA’s Committee of Architecture must approve your plans.

Who serves on the Committee of Architecture? How are its members chosen, and do you – the homeowner – have a voice in this process?

The Committee of Architecture is appointed by the NPOA board of directors, which is elected at the association’s annual general meeting by delegates representing each of the member plats.

Your delegate is your representative, your voice. That sounds good. So what’s the problem?

Right now more than 30 percent of the NPOA’s member plats are without delegates. So the property owners in those plats have no voting representation.

Will you help? Will you volunteer to serve as a delegate or encourage a neighbor to do so?

The board of directors, Committee of Architecture and delegates are all volunteers. I was privileged to serve on the board for several years and have been a delegate for a decade. The time commitment for delegates is light, the work is interesting and the fellowship is enjoyable. Please consider volunteering. Contact information is (480) 837-5317 or www.npoafh.org.