John and Olga Duff bought an undeveloped lot in The Sanctuary at Lake Wylie in 2005. Eleven years later, in January 2016, they signed a construction contract with True Homes, a builder already approved twice to build in the community, and paid the required $5,000 deposit. Their plans matched homes already standing on neighboring lots.
The committee said no. Then no again. On the second denial, the committee wrote that the revised plans "do little to separate this home from hundreds of similar homes" and that there was "nothing that says 'custom' or 'luxury'" in what the Duffs had submitted. A third set went to the HOA's own retained architect, at an $850 fee the Duffs paid. Rejected. A fourth set followed. Rejected again, this time for not matching "the desired architectural aesthetic," a phrase that appears nowhere in the community's written design guidelines.
The Duffs appealed to the board. The board upheld the committee. They sued. A jury awarded them $197,041.67 in damages plus $67,787 in punitive damages, and in December 2019 the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed, finding the architectural committee had acted arbitrarily and in bad faith. The court leaned on a 1995 state case, Raintree Homeowners Association v. Bleimann, which holds that a restrictive covenant giving a committee power to approve house plans "is enforceable only if the exercise of the power in a particular case is reasonable and in good faith." The Sanctuary's committee, the court found, had not met that bar.
That case, Duff v. The Sanctuary at Lake Wylie Property Owners Association, is public record. It also shows how the community's design review works on paper: a buyer's purchase of the land and the approval to build on it are two separate steps, and the second one carries its own fees, timeline, and outcome.
Two Signatures, Not One
The Sanctuary's governing declaration, recorded with the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds in September 2004, sets up a structure most buyers moving from a standard subdivision have not encountered. Before anyone breaks ground, two separate approvals have to happen, and neither one is optional.
The first is the builder. Every home has to be built by a "Guild Builder," a contractor the architectural control committee has already vetted and added to an approved list. You cannot simply hire a general contractor you like and bring them into the community. You choose from the list, or you help your builder apply to get on it.
The second is the plan itself. Once you have a Guild Builder under contract, that builder submits your house plans to the committee for design review, covering materials, massing, rooflines, and what the guidelines describe as architectural detail. The committee can reject a submission, ask for revisions, and reject it again. There is no cap on how many rounds that process can run.
Control over both of these levers sat with the original developer, Crescent Communities, until December 2007, when board authority passed to the property owners association, and until 2015, when control of the architectural committee itself made the same transfer. The Duffs signed their builder contract within days of that second handoff.
What the Approval Actually Costs
The dollar figures that surfaced in the Duff litigation give a buyer something rare: a real number for what design review costs beyond the price of the lot and the price of the build.
A $5,000 deposit to the Guild Builder just to begin. An $850 fee to route a plan through the HOA's outside architect. The record also shows the architect's own per-lot charge for his sketches was $125, so the $850 fee presumably covered more than his review alone, though the case documents do not itemize what else. None of that included the cost of redrawing plans between submissions, or the months each redesign and resubmission consumed.
The review process did not guarantee approval. The Duffs’ dispute went to court four years after they signed their builder contract.
Vacant Lots and Recent Sales
The Sanctuary is not fully built out, and it has not been for some time. Community figures published this year put the lot count at 187, with roughly 90 to 100 of those already holding finished homes, which leaves somewhere between 87 and 97 vacant lots still in private hands. Crescent Communities, the original developer, no longer owns any of them. Every vacant parcel on the market today is a resale from an individual owner, not a builder-controlled release.
That inventory shows up in current listings. Lots have traded this year in the $299,900 to $449,000 range for parcels between roughly 4.6 and 7.4 acres, several already carrying a completed survey, topography work, or an approved septic permit for up to five bedrooms. Sellers frequently note there is no building timeline attached to ownership, meaning a buyer can close on raw land and sit on it indefinitely before ever filing plans with the committee.
Finished, custom-built homes in the community have traded far higher. Canopy MLS sale records compiled earlier this year showed a median closing price near $2.3 million across the fourteen single-family homes that sold in the trailing twelve months. Construction costs are one part of the difference between a vacant lot and a finished home. Buyers should also account for the design-review process, including its fees and potential timeline.
What Has Not Changed
The mechanics that produced the Duff case are still the mechanics governing new construction in The Sanctuary today. The property owners association is now professionally managed by CAMS Management, which handles dues, closing paperwork, and buyer questions about the community. The architectural committee's design guidelines remain a standing document that any prospective buyer or their agent can request before writing an offer, and the Guild Builder requirement has not been retired. For prospective lot buyers, the practical question is how to account for those requirements before closing.
Before You Write an Offer on a Sanctuary Lot
A vacant lot in this community is not a blank canvas in the way it would be in a subdivision without an architectural committee. Treat the builder and the design guidelines as part of your due diligence on the land itself, not as a step you handle after closing.
- Request the current ACC design guidelines and the current Guild Builder list from CAMS Management before you write an offer, not after.
- Confirm your intended builder is already on the approved list, or find out what it takes to get a new builder added.
- Ask the seller whether a septic permit, survey, or perc test has already been completed on the lot, since several current listings include this work and it can shorten your own timeline into the review process.
- Budget for the design-review fee separately from your construction budget, and ask what happens financially if a submission is rejected and has to be redrawn.
- Understand that a board appeal is the only internal remedy if your plans are denied. Anything beyond that, per the Duff case, runs through the courts, not the HOA.
FAQ
Does buying a vacant lot mean I can build whatever I want? No. Ownership of the land does not carry a right to build without committee-approved plans and a contract with an approved Guild Builder.
Can I bring my own architect or builder into the community? Your architect can design the home, but construction has to be carried out by a builder on the committee's approved Guild Builder list, or one the committee agrees to add.
Is there a time limit on when I have to build after buying a lot? Current listings describe lots with no attached building timeline, meaning an owner can hold land indefinitely before submitting plans. Confirm this in writing rather than assuming it applies to every parcel.
What recourse do I have if my plans are rejected? You can appeal to the property owners association board. Beyond that, the Duff case shows the remedy is litigation, and it can take years to resolve.
If you are looking at raw land in The Sanctuary and want someone to read the design guidelines and the Guild Builder list before you write an offer, not after, KO Realty Group will walk that file with you first.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
