Northstar Ranch - Grantsville, Utah

David J.

If you are considering buying a home in this development, think again. We bought a home in this development and did thorough due diligence to ensure our intentions of building a detached RV garage on our .5 acre lot was allowed and not restricted. After submitting our garage design for review, it was denied. Our garage would be 22' in height to allow for a 14' overhead door to park an RV. Also, our garage was designed to match our home, using the same colors & rock so it would blend with the neighborhood, not stand out. The HOA managers and design review committee stated the garage was over the allowed height of 16'. In this denial & the communications that followed, they continually referenced a section of the design guidelines for the HOA that was for carports, which, by their own definition, is open on at least two sides. We reminded them multiple times we are not building a carport, we are building a fully enclosed garage. Detached garages have their own section in the design guidelines, and there is no height restriction beyond the city's building codes restrictions. We explained this multiple times and even got an lawyer who specializes in HOA's to review all the documents and write a letter of appeal on our behalf. We had our closest neighbors sign the letter stating they had no objections to the garage as it could impact their view. This letter of appeal was submitted electronically to the HOA managers & the entire design review committee on 4/25/2024. As of today, 11/21/2024 there has still be no response to my appeal letter requesting a meeting to discuss this. There was also a meeting held on 5/23/2024, the first HOA meeting in years, and I brought this issue up again to which I was told, I would get a resolution. Nothing has happened.

The managers are incompetent. The design review committee is made up of residents of the development most of which lack intelligence & ability to read simple documents or even follow their own guide lines. They believe the rules don't apply to them. These people need something to make them feel important and this is where they landed. The HOA doesn't maintain their own areas (drive through on any day and look at the common areas) but has no problem collecting the yearly HOA fee from residents or sending a fine to a resident if their yard isn't in order(which to be clear, I don't disagree with yards being up-kept). They also pay out to vendors for work that has never been done. For instance, a resident has been clearing snow along Northstar Ranch Pkwy every winter as the snow removal company doesn't do it, but yet the HOA managers pay the snow removal company invoices. Would you ever pay a contractor for work that wasn't done at your house? These guys do.

In the end, if moving to the country to get out of the city & owning a big lot with room to grow & distance between you and the next guy is your dream, by all means, Grantsville could have what you're looking for. Grantsville still has some small-town feel to it. People are great out here & we have some really awesome neighbors. But if you, even for a second, aren't sure about living in an HOA, don't do what we did and think that it will be okay. It won't! You will regret it! And with destination/ivory homes taking over the next phases of the development, my guess is, things will only get worse. Do a quick search of Northstar Ranch, and you will find it's set to be the largest master planned development in Tooele county. Think Daybreak. We ultimately sold our home and moved down the street and out of the HOA. We lost thousands, but we couldn't live in this HOA development any longer.

You've been warned about this place. Good luck in your home search.

Odi M.