Enter Samuel Scott Farwell as your proxy.

To support the reform slate, write Samuel Scott Farwell in the blank for your proxy or assignee, then sign and date the Association’s form.

Help shape a better
Brighton Forest.

A family’s fight to save their home from foreclosure has become a neighborhood-wide effort to reform the Brighton Forest HOA. Seven neighbors have stepped forward to give homeowners the opportunity to elect a full board committed to principles new to our HOA: transparency, communication, and community participation. Our goal is an HOA where every homeowner has a voice in how the community is governed.

And help a family
save their home.

Read their story →
See our plan → Meet the team → See the policies → Get the newsletter →
Brighton Forest entrance sign surrounded by stonework, trees, and landscaping

The site has changed because the effort has changed

A site for the whole community

When I first created this website, it was a place to tell my family’s story. Since then, six neighbors have joined me to form a reform team focused on improving our HOA and building a board the community can be proud of.

The site has been redesigned to reflect what this effort has become. It is no longer centered on my story. It is now a place for neighbors to understand the reforms we are proposing, share ideas, and work together toward a more transparent, responsive, and community-minded HOA.

My family’s fight to save our home remains part of the story. But the larger story is now about a community coming together to better itself and, in the process, helping a family remain in its home.

A reform effort built around changes the community wants.

Portrait collage of the seven Brighton Forest HOA reform candidates

Seven Brighton Forest neighbors have come together as candidates for a new board. We bring different backgrounds and perspectives, but share a commitment to clear rules, fair enforcement, respectful communication, and transparent, accountable governance.

These priorities did not come from one family or one dispute. They reflect conversations with neighbors across Brighton Forest and recurring concerns about inconsistent application of covenants and guidelines, violations that make no sense, decisions that are difficult to follow, and homeowners who do not feel heard.

Our goal is to build a board that listens, explains its decisions, applies the rules fairly, and treats homeowners as participants in their own community.

Meet the team → See our plan →
I think visible panels are the uglification of the neighborhood.

Wayne McGee, current Board President

View the email →
Front of a Brighton Forest home with solar panels on the roof
Should the board president’s personal taste decide what ruins a neighborhood and costs a family their home or should the community have a say in its own governance?

This is exactly why we need clear rules.

This was not a passing remark. Wayne McGee was weighing in during the approval process for a homeowner's solar-panel request. His response was a personal aesthetic opinion, not a written rule or objective standard. Under North Carolina law, an HOA can't use general aesthetic objections to override a homeowner's right to install solar. But that doesn't stop an unaccountable board from denying your project when anything they personally find unappealing becomes fair game.

Vague language doesn't help homeowners. It allows a board or committee member to impose personal preferences on everyone else. That's why we want guidelines that give homeowners clear direction and prevent anyone on the Board from bending the rules or the law to suit themselves.

See our proposed changes →

Just one example

What does whenever possible actually mean? And who decides what is and isn't possible?

For over a decade, the ARC guidelines have relied on vague phrases like whenever possible and as inconspicuously as possible. Previous boards recognized the need for clearer guidelines but repeatedly failed to replace this subjective language.

That failure has allowed reviewers to substitute personal aesthetic preferences for objective standards, letting those preferences outweigh homeowners’ property rights. Neighbors proposing the same project can receive different answers depending on who reviewed their applications.

Here’s the kind of change we’re proposing.

Current language: Brighton Forest ARC, Solar Collectors
"Solar collectors must be installed as inconspicuously as possible. Whenever possible, collectors should be placed on the rear of the home or on the side that has the least public exposure… Every effort must be taken to camouflage the plumbing and supports of the collectors, which may require completely encasing the collectors."
Vague and restrictive. "As inconspicuously as possible" and "whenever possible" are decided by the reviewer, and a rule that can require hiding or "completely encasing" panels can conflict with NC solar access law.
↓
Proposed language
"Homeowners may install solar collectors in the location needed for effective solar access. Consistent with N.C.G.S. § 22B-20, the Association may regulate only the location or screening of collectors, and only where doing so does not prevent their reasonable use or reduce their energy output."
Clear and lawful. Tracks North Carolina's solar access law, so every homeowner gets the same answer. The review process stays in place.
Precedent from another NC HOA

This is what a board that listens and communicates looks like.

The Riverbend HOA avoided legal fees and lawsuits by listening to its residents and voluntarily aligning with NC law.

A board that respects its community listens to its feedback and is willing to grow and adapt to serve the community's needs.

From the Riverbend HOA board to its homeowners

UPDATE regarding solar panel installation in Riverbend

Due to an increase in ARC requests regarding solar panel installation, and further research into this emerging energy technology, the Board of Directors recently discussed amending the HOA's position on solar panels in the neighborhood.

Our CC&Rs Article 13 Section F subsection 28 states, "No solar energy collector panels or attendant hardware or other energy conservation equipment shall be constructed or installed on any structure located on a Lot unless approved in writing by the Committee," with the committee referencing the Architectural Review Committee.

The prevailing rule for solar panel requests has always been to allow install of panels as long as they were installed on the rear side of the house and not visible from the front street.

In order to stay in step with changing times and the desire of many Riverbend homeowners to use renewable energy, the Board is changing the current requirement on solar panels to now consider installation on any location on the roof that would be inline with achieving the best performance for solar energy. Roof locations would have to be detailed in the ARC request with information from a reputable, professional solar energy installation company explaining the need to install the panels in a location other than on the rear of the house.

Any previously submitted solar panel request that were denied due to placement being on the front of the roof will be approved.

The HOA works for us. Let's help it work better.

If you'd like clear rules, transparency, and accountability from your HOA, add your name and we'll keep you posted.

Read the full proposal