Design Review Committee (DRC)

In a gated or master-planned community, you cannot start a custom home until a private committee inside your homeowners association signs off on your design, and that committee is the Design Review Committee (DRC), often called an Architectural Review Committee (ARC). It checks your plans against the community's recorded CC&Rs and design guidelines: height, setbacks, materials, roof type, exterior colors, square footage, walls, and landscaping. It approves, approves with conditions, or rejects.

The DRC is a private body, not a government one, and that is the key difference from city plan review. The city or county building department checks whether your home is safe and legal under the building code and zoning. The DRC checks whether your home fits the community's look. The two are separate approvals, and you usually need both. A design that passes the county can still be told by the DRC to change its roof tile, paint color, or height. The DRC has no power over code or safety; the building department has no power over private design taste.

Arizona law sets rules for how a DRC must operate in a planned community that has adopted design guidelines. A.R.S. 33-1817 requires the committee to "hold a final design approval meeting for the purpose of issuing approval of the plans," which you may attend. It requires any construction deposit to sit in a trust account, and it calls for at least two on-site reviews during construction. The same law makes clear that DRC approval "shall not constitute a representation or warranty that the plans or construction comply with applicable governmental requirements," so the committee's sign-off never replaces the city permit.

For example, a custom home in Troon North goes to that community's Architectural Review Committee, which requires a registered Arizona architect, reviews the building envelope, and runs site inspections during the build, all set out in the Troon North design guidelines . The owner still pulls a separate City of Scottsdale permit through city plan review. We clear the DRC and the city in parallel, designing to the community's guidelines from day one so neither approval stalls the build. For the government side, see our plan review entry .