Guide
What to know before an addition in an HOA
A lot of Treasure Valley homes sit in subdivisions with a homeowners association. If yours does, your addition needs two approvals, not one. Here's how we handle that.
Updated October 5, 2026
Two approvals, and they don't talk to each other
The building permit comes from the city or county that has jurisdiction over your parcel, such as the City of Boise, the City of Meridian, or Ada County. It covers structure, safety, and zoning.
HOA approval comes from your association's architectural review committee, under the CC&Rs recorded for your subdivision. It covers how the project looks and where it sits on the lot.
Getting one doesn't get you the other. The city can issue a permit for an addition the HOA won't allow, and the HOA can approve a design the city won't permit. You need both before construction starts.
What an HOA usually controls
Every association is different, so read your own CC&Rs and design guidelines. These are the things that most often affect an addition or a shop:
- Roof pitch, roofing material, and how the new roofline meets the existing house.
- Siding, trim, stone, and paint colors, which usually have to match the house or an approved palette.
- Setbacks from property lines, which can be stricter than what the city requires.
- Height limits, especially for second-story additions and shops with tall doors.
- Whether detached buildings are allowed at all, and how big they can be.
- Fencing, landscaping, and drainage changes that come with the project.
Find out before anything is drawn
The most expensive mistake is designing the addition first and asking the HOA second. If the committee rejects the roofline or the setback, the drawings go back to the start, and so does the permit.
Before we design anything, we pull the CC&Rs and design guidelines and find out how the committee takes submittals: what they want to see, how often they meet, and how long they take to respond. That shapes the design from day one.
Confirm who issues the permit
Your mailing address doesn't decide your permit office. Parts of Meridian, Eagle, Star, and Kuna have addresses in those cities that are actually in unincorporated Ada County. Nampa is in Canyon County, with its own process.
We confirm jurisdiction for the specific parcel early, because it changes the permit requirements, the review time, and sometimes what can be built.
Shops and detached buildings get the most scrutiny
A detached shop or garage is where HOA rules and zoning show up the most. Size, height, door placement, and distance from the house and the property line are all common restrictions.
If the building will be heated, have a bathroom, or include living space, that changes the city permit too. Living space has to be scoped as living space from the start, not slipped in under a garage permit.
How we run it
In preconstruction, we line up both approvals so they support each other. We gather the HOA requirements, confirm jurisdiction, design within both sets of rules, and prepare the HOA submittal and the permit set together. Construction starts once both are in hand.
Questions
- Do I need HOA approval if I already have a building permit?
- If your property is in an HOA with architectural review, yes. The city permit and the HOA approval are separate, and you need both.
- Which should I apply for first?
- Get the HOA's requirements before design starts, so the drawings meet them from the beginning. Then submit to the HOA and the city with a design that works for both.
- Can an HOA stop me from building a shop?
- It can limit or prohibit detached buildings, depending on your CC&Rs. Read them, or let us read them with you, before you plan around a shop.
Planning a Project?
Tell us what you want to build or remodel. We'll review the project and follow up about next steps.