Before You Demolish the Kitchen: HOA Design Review in McCormick Ranch and Gainey Ranch

Published September 13, 2026

Here is a sequence we see more often than we would like. A homeowner in a Scottsdale planned community picks cabinets, signs a contract, sets a demolition date and pulls a city permit. The old kitchen comes out on a Monday. By Thursday there is a letter from the management company asking why an exterior wall was opened without architectural approval, and the project waits for the next committee meeting with a bare slab where the kitchen used to be.

Nobody in that story did anything unreasonable. The kitchen is inside the house, and it is natural to assume the association has no interest in it. The problem is that a real remodel rarely stays entirely inside.

This post walks through how design review usually intersects with a kitchen project in communities like McCormick Ranch and Gainey Ranch, what to gather before you talk to the committee, and how to order the work so an approval never has to undo something already built. Every association writes its own rules, so treat this as a way to ask the right questions, not as a statement of what yours requires.

Why a Kitchen Ends Up in Front of a Committee

Master planned communities exist partly to keep the neighborhood looking consistent. Their governing documents, usually the CC&Rs plus a set of design guidelines, give an architectural or design review committee authority over changes that affect the exterior appearance of a home. Interior finishes are generally outside that authority. The friction is at the boundary.

A kitchen touches the boundary in more places than people expect.

The Range Hood Has to Vent Somewhere

A ducted hood is the right choice for most kitchens, and particularly for a Scottsdale kitchen that already fights summer heat. That duct ends at a termination on the outside of the house. On a single story ranch home it is often a wall cap on the stucco. On a home with a concrete tile roof it may be a roof jack that has to be flashed and blended into the tile.

Either one is a new object on the exterior. Committees commonly want to know its size, where it sits on the elevation, and what color it will be. A bright galvanized cap on a painted stucco wall is the kind of detail that gets a submittal sent back.

Windows and Doors Change the Elevation

The window over the sink is one of the most common things people want to change. Making it wider, taller, or lowering the sill to create a pass through to the patio all alter what the house looks like from the yard. So does replacing a sliding patio door with a folding or multi panel door, which is a popular change in a climate where the patio gets used much of the year.

If your yard backs onto a golf course, a greenbelt or a common area, expect that elevation to be treated as visible, because it is.

Outdoor Kitchens Are Their Own Project

Many remodels grow a patio component. The indoor kitchen gets done and, since the plumber and electrician are already on site, a gas line gets extended to a built in grill, along with a sink and outlets. That outdoor structure, its roof or shade, and its footprint in the yard are almost always reviewable, even in communities that are relaxed about other things.

Equipment You Did Not Plan to Move

Rearranging a kitchen sometimes displaces things that were never part of the design conversation. An AC line set that runs through a wall you are opening. A water softener loop in a garage wall behind the pantry. A water heater vent. If relocating any of these puts equipment somewhere visible, it can bring the project into review.

The Construction Itself

Separate from the design question, many associations regulate how construction happens. Where a dumpster can sit and for how long, whether a portable storage container is allowed in the driveway, what hours crews may work, where trucks and trailers can park, and whether a contractor sign is permitted at all. These rules often apply to every remodel, including ones that need no design approval.

Condos, Villas and Shared Walls

Attached homes deserve a separate note. In some Gainey Ranch villas and in Old Town condos and lofts, the association owns or controls the roof, the exterior walls and parts of the plumbing. That changes what you are allowed to do inside, not just outside.

A hood duct that has to pass through a shared wall or a common roof may need association consent. Moving a sink might involve a riser the association maintains. Replacing carpet with hard flooring over a neighbor’s unit can bring sound isolation requirements. In some of these homes a recirculating hood is the only practical option, and it is better to know that before choosing a powerful range.

Build the Submittal Before You Choose a Door Style

The single best piece of advice we can offer is to reverse the usual order. People start with finishes because finishes are enjoyable. Start instead with the two or three items that could need approval, because those items constrain everything else.

Here is what we gather at the first visit.

The Governing Documents

Ask the management company for the current CC&Rs, design guidelines and the architectural application form. Check the date on them. Guidelines get revised, and a neighbor’s approved project from years ago is not a reliable guide to what passes today.

A Marked Up Plan

Take the proposed kitchen layout and mark every element that affects the outside: duct route and termination, windows, doors, anything on the patio, relocated equipment. This becomes the list of items the submittal has to explain.

Photos of Existing Conditions

Photograph each affected elevation straight on, in daylight, and mark where the change will be. Committees make faster decisions when they can compare before and after without visiting.

Elevations and Details

For each exterior change, a simple dimensioned drawing. A wall cap needs its size and height. A window needs its new width, height and frame finish. An outdoor kitchen needs a footprint and distances to property lines.

Materials and Colors

Identify the finish of every new exterior item. A termination cap can usually be painted to match the stucco. Stucco patching around a new opening should match the existing texture as well as color, because a smooth patch on a textured wall is visible from across the street.

A Plain Language Scope

A short written description that states what is changing outside and, just as importantly, states that the cabinets, counters and flooring are interior work. It keeps the committee focused on the items it actually decides.

How the City of Scottsdale Permit Fits In

Design approval and a building permit answer different questions. The association approves appearance. The city reviews safety and code compliance. A remodel that moves plumbing or gas, adds circuits or removes a wall generally needs a permit regardless of what the association says, and approval from one never substitutes for the other.

The permit drawings cover the new layout, the electrical plan with dedicated appliance circuits and required GFCI and AFCI protection, the plumbing and gas changes, and structural details if a wall is altered. When a load bearing wall comes out, a structural engineer sizes the replacement beam and its supports.

The trap is preparing the two sets separately. If the committee approves one duct size and the mechanical plan shows another, or a window is drawn at different widths on the elevation and the floor plan, someone has to revise, and a revision can put you back in line. We draw both from one set so they cannot disagree.

Ventilation deserves a specific mention. A large hood moves enough air that the residential code can require make-up air, a way to bring replacement air into the house, once a fan passes a threshold. That affects both the mechanical design and, sometimes, the exterior, since make-up air may need its own intake. Confirm the current requirement during plan review rather than after the hood is purchased.

Ordering the Work Around the Approval

Once you know which items need review, the schedule mostly writes itself.

Order what does not depend on approval. Cabinets often have lead times of several weeks, and quartz or natural stone slabs need to be selected and reserved. If the cabinet layout does not depend on an exterior change, place that order while review is underway.

Hold what does depend on it. If a window change determines the width of the sink base, or a door change determines where a tall pantry goes, wait for the letter before ordering those pieces.

Set demolition after the approval, not before. It is tempting to start demolition early to save time. It rarely does. A gutted kitchen waiting on a committee is the most expensive kind of waiting, because you are living without a kitchen and gaining nothing.

Plan the exterior work for the right season. Cutting and patching stucco, flashing a roof penetration and setting a new window all go better outside the hottest weeks of summer, when afternoon temperatures pass 110 degrees and fresh stucco can dry too fast. Monsoon season brings dust storms and sudden rain, so openings need to be protected at the end of every day.

When an Application Comes Back

Sometimes a committee asks for changes or denies part of a request. That is not the end of the project. Common responses we see are a request for a different termination location, a smaller or recessed cap, a different window proportion to match the rest of the house, or a note that the outdoor kitchen roof needs a lower profile.

Most of these can be solved without changing the interior design, which is another reason to settle the exterior questions first. If the approval arrives with conditions, write them into the construction drawings so the crew builds what was approved, and keep a copy of the letter on site.

When You Do Not Need Review at All

Plenty of kitchen remodels never go near a committee. If the hood already vents through an existing termination, the windows and doors stay as they are, nothing moves on the patio, and the association does not require construction notice, you may only need a city permit, or in the case of a straightforward cabinet and countertop replacement, possibly not even that. Refacing sound cabinets and replacing counters in place is the lowest friction project there is.

The point is to know which case you are in before the first cabinet comes off the wall.

A Short Checklist

Before you sign a demolition date, you should be able to answer each of these:

• Which of my planned changes are visible from outside, including from a golf course or common area?
• Do I have the current design guidelines and application form?
• Does my home share walls, a roof or plumbing with a neighbor?
• Where will the hood vent, and has that termination been drawn and colored?
• Which orders can be placed now, and which wait for approval?
• What are the association’s rules on dumpsters, work hours and parking?
• Is the city permit being prepared from the same drawings as the submittal?

If any of those are unanswered, the demolition date is a guess.

Michaelburritt prepares design review submittals and city permit drawings for kitchen remodels across Scottsdale and then builds the kitchen. Call (480) 670-4726, tell us which community you are in, and we will walk the kitchen and the outside wall with you.