“Simple, common sense regulations at the local level will keep most of the scumbags at bay. “
The HOA is at the lowest ‘local level’.
“Simple, common sense regulations at the local level will keep most of the scumbags at bay.”
Sorry, it just doesn’t work that way. Local governments are notoriously lax on enforcement of their Municipal Codes. I know first hand, I’ve worked for local governments for 25 years. Scumbags find the loopholes and exploit them, usually keeping the most annoying violations happening at times and locations where the neighbors experience them but the local inspectors cannot observe them.
Just try getting a local government involved when a homeowner rents out a storage building or trailer in their back yard for undocumented immigrants to live in, and the immigrants go through their thousands of recyclable bottles and cans at 3 am 5 feet from your bedroom window.
My rule of thumb is if you have to live within 50 feet of your neighbor’s property line in a neighborhood with “cultural diversity” and/or a median income below $150,000/year, you better have an HOA to protect you from experiencing life in the Third World.
Myself, I’m looking to get out away from the suburbs, because life is too short to have to deal with idiot neighbors.
The regulations you posted are very similar to an HOA, but less intrusitve in the sense that they do not provide for a routine "architectural review committee" that patrols looking for irregularities in the buildings. It also provides a way for locals to make an anonymous complaint; presumably this is the way problems come to the township's attention.
In these days of Political Correctness, however, even common sense offends many people, and it's easy to see how a cabal of liberals could start objecting to the flying of American flags, the display of Christmas decorations or similar hot-button issues. This is not the country we once knew. It's a fascist/communist state where avoiding political persecutions is almost a matter of the luck of the draw. I got told here in Maryland to take down the American flag I had put in my front window on 9/11 and which had been up, at that time, for 11 years. Since our HOA has no control over the inside of our dwellings, a lawyer friend wrote a letter telling them where to get off, and nothing more was said. But in cases where persecutions do take place over MIA flags, Marine Corps flags, flagpoles, etc., the following provision from the document you linked above can be truly draconian, and can cost people outrageous amounts to maintain their pride in being a traditional American — those bitter clingers the fascisti want to get rid of.
Penalties
Any person convicted of a violation of the Property Maintenance Law may be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment not to exceed one (1) year, or both, for each violation. Each day that the violation continues constitutes a separate offense, and the penalties above are applicable to each offense.