Posted on 05/16/2005 6:14:30 AM PDT by Ron in Acreage
Fourteen years ago I moved to a community near Washington DC. It was the first time I'd lived in a neighborhood with a community association and had no previous ideas about what an arrangement like that would be like. Of course I read the community association's covenants and guidelines before signing on the dotted line, but they didn't seem too onerous. . .
. . .That is, until I wanted to put a white picket fence around my Georgian-style house. Uh-uh. The community regs indicated only cowboy-type fences, which I thought looked stupid with this style of house. So I volunteered to join the architectural control committee, became chairman, and re-wrote the guidelines to accommodate some variations. Then I put up my picket fence and lived happily ever after. Many neighbors have thanked me for some common-sense variations in the guidelines.
While serving as chair of the committee I came to see the value of a community association, especially in an ethnically-mixed area where different ideas of beauty come into conflict and many residents do not come from a background where home ownership and home maintenance are usual.
For instance, there was one foreign national who was hanging what he said were goat carcasses on his deck--you can't imagine the flies and the smell! Turns out that the county government had no provisions to address something like this because they never dreamed anybody would hang animal carcasses on their deck, so the community association had to deal with it.
Another guy was runnning an auto body shop out of his garage in this upscale, doctors-and-lawyers neighborhood. A third family, unfamiliar with the workings of their garbage disposal, were throwing chicken guts onto the community association ground behind their house, creating a pile of refuse with a staggering odor, horrific accumulations of flies, and noisy fights between wild animals and local dogs.
Still another gentleman wanted to paint his house Barbie pink with turquoise shutters and door on grounds that such colors are historically authentic where he came from, which was Barbados. In a community full of $750,000 houses, we had people who wouldn't pick up their garbage and were parking wrecked cars on their lawns. We had people who wanted to use their front lawn park a trailer with 20 residents living in it.
Now if you sink your hard-earned savings into a house, the biggest investment of your life, and the idiot next door decides to breed miniature horses next door, do you think your investment is going to hold its value? Any real estate agent will tell you that your house will not be worth anywhere near as much if it's next to an undesirable property that is infested with flies and animal manure. Your next-door neighbor is destroying the value of your investment. So while you may believe that he should have personal freedom, do you also think he should have the freedom to take your money away? Most people would say not. And it is on this premise that community association rules are based.
That said, too many of the people who run these community associations are little Nazis. They get power-mad and obsessive, have little else to occupy their time, and like to impose their tastes on others. The way our community association dealt with this issue was to get professional management. We have a local property management firm that does nothing except handle our dues, hire contractors, maintain the pool and common areas, pick up trash, and perform the nasty duty of policing the goat-eaters. Even though I have from time to time gotten a letter from the property manager warning me to fix something that needed fixing, it's been done in a professional way so I haven't resented it. This system diminishes quarrels between neighbors and nearly eliminates the Nazi-like approach to regulation. Everything is calm and professional and runs smoothly.
>>You would not be barking like this if the homeowner was Jane Fonda.<<
Jane Fonda wouldn't be in Afghanistan, well at least not fighting for the US!
wonderful research ! Bless you... we are all watching
Hi Dolly I agree!
It's a shame that they can't give him and his wife leeway!
For heavens sake he is trying to bring his yard up to code and it doesn't happen over night!
God bless this soldier, his wife! ans all our Troops!
Government has grown too much in the last 100 years. We have got to turn the tide back. These socialists really want to control every molecule.
There are some good neighbors out there. Any time someone does what is right, helpful etc. I go out of my way to say "thank you" and to encourage any good deeds they have done -- get this -- voluntarily.
Socialists hate voluntarism. It's a "world view" issue. The "vision thing"..
excellent!!
Maybe, but you don't know that. I've seen people not maintain their yards just to piss off neighbors. An eyesore is an eyesore. The legs guy should get the same consideration as the military guy. The legs guy could be a decorated veteran for all you know.
Of course not. Jane Fonda could hire someone to do it with one minute's salary. You're ridiculous.
I have seen first hand people move into our neighborhood. I have seen houses get mold on the outside, lawns get neglected (in Florida, if you do not have an irrigation system and fail to do proper feeding and weed/insect prevention, your lawn is a sand pit), I have seen trees and shrubs do a jungle immitation, and I have seen some homes need $50,000 just to clean them up to get them up to standards.
People live here (INCLUDING EX-MILITARY) who have put their life savings into their homes here and they pay an association fee believeing the association will ENFORCE the codes.
There are two sides to every story. Sorry, no matter how honorable this person is, if the homeowner is in violation, the other homeowners should not suffer with declining property values.
The associations I know give mopre time if someone contacts them and explains their intent and effort to get it right.
If this person did that, and if this association did not allow more time, then that is highly unusual. My response has been directed to those members who feel homeowners have some right to violate association codes and destroy property values.
True!
You are ridiculous for not seeing the analogy.
If this person was a slime ball who was anti-American and anti-Constitution and was just getting back from some Marxist protest that they went to, then you and everybody else would be saying the person is a slob for not conforming to the code.
Don't be a hypocrite.
Better: Set loose a thousand cutworms overnight. Works better than Round-Up and keeps on returning, no matter HOW much fresh sod you lay down.
At this point, if the City does ANYTHING at all, it should immediately send a letter of profound apology to Sgt. Neal, accompanied by $550 check compensating him for the cost of the sod you forced him to lay down over the weekend.
You despicable subhuman morons! You are unimaginably far beneath contempt! There is not a corner of Hell hot enough for the likes of you and, quite frankly, I'm disgusted at having to share a planet with you and your ilk.
Please disembark at your earliest opportunity.
They aren't as wicked as you think.
Cut Worm.
Poison bait on ground.
Aphis, Nicotine dust or spray.
Thank you so much for sharing your research! I intend to send along my two cents.
The future is now, but the future coming is much worse than we presently see if we allow these type things to go on. And based on the last clinton administration, we have much to fear in the regard of loss of personal freedom.
If you don't fear a hillary presidency you probably don't have much sense as to what constitutes personal freedom and it's importance.
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