HOA-ly grails

What do a couple of recent Texas legislative changes intended to circumvent home owners associations' (HOAs') enforcement powers and an organic gardener's impending jury in a small Michigan town have in common?

They're all examples of the changing relationship between homeowners and those who seek to regulate them, and that list includes neighbors as well as HOAs (in our case, POA) and municipalities.

And as the old saying goes, one man's meat is another neighbor's poison.  

First up there's the story of the military guy who erected a flag in his back yard only to be sued by his HOA, which was then circumvented by Rick Perry, who signed into law a provision stating that HOAs could not prohibit proper displays of the American flag with, of course, this new regulatory action being carefully timed to make Mr. Perry look maximally good on Memorial Day.

Personally I have no aesthetic objections whatsoever to the flag, but I'm one of those rare homeowners who spends over an hour per day outside in my yard, rain, shine, or scorch (with the latter being the current condition-du-jour).  And I would take hot exception to the incessant aural Chinese water torture CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG of the flag cords slapping against the pole in the prevailing wind.  We DO have a noise ordinance in League City, as was recently debated somewhat out-of-context in The League City Blog.  Anyone who makes, or causes the making of, constant unnecessary noise for any reason will hear from me personally.

Then there's another bit that Rick Perry did - signed a bill prohibiting HOAs from prohibiting most residential solar power installations.  That one I have no problem with, given that those things don't make any noise.  And I think they look cool, but some folks think they're ugly.

And then there's the granddaddy conflict of them all, which is getting national attention - Oak Park Michigan is prosecuting a woman for growing organic vegetables in raised beds installed in her front yard, on the grounds that vegetables are not "suitable plant material" as defined in municipal ordinance.  To date, about ten thousand people (and counting rapidly) have signed the going-viral petition against the regulator who brought suit against her.

To look at it, her gardens are very spartan but her yard is neat and tidy.  It's not a high-end residential appearance she's created, but neither does it look like a particularly high-end neighborhood she's in.  I personally would not object to ANY style of front-yard garden as long as it were kept-up.  However, in Centerpointe, most people would probably object to a dirt-box garden in a front yard.  It would have to be something more in keeping with the overall financial investment in the private properties and public spaces.  Perhaps something more like this??

This is in our BACK yard, not front, and it looks fairly innocent, like over-sized contemporary landscaping  containers.   But they're actually full of vegetables and we've had wonderful organic harvests this year in spite of the incredible drought.   

I personally think that the sight of house after house after house with nothing but a few one-gallon withering foundation shrubs plus a matched pair of builder-grade "titty trees" (nicknamed that because they're planted side-by-side, front and center, on the front lawn making the house look like the residential equivalent of a mid-century lady in one of those severe old cone bras)... I personally think that this kind of sight, while it may be accepted, is aesthetically questionable.

This is supposed to constitute superior landscaping??
I'd favor a well-presented vegetable garden any day of the week!
Whenever I see yet another house with a front yard configured like this, which is every time I step out my front door, it reminds me of the landscape-equivalent of THIS:

If your front yard were a garment...

Anyway, I anticipate that additional homeowner clashes will continue to occur in the future as we negotiate individual vs. collective rights, and as we run up against natural resource limitations.  The as-yet unexplored conflict that comes immediately to mind is St. Augustine lawns:  we're all supposed to have 'em, but year after year, we're not allowed to properly water 'em.  Look around Centerpointe - most front lawns look like absolute crap, and have for months now.  Eventually, SOMETHING has to give in a situation like that.  Our current drought may be more severe this year, but much of Texas has actually been in a snowballing drought for about a decade now.  When I find the time to re-design our front yard, I'm seriously thinking of going xeriscape.  Our water bills have been so high this year that ripping out the St. Augustine and putting in a nice xeriscape would almost pay for itself.  ACU on the corner of West Walker and SH 96 put in a nice drought-tolerant landscape and I think it looks absolutely wonderful.  Time will tell whether or not I can get our POA to agree with me on the virtues of that kind of option.
:-)