vs. the HOA
So as some of you who read akiko's journal or twitter may have heard, we recently got a letter from a representative of our HOA saying that they took issue with the state of our lawn. Specifically, the fact that it's pretty much half clover at this point. They suggest a wide-spectrum herbicide followed by re-seeding.
Now, this is not something I'm about to do, for a whole variety of reasons, the main one being a distinct aversion to spreading poisonous crap all over my yard. Not to mention the fact that clover is good for the soil (nitrogen fixing), and that anything that's not a monoculture is going to be more resistant to drought and disease, and thus use up less resources and cause less pollution by needing less water, pesticide, and herbicide. Etc.
I'm pretty sure that the lady who sent the letter is a third-party hired to oversee the covenants as-written, so complaining to her would be pointless. I plan to look up procedures this weekend to see if I can find some by-the-book way of petitioning the HOA directly.
I think framing is going to be key here. If I were up against some faceless corporation, I would *totally* be framing this as me vs. the man, common sense vs. dumb bureaucracy, and ecological sensitivity vs. a machine that doesn't care. But the fact is, we're a development of just a few hundred houses, and I'm pretty sure that now that the original building firm has cleared out, ultimate authority rests with a handful of real people who are my neighbors. In fact, I think the nice old guy a couple doors down from me is on the board. So I'd prefer for this not to get antagonistic unless absolutely necessary.
Anyway, my plan is to gather up a whole bunch of legit resources backing up my points in the second paragraph and figure out how to present them. If anyone has any references handy or knows of something I'm likely to overlook, by all means please leave links in the comments. Hopefully something reasonable can be worked out and I won't have to resort to writing nasty editorials in one of the local ragingly liberal papers or something.
Now, this is not something I'm about to do, for a whole variety of reasons, the main one being a distinct aversion to spreading poisonous crap all over my yard. Not to mention the fact that clover is good for the soil (nitrogen fixing), and that anything that's not a monoculture is going to be more resistant to drought and disease, and thus use up less resources and cause less pollution by needing less water, pesticide, and herbicide. Etc.
I'm pretty sure that the lady who sent the letter is a third-party hired to oversee the covenants as-written, so complaining to her would be pointless. I plan to look up procedures this weekend to see if I can find some by-the-book way of petitioning the HOA directly.
I think framing is going to be key here. If I were up against some faceless corporation, I would *totally* be framing this as me vs. the man, common sense vs. dumb bureaucracy, and ecological sensitivity vs. a machine that doesn't care. But the fact is, we're a development of just a few hundred houses, and I'm pretty sure that now that the original building firm has cleared out, ultimate authority rests with a handful of real people who are my neighbors. In fact, I think the nice old guy a couple doors down from me is on the board. So I'd prefer for this not to get antagonistic unless absolutely necessary.
Anyway, my plan is to gather up a whole bunch of legit resources backing up my points in the second paragraph and figure out how to present them. If anyone has any references handy or knows of something I'm likely to overlook, by all means please leave links in the comments. Hopefully something reasonable can be worked out and I won't have to resort to writing nasty editorials in one of the local ragingly liberal papers or something.