Not if you live in Oak Park, Michigan, that is.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43...

More details on Julie Bass and her renegade tomatoes here: http://oakparkhatesveggies.wor...

If you remember: The media gave a lot of press to the fact that a veggie garden was planted at the White House last year. It was the First Lady's idea to encourage folks to grow their own fresh, wholesome food. Discourage fatty fast food, junk food. So I guess it's OK at the White House but not in Oak Park Mi.

Karen

Glad I live in Garner...My veggies are in the front. Makes for lots of interesting conversations with the neighbors.

Gee, I thought at first this was a Nazi HOA. Sure sounds like something they would do.

Ditto what Karen said.

Obviously the city council members haven't tasted fresh peas straight off the vine.

Who is next? Be Afraid, be very afraid!

I think she has a court date in another week or two will be interesting to see what happens. City will have to try and save face somehow. Sounds like it really got out of hand.

One more reason I'm glad I live in a rural area. However there are counties in my state which have the same powers as HOAs. And the stupid land owners were the ones who helped vote it in. It has been brought up in my county but has been trounced soundly. Homeowner Associations have way too much power and no where near enough common sense. If everyone who was considering moving into one would refuse to agree to the stupid oppessive rules the developers would have to change their oppressive tactics. But too many individuals lack the back bone to stand up for their rights so the HOAs do as they please.

Some of us have spine aplenty, but have no ranch homes available except in neighborhoods with secret police ... um ... HOAs. More's the pity.

I'll share a recent encounter with my HOA. I live at Turtle Creek Dev. in Phoenix AZ. Twenty-something year old nice development. We have a "board of directors" which also serves as "architectural committee". Management company is Rossmar Graham, well known in the HOA world.

All of our houses are white. We have an "approved" white paint color made by Dunn-Edwards. Even though one would choose to paint with the approved color the request to paint with the approved color must be submitted in writing on a form to the arch. cmte. I did this 5 1/2 weeks ago. Twice I called to find out if my request to paint with the approved color was granted. "checking with the arch. cmte."

Five and one half WEEKS and finally approved on my third phone call. I told them what I thought about this and they asked me to attend the quarterly HOA meeting. I said no way Jose. I'm not having any association with those people. I think whatever they have rotting their brains and competence may be contagious.

I don't see any SMILIES listed below to express how I feel, oh, maybe this one for starters....

We should have this one available.

That would work GREAT!

I'm sorry, Alo, for the remark about too many people being spineless when it comes to the AHOs. It makes me so angry to see a bunch of power hungry, uncaring people take advantage of anyone else and take away personal rights. But if no one would sign the agreements or buy into the developments they couldn't keep getting away with it. You are caught between a rock and a hard place.

The county I'm talking about even determines the size house a person can build on if they are within a certain distance from another existing house. My DIL's parents moved out of their home and let her sister have it. They wanted to build themselves a new house in a pasture on the land. The county told them they could only have so many square feet in the house. Finally they got permission to build a basement as a storm protection which doubled the square footage of the home. They completely finished the basement but in a way that they could say it was living space if the house was damaged badly in a tornado or such and was unliveable for a long period of time while it was being repaired. That county decides if you can add on to your garage, build a chicken house, etc. The board who makes the decisions is made up of appointed members. Way too much power given to those who are not elected by the people.

I guess we always have to have some rules to keep things somewhat orderly (even here, in the MON - "middle of nowhere"), but really, no veggies in the front yard?

The city of Escanaba (near me) decided a few years back to replace the petunias that they usually planted along the streets with some "native plants." Nice idea in theory, but ended up looking mostly like unmowed grass -- for which residents of the city are routinely fined...

The (smaller) city of Gladstone, on the other hand (also near me), decided to start growing their own flowers for planting in their own greenhouse, and collect many of the seeds for the next year from the flowers -- kudos to them!

Have a friend with an hoa...she came home one day and they had replaced all the mailboxes in the neighborhood. Sent them a bill for the mb a few days later.

I had a friend who wouldn't pick her weeds. HOA president sprayed herbicide. Friend sued HOA for haz mat contamination. All of Homeowners were assessed $1,000 legal fee to fight the suit. Friend won. $$$. Arizona is HOA Mgmt company haven and she won against the HOA.

I can relate to this topic yall. Daughter bought a plot of land in a new housing development and decided not to buil until the land was paid off. She got bills twice a year for HOA's fees. She contatacted them because they would add penalties if it wasn't paid and I'm talking hundreds of dollars. She said I have nothing on there yet what are these fees for. The lady said "Oh thats for road up keep" The roads were new and didn't need any repair for probably years. Needless to say she sold that plot and Bless the person that bought it. Hi Ya Zuz Good to see ya Lady!

RE HOAs and road repairs.
My development is about 24 years old. I've lived here for 4 yrs. In a heated discussion with the property manager recently about something else (landscaping) he told me that in 5 yrs the roads would need to be re paved. He said "they (b of d) doesn't know where they're going to get the money". I said "you mean you, as the management company, haven't counseled them the save the money over these 24 years?" No answer. Believe me when the time comes, if I still live here, I love my house, I will not be paying the full assessment for repairs. I will pay 1/3. They can lien me over a cliff... I don't care. If they repave in 5 yrs the development will be 30 years old and I will have lived here 10 yrs. I'm not saying the first occupant of my house should pay for the road... I'm suggesting that the B of D learn to plan for the future and save just a little bit year over year. Ah. remind you of something we're going through right now.... debt ceiling, budget, credit. Really living in the moment, not good.

Oh my, I am SO glad we live outside the city limits here! DH used to live in a condo where he couldn't even park his Landcruiser on the street--it had to be in a closed garage because they considered it a "recreational vehicle" even though it was his only car. And where we lived in SoCal, you couldn't wash your car on the street, but you also couldn't park a car on the lawn (ya know, to WASH it?)

Maybe they're worried about