Sunday morning

Here in California, we make up for the poor quality of our government by
having lots of it.

In our capital, Sacramento, the city zoning code says a single family
residence may not have vegetable garden in the front yard and to the
Sacramento Zoning Board, the term "vegetable garden" includes such things as
nectarine and peach trees. ( I live down the road in Pleasant Hill and
nobody bats an eye at my nectarines, apples, pluots, or figs; or the show of
flowers that dances through the seasons under them.)

Aaron

"Shillelagh" wrote in message
...

"Wooly" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 13 Aug 2006 22:40:06 -0500, "Shillelagh"
spewed forth :


I have a question......... what is an "HOA"?

HomeOwners' Association.

Aah, thanks. From your description below, it sounds similar to the type
of
association used by condo owners. I live in a rural area, and I know
there
are some types of by-laws for the municipality to control things, like how
far your residence is from the road you live on (125 feet), how many dogs
you can have before you have to have a kennel licence, etc etc. But I'm
sure there are those kinds of rules in any area. Not as restrictive as
your
HOA. Wouldn't want to live like that!

My corner store is the gas station, mini market, liquor store and coffee
shop. Great combo!

Shelagh

In a lot of new subdevelopments the HOA is responsible for doing
things like maintaining the "entrance landscaping" and any other
community areas. I don't know about other parts of the country but in
the Austin area new subs are almost mini-cities in and of themselves,
complete with small shopping malls (which is challenging for the rest
of us to get to for a lot of reasons including gated access) with a
grocery, cleaner, etc; a HOA-only park which is again usually
accessible only via a gate, etc etc. They're also responsible for
maintaining pumping and lift stations, sometimes the utility delivery
infrastructure within the HOA boundaries and other things that a
municipality typically handles.

Some older HOAs close in to town are just bunches of old biddies who
go around inspecting yards and bitching about dead/unmown grass, cars
that sit without going anywhere, etc. I have a friend who lives in
one such and can't figure out where her $800/yr dues are going, as the
common areas aren't that large and are maintained by one of the
members who owns a landscaping business. There's no HOA-managed park
or pool (large drains on HOAs, for obvious reasons) and almost 900
homes in the HOA. Since my friend is on bedrest right now I suggested
she ask for copies of the financials going back to the beginning of
time and FIND OUT where her cash is going - that's ~$72k/yr going in
with not much apparently going back out.