Neighborhood Association vs. Nature

“'Natural' yard could land owner in jail

By TERRY KLIEWER
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

Lisa Wright makes it a point to stop and smell the flowers every day. She never fails to hear birds singing. She seeks to be one with nature, and the place where she chooses to do so is her own front yard.

That apparently doesn't suit the Sundown Glen Community Association. The neighborhood group has nothing against flowers or birds or trees, but it isn't happy at all about Wright's front yard.

And because of that, she may be headed to jail.

"They claim my yard doesn't conform to subdivision rules and want me to cut it down," she said in a recent interview. "But there are no rules that I'm breaking, and no one that I'm bothering. It isn't right."

The community association is in Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 2 to get Wright to overhaul her self-described "natural habitat" front yard to bring it into line with the others in her small west Harris County subdivision.

The association isn't telling Wright what to plant, though. It isn't even telling her what not to plant. It mainly wants less of the native Katy Prairie vegetation that's already there.

"Ms. Wright entered into an agreed judgment, which the court approved, to cut back on the growth in her front yard and to keep it maintained," said Jane Janecek, attorney for the homeowners group.

Wright's efforts so far to cut back her yard were found inadequate by Judge Gary Block in a hearing last week. He ordered her to return to court at 9 a.m. Thursday to start a 24-hour jail sentence for contempt of his previous order that she heed terms of the 2002 mediated agreement, or so-called agreed judgment.

The slight, black-haired, 55-year-old defendant laughed nervously last week at the prospect of going to jail. But she said she remains dead serious about what she's doing and why.

"I've never been in a spot like this, and I don't like confrontation," she said. "But when I'm pushed up against a wall -- like this -- if I'm wronged, then I'll fight. I'm not hurting anyone with my yard."

Wright built her yard painstakingly over the past 10 years, starting from an almost bare-dirt yard with one broken Siberian elm sapling. Since then, she has cultivated a collection of red cedars, crepe myrtles and wood sorrel ground cover, along with an overcup oak, a Barbados cherry tree and a Mexican plum. Dozens of other plants, large and small, dot the yard.

The effect is a small-scale version of the Houston Arboretum or, as she notes pointedly, "the kind of yard you see in parts of River Oaks or in places along Memorial Drive in the villages (area)."

It's not, however, what you see elsewhere in Sundown Glen, an early 1980s subdivision comprising several square blocks of mid-priced homes located north of Katy Freeway west of Barker-Cypress Road. Most homes have ordinary grass lawns, a few ornamental shrubs and a shade tree or two.

Wright's yard stands apart, but not sufficiently to warrant jail time, argues her attorney, Helen Mayfield. This week, in order to keep Wright out of jail, Mayfield plans to file a motion to stop enforcement of the contempt sentence and also a request for a rehearing on the agreed judgment.

Wright admits her case would seem to be a run-of-the-mill dispute between a homeowner and a neighborhood association.

Throughout Harris County, such groups and their property managers play major roles in providing amenities such as playgrounds and swimming pools that aren't supplied by cities or the county.

They also enforce the deed restrictions that define permitted and prohibited land uses and set at least general standards for property maintenance. Deed restrictions are initiated by landowners and developers and, unless periodically renewed, usually expire in a specified period of years.

Deed restrictions serve purposes akin to zoning regulations in otherwise uncontrolled parts of Harris County. They are a never-ending source of homeowner association friction.

However, Wright's fight with her neighborhood association isn't the everyday variety for a couple of reasons:

For one thing, she is a landscaper, albeit currently unemployed. She claims to know more than most about what constitutes "natural habitat." The Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife awarded her a citation for her yard last spring.

"This isn't just overgrowth," she said. "I put it together by design and I knew what I was doing."

Secondly, Wright's case is a bit unusual in that she contends she didn't know exactly what that agreed judgment from last year ultimately would amount to.

"I had a stroke and was still recovering when I was in court being told to do this and that or go to jail," she recalled. "I had some very poor advice."

In fact, she recently hired Mayfield because she felt she earlier had been misled about what the agreed judgment called for. Both attorney and client say they wouldn't agree to the same judgment today.

Mayfield thinks the agreement should be revised because it makes "unreasonable demands on the woman. It calls for an inventory of every single plant in her yard. No one else in the neighborhood has to do that.

"It says she has to mulch -- what if she uses compost? It says her house has to be visible from the street, which it is. But no one else has to promise that."

The heart of the pact is Wright's promise to keep her yard pruned, trimmed and maintained, but it sets no specific standards.

Wright says she is maintaining her yard adequately; the association says she isn't. Wright says she's had support from her neighbors; the association says it's been getting complaints. There is evidence to support both sides.

Whether she is being forced to meet tougher standards than her neighbors is moot, contends Janecek, Sundown Glen's attorney. "What she agreed to may go beyond what's in her deed restrictions," she said. "But it's what she agreed to."

But Janecek conceded that deed restrictions often are generic and "rely on reasonable interpretations by reasonable people." Mayfield doesn't disagree:

"I think the question here is really what's reasonable. This isn't."”

“#&%!$ing neighborhood associations. I hate them I've had plenty of problems, too, as have my parents. Usually it's just one pissy b!!ch to ruin everything for everyone.”

“That sucks. Let her keep her trees dammit.”

“LOL, I haven't mowed my yard for years, partly because that's all my neighbors do.

Sounds like she has a nice yard though - she should get National Wildlife Habitat certification like I did.”

“What a bunch of stiffs. I'd want to move after dealing with all those lame asses.”

“We've had similar-sounding issues in the Milwaukee suburbs. What the papers report as "natural habitat" are lawns full of endemic weeds.
I suspect if you drove through the subdivision, Lisa's yard looks unkempt, rather than natural.
And despite dire reports from the press, 55-year-old Lisa is not going to jail.”

“well if you've ever been in the woods Clay, it kinda looks "unkempt" which is natural”

“I would like about 20yrds of sand mix, some pickley pear and sage brush scattered about and one of those plastic baby pools and rusty lawn chair in my front yard.

Maybe a plastic flamingo, I know where one is hidding? Mohahahahha ha ha.”

“Nuke the association.I live under 'nazis' like that---I'm moving.”

“My sister-in-law bought a house once, since moved out, and after moving in found out she could not have a clothes line in the yard. Guess the neighbers didn't want to see here "unmentionables?"”

“But of course she's not in the woods, she's in a suburb of "ordinary grass lawns [with] a few ornamental shrubs and a shade tree or two."”

“Hey Stump can I see your sister-in-law's unmentionables? j/k”

“This just begs the question: What isn't being written here?

Were the neighborhood restrictions in place before she moved in, or is this a rabble rouser after the fact. How "natural" is her yard? Are rats and other rodents able to thrive here. (I love squirrels and chipmunks). Is her "natural yard" weeds and overgrown? Why is this "citation receiving" landscaper out of work????? A good landscaper, who does nice looking work is never out of work....

It is a rather lengthy article, but leaves out some answers, and more importantly is lacking photos, to allow the readers to form a fair vision.

In all fairness, there is more information available that is not being shared here.....”

“I'd love to plant native grasses in my yard and give away our mower. I know our city would flip out, as a few of my neighbors probably would. So, I'll plant a small island of them in the backyard.”

“If that was my yard I would fight to the bitter end to keep it.The people that say that she can't have her yard can go fornacate each other with iron rods!

8|

I think that sucks that they would try to do that to someone!”

“monkeyboy - The story says she had a stroke. That could be the reason she is not working. I agree that a photo would help.

Some of the most expensive neighborhoods around here (I'm talking million $ plus) have 'natural' yards. It can look very nice but I imagine it may look out of place in a typical subdivision with grass lawns.”

“They got grass in New Jersey?”

“I agree that if she moved in knowing what the association rules were, she should follow them or not move there. However, I think it's wrong that cities and towns can have ordinances telling an individual how to maintain their lawn.

I know my neighbors would love it if I mowed my lawn. And I'd love to spend a peaceful weekend at my own house without the constant drone of lawn mowers. Not to mention the music each feels is necessary to drown out the sound of their lawn mowers.

I'm thinking that when I slap that for sale sign on my house this summer, my neighbors will be my biggest sales people. ;)”

“Violin, The story says she CLAIMS to have had a stroke. Maybe, maybe not. Is she suddenly unable to do anything at all? I work with a good many construction workers in similar situations, a pretty physically demanding job.

I'll admit, I am skeptical and cynical about this story. There is an awful lot not written here. Sounds like someone trying to garner sympathy. I question the merits of which to base the sympathy.

There are so many calls for sympathy that are scams or lazy people, that I just like to see some real evidence when they write such a story. It may well be totally deserved, or it could be a bleeding heart. I just can't tell the way this story is written, which causes me to suspect a bleeding heart story.

Sorry for all the skepticism.”

“If I wanted my lawn to look like a forest than thats whats I a am going to have.fter all its my lawn!

8)”

“So CMB if your neighbor wanted a 60 cubic yard pile of horse #&%!$ in his yard that should be okay? It is his yard...”

“Thats alot of shi!

I guess I would have to live with it.

I think a homeowner should have a say so in his or her lawn.I realize that there is a over the line kind of but haveing a small little woods or forest in your front lawn in my book is ok.Like I said I would deal with it and after time I would not even know its there.

I guess everyone is diffrent.

8)”