HOAs: "No solar panels for you"

[bud--]

The comment should have been to Percival Cassidy a couple levels up.

The ARRL is the major association of hams in the US. From a link on antenna restrictions at the ARRL website (QST, May 2007): The FCC made a "declaratory ruling requiring that local zoning laws must reasonably accommodate amateur antennas and support structures with minimal regulation and without unreasonable restrictions. Any regulations must constitute the minimum practical regulation to accomplish the state or local authority?s legitimate purpose of protecting public safety."

Hams can not erect "anything" they want to. But the power of governmental entities to limit what a ham can build is limited.

It is what the ARRL thinks.

From the same QST article: "The FCC has been very clear that [the FCC limited preemption on antennas] does not cover [covenants, conditions and restrictions], as they are a private contract, not public policy issues."

HOAs are among the restrictions a ham may encounter building an antenna.

[AJL]

Come to Phoenix. Large areas are HOA free. I lived in one for 30+ years (Maryvale for anyone familiar with the area). And as I previously said, you can mostly tell the HOA-free areas by just looking at them. Trouble is many people want to have their cake (be HOA-free) and to eat it too (live in a nice well kept up neighborhood). In my experience that seldom seems to happen...

[AJL]

Happens all the time here. There are 4000+ homes in my HOA so as you can imagine there are a lot of gripes and grumbles when citations are issued. But as I said, I (and the grumblers) knew the rules when I signed the papers. In my case I view the HOA as a protection from my neighbors rather than as a hindrance to myself...

[AJL]

It's not quite that bad since there are still zoning regulations in the HOA free areas. They are usually enforced by complaint though there are zoning officers that roam when they're not busy. First is usually a warning and then if there is no compliance, a citation. Phoenix makes it easy, you can make a zoning complaint by phone, net, or text.

Just remember that if you decide to self-enforce, and you live in the same neighborhood, turn about may be fair (foul?) play...

[krw]

from doing something THEY want to do...

Irrelevant.

[bob haller]

I had family who lived in maryvale. frankly i liked the brightly colored mexican painted homes.

my dad moved to a HOA area with strict rules, the place turned into a dump, homes in foreclosure didnt need to meet HOA rules.

my dads new home is very nice but I prefered his old home.......

the outside colors are tightly regulated and returning after a walk one day i tried to get in his next door neighbors home. I thought my jokester brother had locked me out....

Maryvale has crime issues:( whatever happened about the maryvale cluster? high cancer rate in that area.....

[AJL]

The Mexican flavor only arrived in the past 15 years or so. As in many large cities the neighborhoods change over time. When I lived there (68-2000) it started out as a normal reasonably well kept up middle class neighborhood and slowly deteriorated, mostly toward the end of my stay. But it still has no HOA... ;)

Yes. I think it could almost be classed as a ghetto now. A lot of the violent crime on the evening news seems to be in that area.

They never could prove anything definite as to a cause and the controversy silently went away. I drank the water all those years and am still here. Course I've had a little skin cancer but I think that's more due to the Arizona sun than the Maryvale sun... ;)

[HeyBub]

I'm in Houston. We don't have zoning.

Good point! That's exactly why your first response has to be of such overwhelming force as to absolutely remove both the desire and the ability of the miscreant to respond. That is, what can we throw at his house other than an egg?

Hmm. Here's a bottle of a flammable liquid with a rag stuffed in the spout. Wonder if that would work?

[AJL]

Wow. I had no idea that there was any place as large as Houston with no zoning laws.

I now can better understand your attitude. In my case I'd rather switch than fight. My neck is getting just too old and stiff to have to keep looking over my shoulder... ;)

[krw]

That's dumb. Force the bank to keep up the homes to the same standards as the homeowners.

A couple of weeks ago I was visiting family in Columbus, OH. After driving around for some time it hit me, all the hoses are the same color. Not just the houses in one subdivision (no problem with that, if that's what they decide). Every subdivision looked the same, too.

I love idiots who think correlation = causation.

[dgk]

No zoning - how can that work? Oh, I see. They have no zoning but have some interesting land use regulations that take the place of zoning, apparently with worse results than zoning in some cases: