Don't let the hippies win Oak Park!

Hey wait! Does that mean that they let those hippies win?

i am glad i wasn't alone. I immediately went to Webster's online and it doesn't refer to "common" in any way.

I also immediately thought of this:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

you must not own a house. This is all too common everywhere. Maybe not about gardens in the front lawn, but plenty of building codes regarding what can be built in the setback, heights of things like fences, and what can be grown or not.

Not in any of the cities I've lived in..?

To be clear, from neighborhood to neighborhood and town to town zoning/code/HOA/historic district requirements in the US run the entire spectrum -from none whatsoever to very strict and limited. Thus, broad generalizations really aren't accurate.

Thats what really sucked out in the southwest, everywhere had HOAs and the two places I lived at their HOAs were run by power tripping bastards who would do stupid shit like "harass" anyone they didnt like with constant inspeciton and nitpick their property for the tiniest of infractions.

The first place I lived at the HOA tried to ding us for having 3 cars(there were 3 of us living there) because 1 was always in the drive way while the other 2 were in the garage, then tried to ding the owner of the house when he wanted to put up solar panels.

Im definetely glad to be away from anyplace with an HOA, thats for sure.

That's not just HOA's. The city i live in has pretty stupid regulations on what you can and can't do with your property.

For example:
-I can't keep a boat or a camper in my driveway, even if the back of the driveway is hidden by a house

-I can't keep 9 cars (all running) on my property. I had four cars i was in the process of turning over (buying and reselling), my parents two cars and three cars of my own (don't ask). The city handed us a violation stating that all the cars had to be running. We argued that they were, then they told us they all had to be plated, so i plated all of them. They then basically said "Get rid of all the fucking cars we don't like them" and i sold off five of the cars.

-You can't plant a tree on your lawn, even if you inspect before digging. You have to get a permit from the city and the city will tell you where on your property you can plant it.

-I can't plant certain types of grass, the city supplies a list of grasses that are acceptable according to them.

-Lets not get into keeping the garage painted......assholes.

The list goes on, and i have tested them all.

Yeah, we are getting hassled by the city right now for a fence that is(according to them) 2 feet over the regulation length fences are allowed to be.

The conversation is fine, but we really need to make a distinction between Homeowners Associations and actual municipal regulations (laws).

My town is currently in the process of pet licensing enforcement, going door to door. They showed up at my house, saw the dog, and my wife said "We're dog sitting".

Living in a flood prone area, we're not allowed to have certain types of fencing.

I wanted to take the hot tub from my old house to the current one when I moved. I was told it had to be basically in the middle of my yard, right were a hundred year old tree is. You need a permit to remove any tree thicker than 3".

The latest thing now is those temporary pools they sell - the one's with the PVC pipe frames. According to the local towns, you need building an plumbing permits for them because they have a filter. That means 4' fences, proper offsets from house/property lines...

I understand some regulations. But things like hot tubs needing to be 35' off the front and rear property lines? *facepalm*