Neighborhood Associations

Neighborhood associations, which were once reserved for the wealthy, are now quite common. It seems that every newer home in the Fort Wayne area is part of an association. As I found out, being green in an association is a challenge. As always, there are exceptions: Coffee Creek Center is a recent entry or communities like Greendale, WI, where a friend lives and pays enormous property taxes.

However, my association is not green, despite the beautifully manicured lawns and common areas. So I'll start there. We (association 'members') pay for a lawn service that cares for the common areas, including the entrance, the retention pond, and the open space. The open space is all grass with a few trees and a concrete path through it. The pond is just grass down to the water's edge, with ugly concrete ditches running into it. I will talk about lawn care another time.

The pond could be made much more beautiful, and environmentally beneficial, quite easily. If we stopped mowing down in low areas surrounding the pond, planted some native lowland and wetland plants, and let it thrive, we would quickly attract a huge variety of wildlife, and reduce our annual maintenance costs. Plus, we'd be filtering the runoff of all those pesticides and fertilizers before discharging that water to the creeks and rivers. I'm willing to bet that the maintenance required for a natural pond would be less than the current maintenance requirements. By the way, they actually go in and kill all the cattails every year. I still haven't figured that one out.

From the Association covenants and restrictions, "No clotheslines or clothes poles ... shall be ... used on a lot." Ever realize how efficient clothes-line drying is? No emissions, free energy. Clothes dryers are very energy-intensive and pretty damaging to your clothes. Apparently, clothes drying outside reduces property values and is an eyesore to some.

There is also a specific restriction on any type of solar panels. Not that they do a whole lot of good in NE Indiana, but they do work for a limited use.

So, my choice of a home in an association just adds a few more challenges in my desire to live more sustainably. Maybe I'll run for Association President and try to change some of those practices.