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gearheadmb
gearheadmb SuperDork
3/24/21 8:28 a.m.

Any car that is going to be scrapped or sent to the junkyard is to be marked with an X on the door and parked in the street for a minimum seven days before being hauled away. During this time residents have free reign to take what they want from said vehicle. If any resident takes anything that makes it more difficult to load or haul (i.e. wheels and tires) that resident is responsible for haul away of vehicle. 

Or just have a community junkyard. 

Mr_Asa
Mr_Asa UltraDork
3/24/21 8:31 a.m.
gearheadmb said:

Or just have a community junkyard. 

I think we've already committed enough land to this project already without this

MadScientistMatt
MadScientistMatt UltimaDork
3/24/21 9:08 a.m.

The silly take would be rules like these:

  • Everybody must keep at least one parts car to ensure their fleet stays running.
  • Since mowing lawns wastes gasoline and time that could otherwise be used for race cars, all landscaping should be done with plants that do not need maintenance more than once a month. Vegetable / fruit gardens get an exception. That'll show the shiny happy people who want to make their yards look like golf courses.
  • Acceptable alternatives to painting your house include anodizing your aluminum siding (preferably in colors used for AN fittings), vinyl wraps, and sticker bombing. However, we have to draw the line at polishing or chrome plating on aluminum siding, because YEOWWW MY EYES!!!!I
  • All curbs on driveways and streets must meet FIA safety specifications, including white and red stripes.

But for a place I'd actually want to live in, I'd have a somewhat different take. HOAs tend to have three problems with them.

  1. While it is possible to write rules that ban certain specific examples of bad taste, you can't draw up a code that defines good taste.
  2. HOAs frequently have poorly designed checks and balances. If somebody who behaves like what you'd get if Martha Stewart had Mussolini's baby takes over, you don't have very much recourse. (Worse, it appears that the lack of checks and ballances might attract this sort of petty tyrant to be in charge.)
  3. HOAs tend to put out a lot of restrictions that don't really seem to be any of their business.

So, if I were to write rules for a HOA, they'd be simple: The HOA is in charge of property that it maintains for the benefit of the subdivision (the sign at the entrance, maybe a pool, tennis courts, or a community fab shop run like a makerspace), and has no authority whatsoever outside of that property. None whatsoever. They can ask people to do things nicely, but can't compel anything outside of the community property. They can require you to have your dues paid up to have access to the pool or fab shop, or not give you a vote in HOA business, but otherwise couldn't force you to pay dues.  House needs paint or lawn maintenance? They could send a letter saying "Please deal with this", but couldn't assess a fine.

For dealing with actual problems with disrepair or neglect, county code enforcement is typically all you need. They generally have a bit more accountability than a HOA, and typically impose a lot fewer restrictions - generally enough to ensure that property is kept in good repair, not covered with trash all over, and other basics.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter)
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
3/24/21 9:46 a.m.

All the roads in the neighborhood are one-way around the loop with cones that we can all randomly change when we want.  No street parking for maximum outside/inside apex.

Street names:

Berkeley Blvd
Swedish Flick Lane
Chicago St
Isn't Straight
Answer Alley
Bob Costas Blvd
Rally Crossing
3rd Place
Frisbee Ave

All the addresses should be car codes.  One street could be all BMW E-codes.  One street could be all toyota engine codes.  What's your address?  1UZ-FE Frisbee Ave.

Did you hear there's someone moving in at VQ30DETT Isn't Straight?

ProDarwin
ProDarwin MegaDork
3/24/21 9:53 a.m.
MadScientistMatt said:

For dealing with actual problems with disrepair or neglect, county code enforcement is typically all you need. They generally have a bit more accountability than a HOA, and typically impose a lot fewer restrictions - generally enough to ensure that property is kept in good repair, not covered with trash all over, and other basics.

If such a thing exists, sure.

As I have learned from experience (and not doing my due diligence before buying), here there is no such ordinance.  Noise ordinance does not start until 11pm!  There is no 'don't be an shiny happy person' catch all either :(

captdownshift (Forum Supporter)
captdownshift (Forum Supporter) UltimaDork
3/24/21 10:10 a.m.

In reply to bmw88rider (Supportive Dude) :

I'm fairly certain that I have access to heavy equipment in Wellsboro that could be transported to Bradford if trails needed to be made. If there's open accessible field area though, rallycross could happen much easier and sooner. If you're serious let me know what your thinking rental cost wise and I'll get you the insurance information. The email through the forum PM works

Stefan (Forum Supporter)
Stefan (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
3/24/21 10:31 a.m.
bobzilla said:

I don't want to be close enough to another person that I would have to live by someone's arbitrary rules. GRM or not. 

I guess you better find yourself an island and buy it, because living in a nation that you're not the supreme ruler of means you get to live under arbitrary rules created by other people.

bmw88rider (Supportive Dude)
bmw88rider (Supportive Dude) UltraDork
3/24/21 10:33 a.m.

Most of the land is wooded. It's the families old hunting camp that we use to do guided hunting tours for deer season back in the 50's-70's. I'd love to put the land to work at some point.

 I'm much closer to the Nebraska land (Living in Omaha now) today. I bought the land on the cheap just to have an address when I was contracting. Now that I'm back in Nebraska, I'm looking to do something with that like build a shop and have some motocross trails. 

Stefan (Forum Supporter)
Stefan (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
3/24/21 10:41 a.m.
MadScientistMatt said:

So, if I were to write rules for a HOA, they'd be simple: The HOA is in charge of property that it maintains for the benefit of the subdivision (the sign at the entrance, maybe a pool, tennis courts, or a community fab shop run like a makerspace), and has no authority whatsoever outside of that property. None whatsoever. They can ask people to do things nicely, but can't compel anything outside of the community property. They can require you to have your dues paid up to have access to the pool or fab shop, or not give you a vote in HOA business, but otherwise couldn't force you to pay dues.  House needs paint or lawn maintenance? They could send a letter saying "Please deal with this", but couldn't assess a fine.

I think if the HOA took a different tack and had volunteers that could sign up and help go around fixing some of those issues for people who don't have the time, skills or physical ability.  In return they could get reduce or negated HOA dues and the homeowners would buy the supplies.

Sort of like when some of us help friends and family with their cars or computers, etc.  We'll provide the skilled (or semi-skilled) labor, tools and they provide the parts.

HOAs don't need to be the enemy, but they so often are as they attempt to force a community to be a community instead of fostering a community spirit.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter)
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
3/24/21 1:44 p.m.
bmw88rider (Supportive Dude) said:

Most of the land is wooded. It's the families old hunting camp that we use to do guided hunting tours for deer season back in the 50's-70's. I'd love to put the land to work at some point.

 I'm much closer to the Nebraska land (Living in Omaha now) today. I bought the land on the cheap just to have an address when I was contracting. Now that I'm back in Nebraska, I'm looking to do something with that like build a shop and have some motocross trails. 

If you build a rallycross course, I will straight up make some runs in the Candy Van.

Placemotorsports
Placemotorsports HalfDork
3/24/21 2:16 p.m.

Since the last bug discussion can we also ban mosquitoes?

APEowner
APEowner Dork
3/24/21 2:23 p.m.

This thread makes me realize that I don't want to live near any of us.  Including me!

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter)
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
3/24/21 2:32 p.m.

In reply to APEowner :

If you have any success getting away from yourself, please do a how-to thread.

ProDarwin
ProDarwin MegaDork
3/24/21 2:41 p.m.
Placemotorsports said:

Since the last bug discussion can we also ban mosquitoes?

If you had a community of people all committed to this, it would be relatively easy to accomplish with tire-traps  https://www.treehugger.com/mosquito-traps-made-old-tires-times-more-effective-standard-traps-4856843

 

MadScientistMatt
MadScientistMatt UltimaDork
3/24/21 3:27 p.m.
Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:
 

I think if the HOA took a different tack and had volunteers that could sign up and help go around fixing some of those issues for people who don't have the time, skills or physical ability.  In return they could get reduce or negated HOA dues and the homeowners would buy the supplies.

Sort of like when some of us help friends and family with their cars or computers, etc.  We'll provide the skilled (or semi-skilled) labor, tools and they provide the parts.

HOAs don't need to be the enemy, but they so often are as they attempt to force a community to be a community instead of fostering a community spirit.

A HOA that actually had volunteers help maintain the community would be a great idea; I thought it might be too much to ask.

Too many HOAs don't even come across as trying to force a community to be a community so much as trying to force the neighborhood to help some of the residents enforce their building tastes on others, or a cynical attempt to maintain property values.

pheller
pheller UltimaDork
3/24/21 3:44 p.m.

I've got a great HOA. Cheap and unobtrusive. They don't play mini-government, they let the local government do that. They don't rat us out. I wish we had a playground and our snow removal (the city provided service kinda sucks), but I'm happy they are cheap. 

 

Having lived in cities and small town, rural area and not, and working for municipal and county level government ACTUALLY WRITING PROPERTY MAINTENANCE LETTERS - my two biggest pet peeves are:

Noise: Whether its a loud vehicle, loud party, or loud barking dog, noise can ruin your time outside. It's frustrating when I want to have a conversation with friends on our deck and the neighbors dog is barking incessantly. Or the other neighbor is revving the crap out of his open-exhaust two-stroke dirt bike, or his straight piped diesel truck. 

Our GRM HOA would need a "test and tune" area with an insulated garage or some wooded screening to cut down the sound. I'd also vote for no dogs, but I'm not sure that'd go over well. 

Trash: I don't care if your house is pink and your landscaping is natural, just don't have trash and junk sitting around out front. You want to keep that stuff, it needs to be out of view of neighbors. 

Lesser importance: the idiot who decides he's going to collect a bunch of non-running vehicles on the street...for months without moving. I don't mind a project sitting out there for a few weeks. I don't mind a party that parks up the whole hood, but when I can't park in front of my house because my neighbor's multiple junkers are sitting out there, we've got a problem. 

I think our HOA would need big garages, big driveways, and significant space in between each lot.

rogue_ryder
rogue_ryder New Reader
3/24/21 4:41 p.m.

You all think HOAs are bad: https://jalopnik.com/sacramento-county-says-its-illegal-to-work-on-your-own-1836085130 Sacramento County made an ordinace that you can't do anything at your home other than "minor vehicle repair" e.g. wiper changes and headlight bulbs, swapping a Radiator would be a "Major" repair and could result in a fine.  

I used to do stealth repairs in the parking lot of the Apartment Complex I lived in when I was in college.  Cam swaps, exhausts, intakes, lowering kits were common place "repairs" conducted in the parking lot on a regular basis. Lucky for me at the time many like minded guys lived in that end of the complex and did similar repairs, and avoided ever being evicted or fined while living there. We did get a few "Reminders" from the management, which compared to some HOAs or the County of Sac is minor.

My last straw with HOAs was about 10 years ago when I lived in a town house and got a handful of violation letters from the HOA for working on vehicles INSIDE MY OWN GARAGE!  I could understand if I were in the street or leaving a car on jack stands in the driveway but in a garage with the door closed most of the time and during normal waking hours was the last straw for me.  I said to my Girlfiend "F' this; I've had it, we're moving!"  and I will NEVER buy a place in a "Covenanted Neighborhood".   

If I absolutely had to live in some crowded neighborhood the most ideal situation would be a  nearby Warehouse/Lot for residents to park  projects and a community DIY garage with a lift, and air drops.  Sort of like on a millitary base or http://diyautorepairshops.com/index.php That way you'd get no complaints from NIMBYs about having to see your project or hear you working on it.  Even better than a GRM HOA would be something closer to a Fly In, instead of houses surrounding a runway it'd be houses surrounding a track! or even better a track complex with a Road Course, Oval, Skidpad, Rally-X course and a drag strip.

slowbird
slowbird UltraDork
3/24/21 4:51 p.m.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to APEowner :

If you have any success getting away from yourself, please do a how-to thread.

"But wherever I have gone
I was sure to find myself there
You can run all your life
But not go anywhere"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NWjehpGSO0

Seriously though...I don't get why y'all don't want to see a bunch of rusty junk cars in the front yard. I love looking at rusty junk cars! cheeky

kazoospec
kazoospec UberDork
3/24/21 5:16 p.m.

Based on my actual experience with my neighbor's Nissan: Loud, but sounds sweet.  A-OK.  (This would not include my neighbor)

Loud, but sounds like a weedeater running inside of an aluminum trash can with a couple handfulls of ball bearings throw in:  Car becomes forfeit and is used at the next all neighborhood dirt figure 8 race.  Your closest neighbor gets to run it.  If it survives, you can have it back.  100% vehicle mortality should be expected.  

mr2s2000elise
mr2s2000elise UltraDork
3/24/21 5:20 p.m.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

  One street could be all BMW E-codes.  One street could be all toyota engine codes.  What's your address?  1UZ-FE Frisbee Ave.

Did you hear there's someone moving in at VQ30DETT Isn't Straight?

Well already some streets will be higher values and resales than others ;)

bobzilla
bobzilla MegaDork
3/25/21 6:55 a.m.

In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :

no, not really. There's this thing called "rural" life that allows me to have peace and quiet and be away from people. Its kinda nice. City people really need to realize theres more than just cities. HOA's are just a way for little people to feel powerful. 

SVreX (Forum Supporter)
SVreX (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
3/25/21 7:29 a.m.

Is this going to be a place with hot tubs and people wearing GRM underwear?

j_tso
j_tso Reader
3/25/21 7:56 a.m.

All this sounds like we should be planning a subdivision rather than an HOA. Everyone wants a bigger driveway, garages will be bigger and soundproof with an exhaust chimney, there would be a communal autocross lot and dragstrip, etc. The problem is that as soon as a non-car person moves in they'll start complaining, just like those that move near a track.

Apexcarver
Apexcarver UltimaDork
3/25/21 8:19 a.m.

An interesting aspect of my HOA, people cant stay in positions for longer than a set period. Forced rotation. It kind of keeps people from going power crazy and getting entitled a bit.

mtn (Forum Supporter)
mtn (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
3/25/21 9:09 a.m.
bobzilla said:

In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :

no, not really. There's this thing called "rural" life that allows me to have peace and quiet and be away from people. Its kinda nice. City people really need to realize theres more than just cities. HOA's are just a way for little people to feel powerful. 

Weren't you just complaining that warehouses are now in your rural view, and you don't like it? 

HOAs can be a way for  €unty Karens to exercise their €untiness, and sure enough those are the ones you hear about. But they can also be a way to stop Frank two blocks away from erecting a warehouse that would ruin the view. 

 

Don't take everything to the extreme - too many shades of gray in all of it. I still wouldn't live in any HOA, even a GRM designed HOA, at least not one that was mandatory, but don't paint them all as power hungry little people. 

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