Green Garden Spaces VS City Ordinances & Homes Associations

Couple Sues After Town Bans Front-Yard Gardens
June 8, 2016 3:40 PM
MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) — A South Florida couple is hoping to squash an ordinance that limits gardens to backyards. They are asking a judge to uproot the ban they claim violates their constitutional rights.
For 17 years, Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts have grown vegetables in a front-yard garden.
The couple said they dug up the garden in front of their Miami Shores home in August 2013 when town officials threatened to fine them $50 a day if they didn’t. The threatened fine came a few months after the Miami Shores Village Council adopted a new zoning plan for the town of about 10,500 north of Miami.
The couple sued, and at a hearing Wednesday their attorney said the ban violates the Florida Constitution in several ways, including improper limits on their private property rights and violation of the equal protection clause by singling out vegetables over other plants.
“We’re not saying you can do anything you want on your property,” attorney Ari Bargil told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Monica Gordo. “We are simply saying you can grow vegetables on your property and that is protected by the Constitution.”
Richard Sarafan, attorney for Miami Shores, said the new zoning rule was not irrational and treated all homeowners the same: their front yards should be covered with grass, sod or a “living ground cover” not further defined. It’s no problem, he said, to have a vegetable garden in the backyard.
“There certainly is not fundamental right to grow vegetables in your front yard,” Sarafan said. “Aesthetics and uniformity are legitimate government purposes. Not every property can lawfully be used for every purpose.”
Carroll, who attended the hearing, said the couple sought to grow produce using organic practices, such as no use of pesticides. He said he had never gotten a complaint from a neighbor in all the years he tended the garden, which grew some 75 varieties of vegetables.
“It’s important that we have the right to do something on our own property,” Carroll said. “We’re just trying to grow vegetables.”
The couple is being represented by lawyers from the Arlington, Virginia-based Institute for Justice, which describes itself as a Libertarian nonprofit organization that focuses on issues such as private property rights, school choice and free speech.
Gordo did not immediately rule. Both sides said the judge could decide the matter without a trial, but either way the case is likely to be appealed, attorneys said.
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2016/06/08/couple-sues-after-town-bans-front-yard-gardens/

Gardens - weather flower or veggies ...can be a beautiful thing; doesn't mean that during those 'off seasons' that they remain so eye appealing or that they land owner will weed as needed either!  Just don't know, but it sure would cut down on the mowing/trimming/spraying for weeds & fertilizers that run off into the storm water

Cass wrote:If you want to do as you want to a property, then don't buy a house that is located in a Home Owners Association. Nobody forced them to buy a house there. Simple really.

Cass wrote:
If you want to do as you want to a property, then don't buy a house that is located in a Home Owners Association. Nobody forced them to buy a house there. Simple really.

WYWOLFIE stated > Similar to those who move out to the suburbs, and start complaining about the birds, frogs, bees and bats;    or move into rural areas and campaign against neighbouring piggeries or the horsey smells;     or move into 'no dogs or cats' and environmental protection zones, then immediately try to overturn the rules..    

4EVER2 wrote:

WYWOLFIE stated > Similar to those who move out to the suburbs, and start complaining about the birds, frogs, bees and bats;    or move into rural areas and campaign against neighbouring piggeries or the horsey smells;     or move into 'no dogs or cats' and environmental protection zones, then immediately try to overturn the rules..    

True too that ...even in this rural - little berg; my home sets on the Northwest edge of the city limits - my nearest neighbor north is a feed lot, just across the city limits - the closest pens are 100 yards from my home ...but I get the sounds, smells, dust when the wind is in the right direction - knew that when I came to view this property! 
2 other homes sold in the past 16 years that I've lived here and the #1 complaint has been: living next to that 'god awful feed lot' ...'google map' or ask about the surrounding businesses/homes - check out the neighborhood prior to just looking at the home you want.  Seems the other important issue when buying property.

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

Cass wrote:
If you want to do as you want to a property, then don't buy a house that is located in a Home Owners Association. Nobody forced them to buy a house there. Simple really.

MY THOUGHTS precisely,  Cass...

Why do people like those troublemakers even buy into those neighbourhoods --  knowing perfectly well that there are restrictive ordinances over those estates sub-divisions..

The sheer arrogance and selfish "me, me, me," "sense of entitlement" beliefs of some people.
Similar to those who move out to the suburbs, and start complaining about the birds, frogs, bees and bats;    or move into rural areas and campaign against neighbouring piggeries or the horsey smells;     or move into 'no dogs or cats' and environmental protection zones, then immediately try to overturn the rules..

I would never buy into a street like that personally, anyway.  Not my cup of tea..
         

sassy wrote:

4EVER2 wrote:
True too that ...even in this rural - little berg; my home sets on the Northwest edge of the city limits - my nearest neighbor north is a feed lot, just across the city limits - the closest pens are 100 yards from my home ...but I get the sounds, smells, dust when the wind is in the right direction - knew that when I came to view this property! 
2 other homes sold in the past 16 years that I've lived here and the #1 complaint has been: living next to that 'god awful feed lot' ...'google map' or ask about the surrounding businesses/homes - check out the neighborhood prior to just looking at the home you want.  Seems the other important issue when buying property.

One thing I noticed over there, you don't seem to have the same planning laws, could be wrong, but in Houston in particular there would be and upmarket housing estate, swimmng pools the lot, and right next door would be a manufacturing uniit.   Has that changed, is it still allowed?