In this post, you’ll learn that the new Lawn Policy:
- …adds no new rules to the neighborhood.
- …provides extra time before Athens Code Enforcement is notified of an overgrown lawn.
- …does not provide the HOA (Pinecrest Community Association) with any new authority.
This summer, the Pinecrest Community Association (PCA) Board of Directors wrote a Lawn Policy, which we formally adopted at our August meeting. The policy is a standardized process for how the Board interacts with overgrown lawns in the neighborhood; we wanted a process that would be neighborly, fair, and reference Athens-Clarke County (ACC) City Code instead of enforcing it ourselves.
The most important thing to know is that we’re not creating any new rules nor are we enforcing anything ourselves. Instead, we’re leaning on Athens-Clarke County city code’s section on lawn length and the Code Enforcement team.
When the grass of a lawn is 10 inches in length (maximum allowable by City Code) we will reach out to the homeowner regarding the lawn and give them a period of two weeks before we submit the lawn to Code Enforcement, who have the authority to determine whether the lawn is in violation or not. We’re using this multi-step process instead of reporting lawns immediately to Code Enforcement to allow homeowners time to deal with the issue without city officials becoming involved.
Why No Direct Enforcement?
We wanted our policy to strike the right balance of being proactive and neighborly, in that we offer a chance for conversation and adjustment before we bring in the city.
Many Homeowners’ Associations fine homeowners directly for things like overgrown lawns, or in extreme cases, they hire landscapers to mow then forward the bill.
One reason we’re not taking that approach is that, simply put, we don’t have the authority.
The Pinecrest Community Association – made up of its members (homeowners), and run by the Board of Directors – is governed specifically by our Covenants and Bylaws, which must cede to applicable local, state, and federal laws. The PCA’s Covenants and Bylaws do not grant any special authority regarding direct punitive action, and give no standards for lawn maintenance.
That lead us to craft a solution which relies on ACC city code. All of us are subject to it whether or not the neighborhood had an Homeowners’ Association, so the Board’s policy helps encourage compliance without us taking direct enforcement action. Also, if someone does have an overgrown lawn they receive 2 more weeks of warning than if someone had gone directly to the city to report it (which is anyone’s right to do so and we do not discourage that).
Our intent with this policy is to help the neighborhood remain attractive through regular lawn maintenance, and do so in a manner that prioritizes neighbor-to-neighbor problem solving first.
Maintained lawns also prevent wildlife from making a home out of a lawn that will need to be mowed later. Fortunately, Pinecrest neighborhood has more than 30 acres of land which is a part of the Athens Land Trust and thus cannot be developed, providing a nearby home for said wildlife.
Acknowledgements And Questions
If you have any questions regarding this policy, feel free to reach out to me, Zach Armstrong, your Pinecrest Community Association president. I can be reached at president (at) pinecrestathens (dot) org.
I owe a special thanks to the members of our Lawn Policy Committee on the Board of Directors who created this policy through several months of research, collaboration, and deliberation, as well as the rest of our volunteer Board of Directors who contributed through discussion, feedback, and voting.
Pinecrest Community Association 