Living in a neighborhood with a homeowners’ association means trading some of your personal freedom to make sure your neighbors’ homes look presentable.
It also means forking over big HOA dues and having to deal with busybodies who think they know what’s best for the neighborhood.
A family in Katy, Texas is dealing with the wrath of an HOA in the red state after painting a large black-and-white sign on their lawn supporting Democratic senatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke. O’Rourke is running against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz.
Local Katy Texas resident tells me, “I painted the sign to express myself personally I didn’t expect or want national attention.” After going viral for painted #BETO lawn sign https://t.co/OBCQ43vkFa pic.twitter.com/QbaJkC1SxP
— Ariana (@arianapez) October 18, 2018
Democrat Shannon Bennett, 48, and her Beto-supporting Republican husband, were served an angry letter from the Chesterfield Community Association while putting the finishing touches on their “BETO” sign.
“It’s grass, right? You just mow it off, and it’s gone. It’s so temporary,” Bennett told KTRK. “The code that he was telling us we’d violated is the landscaping code. I said, ‘This isn’t landscaping, it’s a temporary design on the ground.’”
Bennet said the violation notice they received from the Chesterfield Community Association appeared to be written in an angry rush, and it included three different time-frames. So they weren’t sure whether the sign had to be removed “within days,” “by October 30,” or if they have 30 days to appeal the decision.
The couple also noted that a neighbor has a political sign on their yard which states: “I stand for the anthem, and kneel for the cross.”
But the Chesterfield Community Association has pushed back, saying the violation isn’t because of its political message, rather the fact that it’s printed on grass.
“This is not a violation for them placing a political sign; it’s the type of signage that they’ve actually placed on their property being an extremely large painting on the actual grass of their front yard,” Steve Jordan, chief risk officer at the HOA company in charge of Chesterfield Community Association, told the Houston Chronicle. “It is a landscaping and signage violation. It has nothing to do with it being a political signage. Any type of signage of that nature would be in violation.”
With the midterm election coming up, polls have O’Rourke trailing Cruz by around 5 points.
