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Government ruins everything: veggie garden prohibition

aociswundumho

aociswundumho

Capitalist Pig
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Location
Bridgeport, CT
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Political Leaning
Libertarian - Right
No front yard veggies in Falcon Heights this year, city leaders tell resident - StarTribune.com

Falcon Heights homeowner Quentin Nguyen had dreams of cultivating a large garden in his front yard, one where neighbors could grow vegetables and build community spirit.

But just days after he tore out the turf on the street side of his two-thirds-acre lot, he got a letter from a Falcon Heights city official saying that the City Council had just prohibited vegetable gardens in front yards. His project needed to stop.

"Who in the world would think that to grow food in your own yard you needed permission?" Nguyen, 24, said Wednesday. "Especially with the pandemic, we all realize how dependent we are on the market for food."

The Falcon Heights council passed an interim ordinance last week barring such front yard gardens for up to a year, to give city staffers time to "research garden standards in other communities and provide information regarding official controls." City Administrator Sack Thongvanh told the council
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Welcome to the leftist regulatory state, where it's illegal to grow food on your own property without government permission.
 
Actually, I agree that front yards are no place for a garden. Here you can't park you vehicle on the front yard grass, it has to be on the driveway or the street. I agree with that. My neighborhood isn't a trailer park.

Having said that, I do still live in this city because their regulations are very lenient, aside from front lawns. When my boys were into 4X4 truck building we sometimes had half a dozen old parts trucks out BACK. (Privacy fenced). Parts scattered everywhere, out BACK. Garbage cans must be stored behind the front line of your house. The city doesn't care what you do behind the front of your property. No HOA either. I now store two boats and a trailer out BACK. No problemo.

Is there a reason this guy can't have his garden in the BACK yard? I doubt the city would care a whiff if it were in the BACK yard.
 
Must be CCRs that prohibit it. I can't have a garage sale in my area for the same reason. Its not a left or right thing, its a bunch of wackos on local boards that do this stuff. Same thing with blue laws to me.
 
aociswundumho said:
No front yard veggies in Falcon Heights this year, city leaders tell resident - StarTribune.com



Welcome to the leftist regulatory state, where it's illegal to grow food on your own property without government permission.
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Man you need to live one day in China or North Korea Please do not tell me Mr. Nguyen is interested in civil liberties and fighting unfair government regulation. He sounds like an inconsiderate self centered nuisance of a neighbour. Common sense man. Common sense. Front vegetable plots can be a fire hazard for fire and emergency responders and create all kinds of health issues not to mention an increase in visits from skunks, racoons, rats, mice, which God bless them mean well but you will be the first to also complain about. You are trivializing the issue of totalitarianism with due respect.
 
Vadinho said:
Must be CCRs that prohibit it. I can't have a garage sale in my area for the same reason. Its not a left or right thing, its a bunch of wackos on local boards that do this stuff. Same thing with blue laws to me.
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Thats the perfect reason to not buy property with a CCR.
 
...as the OP posts from the greatest nation in the history of the world.
 
aociswundumho said:
No front yard veggies in Falcon Heights this year, city leaders tell resident - StarTribune.com



Welcome to the leftist regulatory state, where it's illegal to grow food on your own property without government permission.
Click to expand...

"Falcon Heights Mayor Randy Gustafson said Wednesday that the city has always banned front yard vegetable gardens. City code written in the 1950s explicitly requires turf grass, trees and shrubs in the front yard, the mayor said.

“I don’t know why they put that into city code in the 1950s,” Gustafson said"

Leftists, huh? Lottsa leftists in 1950's Minnesota, you figure?
 
aociswundumho said:
No front yard veggies in Falcon Heights this year, city leaders tell resident - StarTribune.com



Welcome to the leftist regulatory state, where it's illegal to grow food on your own property without government permission.
Click to expand...

That's neither nor right. It's homeowners going up to city council and wanting lawns in people's front yards. Hell, you see that kind of thing way more in the Republican voting outer suburbs than you do in the Democratic voting inner suburbs.

I will kiss your ass and mine twice if better than 80% of the HOAs and really restrictive codes on single-family homes are not in outer Republican voting suburbs. Hell, the typical Country Club Republican Community won't even let you paint your house without running it by the city government.
 
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The city council is Republican.
 
Government ruins everything but cops are unquestionable angels :p
 
aociswundumho said:
"Who in the world would think that to grow food in your own yard you needed permission?"
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Anyone with even the most basic understanding of respect for your neighbors, aesthetics, and property values?
 
Waddy said:
Actually, I agree that front yards are no place for a garden. Here you can't park you vehicle on the front yard grass, it has to be on the driveway or the street. I agree with that. My neighborhood isn't a trailer park.

Having said that, I do still live in this city because their regulations are very lenient, aside from front lawns. When my boys were into 4X4 truck building we sometimes had half a dozen old parts trucks out BACK. (Privacy fenced). Parts scattered everywhere, out BACK. Garbage cans must be stored behind the front line of your house. The city doesn't care what you do behind the front of your property. No HOA either. I now store two boats and a trailer out BACK. No problemo.

Is there a reason this guy can't have his garden in the BACK yard? I doubt the city would care a whiff if it were in the BACK yard.
Click to expand...

In my neighborhood, you can’t even fence your front yard. It’s all about property and resale value. No one wants to buy a house near a vegetable garden in the front lawn
 
For me it is the perfect reason why I do live in a HOA with strong CCR's. Same reason why people can't park their cars on the front lawn, convert back yard sheds into rental units, keep boats, trailers, commercial trucks and vehicles in the driveway in view, hang a bunch of flags (other than the American flag), or paint their houses black with a giant skull on the garage door....


People who buy homes with CCR's and HOA rules are advised by the real estate broker and the title search of the rules, and they AGREED to abide by them ahead of time. So I don't feel any pity for newcomers who never bothered to read the conditions attached to the title deed and then chose to ignore the restrictions. To me these are like people who see the border fence, know it is not just open to just anyone to ignore the laws, but then proceed anyway and then claim they are a victim.

I just got my water bill for last month which is $500. That wasn't water to irrigate corn and soy beans in the front lawn or water livestock in the back lawn. That was money spent on a pristine GREEN manicured lawn and landscaping on my large HOA property. People want to grow corn--- do it in the backyard. But that might mean they can't build ramshackle rental units in the back.

As they say, "When in Rome...". Front yard is for lawns.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
That's neither nor right. It's homeowners going up to city council and wanting lawns in people's front yards. Hell, you see that kind of thing way more in the Republican voting outer suburbs than you do in the Democratic voting inner suburbs.

I will kiss your ass and mine twice if better than 80% of the HOAs and really restrictive codes on single-family homes are not in outer Republican voting suburbs. Hell, the typical Country Club Republican Community won't even let you paint your house without running it by the city government.
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NO it isn't about politics, but it is about a culture of what is agreed to be aesthetically pleasing and what is not. Which eventually comes around to affecting property values as well. In the region I live in there are many wealthy liberal communities as well as wealthy conservative communities. And the common theme there are standards which make for a sparkling clean and pleasant community.

It is in the poor communities that there is an almost anything goes attitude about how people maintain their properties. Not all but many, especially many people from other cultures where everything is a mess anyway. So I'm pretty sure that the most liberal areas in the Hamptons on Long Island NY have pretty much the same kinds of rules about how residential properties are maintained in the public view as the most Conservative communities in Newport Beach, California.
 
Court Jester said:
For me it is the perfect reason why I do live in a HOA with strong CCR's. Same reason why people can't park their cars on the front lawn, convert back yard sheds into rental units, keep boats, trailers, commercial trucks and vehicles in the driveway in view, hang a bunch of flags (other than the American flag), or paint their houses black with a giant skull on the garage door....


People who buy homes with CCR's and HOA rules are advised by the real estate broker and the title search of the rules, and they AGREED to abide by them ahead of time. So I don't feel any pity for newcomers who never bothered to read the conditions attached to the title deed and then chose to ignore the restrictions. To me these are like people who see the border fence, know it is not just open to just anyone to ignore the laws, but then proceed anyway and then claim they are a victim.

I just got my water bill for last month which is $500. That wasn't water to irrigate corn and soy beans in the front lawn or water livestock in the back lawn. That was money spent on a pristine GREEN manicured lawn and landscaping on my large HOA property. People want to grow corn--- do it in the backyard. But that might mean they can't build ramshackle rental units in the back.

As they say, "When in Rome...". Front yard is for lawns.
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I consider most of the HOA's around here to be rather oppressive. I don't mind reasonable HOA codes, but a young homeowner who grew up in the home next to mine moved to a more suburban neighborhood with very strict rules. They ticketed him for parking his bass boat in the driveway...he moved it to the side yard....ticketed....then behind the house....ticketed. I LMAO. He asked me if he could park it at my house for a while, until he found some storage. I said fine. Long as it's out back and not on the front lawn nobody cares.

When my boys were young I also put up a basketball goal for them. Nobody ever said a word, but some HOA's prohibit such things. I would rather my boys and the other neighborhood boys hang around my house playing basketball than possibly getting into trouble elsewhere.

If all HOA's used common sense I would probably be in favor of them. All too often it depends on who is on the HOA board. Some are real NAZI's.
 
aociswundumho said:
No front yard veggies in Falcon Heights this year, city leaders tell resident - StarTribune.com



Welcome to the leftist regulatory state, where it's illegal to grow food on your own property without government permission.
Click to expand...

Naw, to Republican communities property values are guaranteed in the Bill Of Rights somehow. MOST (not all) zoning laws should be eliminated. Most are about economic segregation and nearly all about conformity. I'm VERY big on land owner rights. ANY zoning or other regulatory limit the government wants to place on someone's property the government in the Bill Of Rights HAS TO PAY FOR. If the property owner does not want to live under the devaluation of their land for the person's own goals, then the government has to buy the entire property and permanent fixtures to it at fair market value at value PRIOR to the zoning/regulatory restriction - so the property owner can move elsewhere of similar value.

I/we have been taken to court 3 times over something someone didn't like about what we were doing on our property. The other side always lost and even pre-trial.
1. We can put up a huge religious symbol on our property and house even if people don't like it.
2. Other people do not tell us what colors we may not paint our house and buildings.
3. Anyone we allow to camp on our property may do so for as long or short as we say.

Otherwise, 100% of the time we've told people to get off property they have done so, including by threat of force and one time opening up on them with a Saiga 12 shotgun with 30 shell canister (loaded with bean bag shot). They did call the sheriff. They were instead all written a ticket for trespassing and told they were very lucky in how mercifully they were run off the property after ignoring being told to. (This is good ole boy Florida backwoods woodland swamp country. I LIKE their values.)

 
What really gets to me is to see people with huge yards of just GRASS. I get it that not everyone has a green thumb, but why in the hell would you buy an acre of front or back yard only to never utilize it for anything except your riding lawn mower once a week?
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
That's neither nor right. It's homeowners going up to city council and wanting lawns in people's front yards. Hell, you see that kind of thing way more in the Republican voting outer suburbs than you do in the Democratic voting inner suburbs.

I will kiss your ass and mine twice if better than 80% of the HOAs and really restrictive codes on single-family homes are not in outer Republican voting suburbs. Hell, the typical Country Club Republican Community won't even let you paint your house without running it by the city government.
Click to expand...

But you know that going in when you buy your house. Or at least you should. I digress. I have no idea why anyone would want to buy property with a covenant or restrictive use laws its counter productive and reduces dramatically the usefulness of the property.
 
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