Neighborhood association/Garden club ???

[Yoheadden]

Looking for some ideas or suggestions on how and if to proceed.
The situation is that I live in a regular residential neighborhood with approximately 65/75 houses on a road that ends in a Cul de sac. Before the end of the road, another road joins it from the right and loops around to cross over the main road. Basically, if you come into our neighborhood, you live there. There is no extra traffic. On the main road, we have 3 islands, each approximately 100-150’ long, that act as a center divider until the intersection of the 2 roads.
There are supposed to be 3 trees spread out evenly in each island with daffodils around the base of each tree. I say supposedly because the third tree on the 2nd and 3rd island are missing. I believe they were hit by cars and never replaced. The rest of the islands are bare, with the exception of weeds.
We try to maintain the 2nd island and another neighbor does the third island. The first one pretty much gets overrun with weeds.
Since this is a town road, the town is responsible for maintaining the islands. They do come out once a year to spray weed killer and patch/repair the curbing that gets torn up while plowing in the Winter. Calls about replacing the trees have so for yielded little results. This is the only road in town that has islands and I really don’t think this is their top priority.
I have been thinking, for some time now, about sending a letter out to all of the houses in the neighborhood about starting either an association, a garden club, or some type of organized collaboration, where each household can contribute X amount of dollars and we hire out, as a community, a local landscaping company to plant, mulch and maintain he islands.
During the 20 years that we have been here, there has been 2 community events where we all got together, someone donated the mulch, and we did a community cleanup of the islands. They look nice for a short time, but unfortunately don’t last.
When you see how nice some islands look at shopping centers, you see the potential of what they could actually look like. This is the first thing we see when we enter the neighborhood, so it would be nice if it looked like we took pride in it, instead of being weed infested.
Has anyone experienced anything like this or have any suggestions or ideas ?
Thank you if you took the time to read through all of this. I tried to be as short as possible, while explaining the situation.

 

[Dash man]

You should verify with the town that they own the islands and get their permission in writing to landscape the islands. I assume you don’t have a homeowners association responsible for maintenance of common areas. If you do, they should approach the town for permission and select any companies hired for landscaping projects.
Liability if someone is hurt on the islands is a concern.

 

[dirtbiker]

Looking for some ideas or suggestions on how and if to proceed.
The situation is that I live in a regular residential neighborhood with approximately 65/75 houses on a road that ends in a Cul de sac. Before the end of the road, another road joins it from the right and loops around to cross over the main road. Basically, if you come into our neighborhood, you live there. There is no extra traffic. On the main road, we have 3 islands, each approximately 100-150’ long, that act as a center divider until the intersection of the 2 roads.
There are supposed to be 3 trees spread out evenly in each island with daffodils around the base of each tree. I say supposedly because the third tree on the 2nd and 3rd island are missing. I believe they were hit by cars and never replaced. The rest of the islands are bare, with the exception of weeds.
We try to maintain the 2nd island and another neighbor does the third island. The first one pretty much gets overrun with weeds.
Since this is a town road, the town is responsible for maintaining the islands. They do come out once a year to spray weed killer and patch/repair the curbing that gets torn up while plowing in the Winter. Calls about replacing the trees have so for yielded little results. This is the only road in town that has islands and I really don’t think this is their top priority.
I have been thinking, for some time now, about sending a letter out to all of the houses in the neighborhood about starting either an association, a garden club, or some type of organized collaboration, where each household can contribute X amount of dollars and we hire out, as a community, a local landscaping company to plant, mulch and maintain he islands.
During the 20 years that we have been here, there has been 2 community events where we all got together, someone donated the mulch, and we did a community cleanup of the islands. They look nice for a short time, but unfortunately don’t last.
When you see how nice some islands look at shopping centers, you see the potential of what they could actually look like. This is the first thing we see when we enter the neighborhood, so it would be nice if it looked like we took pride in it, instead of being weed infested.
Has anyone experienced anything like this or have any suggestions or ideas ?
Thank you if you took the time to read through all of this. I tried to be as short as possible, while explaining the situation.

I can tell you what my response would be if I lived in a free neighborhood and got a letter asking to form an association that costs X dollars per household. It wouldn't be friendly to say the least. A garden club is one thing, but once you're talking about an association where everyone pays money, it turns into a group of Karens dictating what others should do. No thank you. And I'm sure most start with honest intentions, but I think HOAs are akin to communism.

 

[W2R]

i can tell you what my response would be if i lived in a free neighborhood and got a letter asking to form an association that costs x dollars per household. It wouldn't be friendly to say the least. A garden club is one thing, but once you're talking about an association where everyone pays money, it turns into a group of karens dictating what others should do. No thank you. And i'm sure most start with honest intentions, but i think hoas are akin to communism.

+10000000000

 

[Charlotte]

I live in a smaller development (55 or 60 homes?) that does not have an HOA. We have a nice island at the front of our subdivision that is landscaped with a couple trees, bushes, flowers and a sign with the subdivision name on it.

There is a sort of garden club in the neighborhood that is unofficial. Approximately every 3 years they put a note on each mailbox asking for a $25-50 donation to replenish the garden fund. From what I’ve heard, about half to two-thirds of the houses give to the fund voluntarily. It’s enough to keep the island looking nice, keep trees trimmed, etc.

We all benefit with our home values by having an attractive well maintained neighborhood entrance.

 

[Keim]

I echo Dash Man about how to approach the city.

Frankly, I think your courting trouble if you try to make it "official" right out of the box.

I'd start small. Coordinate with some friends in the neighborhood and do it yourselves. I'll bet as long as you are willing to coordinate, your friends will help. See how it evolves from there.

 

[Yoheadden]

You should verify with the town that they own the islands and get their permission in writing to landscape the islands. I assume you don’t have a homeowners association responsible for maintenance of common areas. If you do, they should approach the town for permission and select any companies hired for landscaping projects.
Liability if someone is hurt on the islands is a concern.

No, unfortunately no HOAs. That would make things much easier than having to start from scratch. It is the town’s property, so probably not a bad idea to contact them before anything is done.

 

[Yoheadden]

We all benefit with our home values by having an attractive well maintained neighborhood entrance.

I’m sure there is some that would balk at the idea or couldn’t afford to contribute, but this is my thinking as well, we would all benefit, in multiple ways.

 

[Yoheadden]

I echo Dash Man about how to approach the city.

Frankly, I think your courting trouble if you try to make it "official" right out of the box.

I'd start small. Coordinate with some friends in the neighborhood and do it yourselves. I'll bet as long as you are willing to coordinate, your friends will help. See how it evolves from there.

I could “feel” out a few people to get their thinking. I’m just looking for ideas or suggestions at this point. I see the potential of what they could look like compared to how they are now. I’m not ER’d yet, so the easier the better for me.
I could even start out with a information gathering questionnaire to get peoples ideas and see if there is any interest in helping out.

 

[Brat]

In my city there are traffic islands in residential streets. The neighbors plant flowering plants without adverse consequences.

 

[Mark1]

I had somewhat of a similar issue at my house when we bought it in 2017. We live on a unmaintained county road with 4 other houses. Mailboxes are on the main road, but UPS, Fedex, etc all will come down the unmaintained road to delivery packages, etc. When we moved in, the 5 houses all had 5 different ways of posting their address (basically on my property within the ditch of the main road). Many addresses were on an evasive Chinese Elm tree that I was planning on removing. My solution was to engineer a proper sign post with all 5 street addresses on the post. Now all 5 sets of numbers were at the same location with the same fonts, style, and colors. It looks very nice and cost me maybe $150 and one day's work. I installed the sign post the day I had the tree removed. I never asked for any money and no neighbor every offered to pay a dime. My DW thought I was nuts to pay for the whole project, but in the end it was my project and my desire.

Just because you feel strongly about beautifying the islands doesn't mean your neighbors feel the same way.

 

[Amethyst]

There are supposed to be 3 trees spread out evenly in each island with daffodils around the base of each tree. I say supposedly because the third tree on the 2nd and 3rd island are missing. I believe they were hit by cars and never replaced. The rest of the islands are bare, with the exception of weeds.
.

That would be a good reason not to plant trees there again. Try low shrubs that don't block drivers' vision, and ground covers. Things that require the least amount of maintenance.

Surely the daffodils are still there, and multiplying? Daffodils are maintenance-free.

Weeding - now, that's a tough one. Even lawn services dislike doing the weeding, and it shows in the prices they charge (I do my own). There are tough (some might say invasive) ground covers that will compete with weeds - in fact, one of the best is tall fescue grass, a highly invasive plant.

Bottom line: as long as there is somebody to mow the grass, I would stick with coarse lawn grass, clumps of daffodils (involves a little mulching), and maybe some low-growing native shrubs.

 

[Lewis Clark]

... once you're talking about an association where everyone pays money, it turns into a group of Karens dictating what others should do. No thank you. And I'm sure most start with honest intentions, but I think HOAs are akin to communism.

You are of course entitled to your opinion. This comment gives me the impression you know little about Homeowners Associations (at least as they exist in Florida) or communism.

There are certainly pros and cons to HOAs, just like everything else in life. Living in an HOA or condo association is not for everyone. And that's ok. You seem to despise the idea of an HOA. I prefer them.

The quality of any HOA depends in large part on the volunteers who serve on the Boards of Directors AND the other residents who participate. Most residents don't care enough about their own communities to be classified as apathetic. If residents are that apathetic then they get what they deserve.

Perhaps I've been lucky to live in communities with good HOAs. I've heard horror stories about some other HOAs but that has not been my experience.

That's my opinion after living in four HOA-run communities. And I'm currently serving on the HOA Boards of both my small subdivision and our larger community.

 

[Calico]

I can tell you what my response would be if I lived in a free neighborhood and got a letter asking to form an association that costs X dollars per household. It wouldn't be friendly to say the least. A garden club is one thing, but once you're talking about an association where everyone pays money, it turns into a group of Karens dictating what others should do. No thank you. And I'm sure most start with honest intentions, but I think HOAs are akin to communism.

+100

When I was looking for a house to buy I didn't even consider those with HOAs. There's a reason (several, actually) why I chose to buy a house off a small state highway. No covenants, no HOA, no fees, and everyone minds their own business. We take care of our own properties - period.

 

[Golden sunsets]

The time to organize an HOA is when the development is built, not years later. We live in a neighborhood with a legal HOA, complete with a legal document and bylaws. The HOA collects dues primarily for maintenance of the entrance and landscaped cul de sac. We meet annually. We have a President, Secretary and Treasurer, who rotate among the 15 houses on our street. I like the HOA, but I can't imagine starting one, after the fact. A garden club is probably your best bet with an annual newsletter/request of the non members to support the hard costs that the garden club incurs. You might report the annual hard costs of mulch plantings, etc in your newsletter to the neighbors and I'll bet you find that many homeowners will make donations to support your work.

 

[Aerides]

OP, save yourself the ~$30 in stamps. Engaging with your neighborhood would probably be a bad idea, for dozens of reasons, most notably being you'll find out most of them are people you'd rather avoid. This is high on the list of "things that can go horribly wrong."

My mum joined a well-funded landscape committee in a highly organized HOA community, and already can't stand most of the group a year into it. No one can agree on layouts and what to plant each season, people don't show up to do stuff, and I find it very entertaining.

Better, engage with your city council. And make sure you have their documented permission for anything you decide to do, down to the actual plantings you pick. There are probably some that are poisonous to small animals and guess who'll get that lawsuit.

 

[Calico]

OP, save yourself the ~$30 in stamps. Engaging with your neighborhood would probably be a bad idea, for dozens of reasons, most notably being you'll find out most of them are people you'd rather avoid. This is high on the list of "things that can go horribly wrong."

My mum joined a well-funded landscape committee in a highly organized HOA community, and already can't stand most of the group a year into it. No one can agree on layouts and what to plant each season, people don't show up to do stuff, and I find it very entertaining.

Better, engage with your city council. And make sure you have their documented permission for anything you decide to do, down to the actual plantings you pick. There are probably some that are poisonous to small animals and guess who'll get that lawsuit.

Agree 100%. All good advice.

 

[marko]

I can tell you what my response would be if I lived in a free neighborhood and got a letter asking to form an association that costs X dollars per household. It wouldn't be friendly to say the least. A garden club is one thing, but once you're talking about an association where everyone pays money, it turns into a group of Karens dictating what others should do. No thank you. And I'm sure most start with honest intentions, but I think HOAs are akin to communism.

We just moved to an HOA neighborhood.

After years of putting up with neighbors' inconsideracies, large commercial trucks left idling in driveways for hours, junk in yard, clotheslines, clothes hanging out windows to dry, RVs blocking everyone's view, junk boats that will never float again, cars blocking driveways, police coming by at 3am every few days, fences thrown up wherever the will dictates and lawns 2 feet deep in grass, etc.....we love where we are. Oh! That was all just one house in a million dollar neighborhood ... but we'd had enough.

At least it's clear what is and isn't allowed and before you move here you know what to expect. It may not be for every one but for us....heaven.

 

[pb4uski]

DW belonged to the Garden Club in the city where we used to live. There were a number of islands that the Garden Club landscaped and maintained. IIRC they had a fundraiser each year where members donated various plants they they had grown and they had a plant sale.

While I have a brown thumb, if I was the OP I would consider organizing that Yoheadden Neighborhood Garden Club and seek the town's permission to landscape and maintain the islands. And perhaps as fo a tree or two to replace those that were destroyed.

For funding you could solicit donations from residents and/or hold a plant or bake sale. If you could get 70% of the residents to donate $25 each that would give you over $1k to start.

 

[pb4uski]

We just moved to an HOA neighborhood.

After years of putting up with neighbors' inconsideracies, large commercial trucks left idling in driveways for hours, junk in yard, clotheslines, clothes hanging out windows to dry, RVs blocking everyone's view, junk boats that will never float again, cars blocking driveways, police coming by at 3am every few days, fences thrown up wherever the will dictates and lawns 2 feet deep in grass, etc.....we love where we are. Oh! That was all just one house in a million dollar neighborhood ... but we'd had enough.

At least it's clear what is and isn't allowed and before you move here you know what to expect. It may not be for every one but for us....heaven.

+1 One of the people on our road up north has had a junk deckboat that doesn't run in their driveway for about 20 years... its a running joke in the neighborhood. Doesn't really impact us but it is a blight.

 

[pb4uski]

+100

When I was looking for a house to buy I didn't even consider those with HOAs. There's a reason (several, actually) why I chose to buy a house off a small state highway. No covenants, no HOA, no fees, and everyone minds their own business. We take care of our own properties - period.

Until you get a neighbor that doesn't take care of their property and you have to look at it all the time and it is a blight on a neighborhood that the majority are trying to keep nice. One bad apple....

 

[pb4uski]

I can tell you what my response would be if I lived in a free neighborhood and got a letter asking to form an association that costs X dollars per household. It wouldn't be friendly to say the least. A garden club is one thing, but once you're talking about an association where everyone pays money, it turns into a group of Karens dictating what others should do. No thank you. And I'm sure most start with honest intentions, but I think HOAs are akin to communism.

+10000000000

Just curious... have either of you ever actually lived in a HOA? Yes or no?

 

[W2R]

Just curious... have either of you ever actually lived in a HOA? Yes or no?

Yes or no is all that I'm allowed to say? What, scared that I might actually say something intelligent? Don't worry, I'll just babble on like I usually do.

Your question is completely irrelevant to my post. I agreed to what dirtbiker was saying, because the residents of that neighborhood had ALREADY BEEN LIVING THERE for years, presumably because they like it there just the way it is. And then someone comes in and says, "Hey, how about forking out a bunch of unplanned landscaping dough, and by the way you need to send me the same amount every month for the rest of your life whether you want to or not"? It's only human nature to resist that sort of approach, which of course is completely opposite of moving into a community that already had an HOA that you agreed to.

The OP needs to do the groundwork, get a majority of residents willing to get out there and do the hard work of regularly cleaning up (for free), and then organize an ongoing community cleanup. At this stage that is really all that can be done.

The fact that there have been community cleanups over the years and nobody was interested enough to keep working on it, doesn't bode well for this approach. But charging the other (presumably uninterested) homeowners years after they bought their houses? That is not going to be well accepted by those like dirtbiker and forum members who agreed with him in this thread.

 

[Calico]

Until you get a neighbor that doesn't take care of their property and you have to look at it all the time and it is a blight on a neighborhood that the majority are trying to keep nice. One bad apple....

I've been in the house since 1999 and it hasn't happened yet. People on this road live here for decades and we all seem to have the same "upkeep" standards, so it works for me.

I realize other folks like HOAs. Just not my cup of tea.

 

[Calico]

Yes or no is all that I'm allowed to say? What, scared that I might actually say something intelligent? Don't worry, I'll just babble on like I usually do.

Your question is completely irrelevant to my post. I agreed to what dirtbiker was saying, because the residents of that neighborhood had ALREADY BEEN LIVING THERE for years, presumably because they like it there just the way it is. And then someone comes in and says, "Hey, how about forking out a bunch of unplanned landscaping dough, and by the way you need to send me the same amount every month for the rest of your life whether you want to or not"? It's only human nature to resist that sort of approach, which of course is completely opposite of moving into a community that already had an HOA that you agreed to.

The OP needs to do the groundwork, get a majority of residents willing to get out there and do the hard work of regularly cleaning up (for free), and then organize an ongoing community cleanup. At this stage that is really all that can be done.

The fact that there have been community cleanups over the years and nobody was interested enough to keep working on it, doesn't bode well for this approach. But charging the other (presumably uninterested) homeowners years after they bought their houses? That is not going to be well accepted by those like dirtbiker and forum members who agreed with him in this thread.

I was struck by that too.