As someone who had a friend who always had 5-6 nonfunctional mismatched panel type cars spread across their driveway and the frontage of their cul-de-sac I get where people are coming from with this while also hating further encroachment on property rights.
Luckily, there is no pressing need to tell the difference from a single snapshot. There is absolutely no need for urgency, the whole issue is that the junk isn't going anywhere.
Imagine being the kid at school whose dad kept 5-10 and a HALF cars in the front yard... when he dies I'll have hundreds of engines/manifolds/headers to recycle ("some of this stuff is expensive, son!" — then why not sell it while still breathing?).
My current city doesn't allow you to have any non-functional vehicles anywhere on your property, unless garaged.
As someone who was that friend at one point when I was much younger I never got the fuss about it. Rented a house in a neighborhood that was none too happy about it and constantly got snide or passive aggressive remarks about it from neighbors both in passing and at several points them coming to my door about it demanding I get rid of them up until I moved out a few years later.
Never understood it. Being older now and owning my own house, there's a house on the same street as mine with kids getting up to similar hijinks and it's honestly nice to see them getting into hands on hobbies. I stop by and chat with them about their ongoing projects every now and then. Crushing someone's passion hobby because of some perceived slight to neighborhood beauty just seems mean spirited.
Funny thing is that the most HOA dictatorial neighborhoods are not some charming heritage places but boring-ass mcmansion-villes with lifeless front lawns.
I had a neighbor attempting to sell their run down hovel for double the market rate. It wouldn’t sell, for obvious reason.
His solution was to call in Code Enforcement on every single neighbor every single day. Which meant I had to send a weekly photo of my lawn to my landlord to be sent to the Code Enforcement Officer to prove I had an orderly property to avoid him a ticket to avoid him a court appearance.
Turns out many (most?) cities and suburbs have laws on the books that meet or exceed virtually any HOA. In that case, they can ruin your life far more than any Boomer on patrol could ever dream of.
Free speech rights doesn't give you blanket protection to break the law. It just means a law can't specifically target your speech. So just as a law against theft still can be applied to someone that commits theft as part of a performance art piece, so also can a general law against an accumulation of inoperative vehicles be applied against an accumulation of a inoperative art cars.
United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367 is the relevant precedent.
> When "speech" and "nonspeech" elements are combined in the same course of conduct, a sufficiently important governmental interest in regulating the nonspeech element can justify incidental limitations on First Amendment freedom
So long as Gilbert has an "substantial" interest in preventing derelict cars and the regulation doesn't go beyond what's necessary, it would stand.
As someone who had a friend who always had 5-6 nonfunctional mismatched panel type cars spread across their driveway and the frontage of their cul-de-sac I get where people are coming from with this while also hating further encroachment on property rights.
Some people truly work on projects which progress and are ultimately completed.
Others are basically hoarders, and the junk simply accumulates.
It's hard to tell the difference from a single snapshot.
Luckily, there is no pressing need to tell the difference from a single snapshot. There is absolutely no need for urgency, the whole issue is that the junk isn't going anywhere.
Imagine being the kid at school whose dad kept 5-10 and a HALF cars in the front yard... when he dies I'll have hundreds of engines/manifolds/headers to recycle ("some of this stuff is expensive, son!" — then why not sell it while still breathing?).
My current city doesn't allow you to have any non-functional vehicles anywhere on your property, unless garaged.
As someone who was that friend at one point when I was much younger I never got the fuss about it. Rented a house in a neighborhood that was none too happy about it and constantly got snide or passive aggressive remarks about it from neighbors both in passing and at several points them coming to my door about it demanding I get rid of them up until I moved out a few years later.
Never understood it. Being older now and owning my own house, there's a house on the same street as mine with kids getting up to similar hijinks and it's honestly nice to see them getting into hands on hobbies. I stop by and chat with them about their ongoing projects every now and then. Crushing someone's passion hobby because of some perceived slight to neighborhood beauty just seems mean spirited.
Funny thing is that the most HOA dictatorial neighborhoods are not some charming heritage places but boring-ass mcmansion-villes with lifeless front lawns.
So towns are now passing HOA rules town wide?
Here are some rules which apply anywhere within Chattanooga's city limits:
•Grass must be <10"
•No indoor furniture on patios
•Address must be posted (near entrance) in 4" tall script
•All vehicles parked outside must be operable and registered ("projects" must be garaged)
•Cannot leave dropped branches on yard, nor piled up (except pile for pickup)
•Paint/roof must be watertight
Certain inspectors are eager for your disagreeableness, as they (in their minds) are god.
I used to rent in a non-HOA neighborhood.
I had a neighbor attempting to sell their run down hovel for double the market rate. It wouldn’t sell, for obvious reason.
His solution was to call in Code Enforcement on every single neighbor every single day. Which meant I had to send a weekly photo of my lawn to my landlord to be sent to the Code Enforcement Officer to prove I had an orderly property to avoid him a ticket to avoid him a court appearance.
Turns out many (most?) cities and suburbs have laws on the books that meet or exceed virtually any HOA. In that case, they can ruin your life far more than any Boomer on patrol could ever dream of.
Now?
Municipalities across America have been implementing laws like this for decades.
HOAs are just ultra-local government.
Land of the free
> campers are generally exempt
Awwww. Too bad. What an ugly thing for your neighbors to have to look at that most people just take out a trip or two a year.
Sigh...you can't regulate art. They are really asking for it.
Free speech rights doesn't give you blanket protection to break the law. It just means a law can't specifically target your speech. So just as a law against theft still can be applied to someone that commits theft as part of a performance art piece, so also can a general law against an accumulation of inoperative vehicles be applied against an accumulation of a inoperative art cars.
I think this has been well tested at the supreme Court. Call the vehicle art, done.
United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367 is the relevant precedent.
> When "speech" and "nonspeech" elements are combined in the same course of conduct, a sufficiently important governmental interest in regulating the nonspeech element can justify incidental limitations on First Amendment freedom
So long as Gilbert has an "substantial" interest in preventing derelict cars and the regulation doesn't go beyond what's necessary, it would stand.