Pioneer Living Survival

BROWARD COUNTY Weston homeowner fights to protect her garden   While South Florida’s sun and soil may be ideal for growing fruit trees and vegetable gardens, code enforcement says one homeowner must get rid of her garden. Buy Photo Amy Becerra, a Weston Hills resident, grows fruits and vegetables in her back yard, but was recently told by her homeowners association she has to remove the food-producing plants and trees or face a $100 a day fine. “The architectural control guidelines want all the houses to look the same,” Wolland said of the HOA guidelines. “Well, from the street you can’t tell that this house is any different from any of the other neighboring houses,” Wolland said. “It looks just as nice. You can’t tell there is a vegetable garden until you start climbing around to see what’s going on back there. That’s the point at which Big Brother has to stand back.”

Having sat on both sides of the dais – as a lawyer representing residents and as a commissioner sitting on the code enforcement board – Wolland said even residents without the means to hire an attorney should come prepared with as much information as they can get their hands on to make their case.

“You don’t have to be an attorney to stand up for your rights,” Wolland said. “Sometimes the people who sit at City Hall or on these boards want to do the right things, sometimes they need to be educated, they may not be an expert in all these things.”

Battles between residents and strict code enforcement and HOA guidelines are not uncommon in South Florida, where everything from house colors to grass length are regulated.

“I represented a woman in Miami Shores whose husband died of cancer and she was trying to sell the house but she couldn’t because there was a $6,000 fine levied against her house,” Wolland recalled. “We tried to get the fine reduced. The woman explained that her husband was the one who usually took care of mowing the lawn, but between his cancer and taking care of him it was something they let slip, and basically their response was ‘gee sorry, but we’re not going to reduce the fine.’

“Frankly code enforcement should be a means of ensuring compliance, not a means of punishing people.”

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/08/2104751_p2/weston-homeowner-fights-to-protect.html#ixzz1Gj2U7cHj

Great video Here: http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/A-Garden-Grows-in-Weston-117676643.html