Two Boise men replaced their lawns with fake grass. Their neighbors threatened to sue.
When Ken Fox and Florian Penalva decided to replace their Boise lawns this spring with artificial grass, they didn’t expect much response from their neighbors.
Both men, who are neighbors and business partners in a local restaurant chain, said they had a hard time keeping their lawns healthy and wanted to replace their lawns to cut down on water usage amid a historic drought. It wasn’t cheap, with costs totaling between $8,500 and $10,000 for each project, but they insisted the results were worth the cost.
“It’s a win-win for us and the environment,” Penalva said. “That’s what really motivated me to do it.”
Soon, though, they began receiving multiple letters from the East Valley Community Association, their homeowner’s association, demanding they remove the artificial turf and replace it with natural grass. The men live in the East Valley Subdivision off Warm Springs Avenue, east of Harris Ranch.
Most of the homes in the subdivision are relatively new, with the oldest built in 2015. A walk through the neighborhood shows a mixture of finely manicured one- and two-story homes. Penalva bought his home in 2016, while Fox purchased his in 2017.
The association’s board — along with the board’s attorneys and management company — said the men had violated the neighborhood’s restrictions by using artificial turf, which they said was prohibited, according to copies obtained by the Statesman.
Two months later, the men have spent thousands of dollars in legal fees and are left disillusioned by the actions of their homeowner’s association, or HOA.
“What the homeowner’s association is trying to force us to do is use tap water for watering lawns in the midst of this drought,” Fox said. “The whole thing strikes me as really kind of dumb.”
Homeowner’s associations typically have a document called conditions, covenants and restrictions — commonly known as CC&Rs — that restricts what changes residents can make and the process for making any alterations. These documents are intended to protect the image of the neighborhood and property values.
“Every homeowner wants to enjoy their home and maintain a pleasant environment while maintaining the value of the neighborhood,” association board members said in one letter.
The association requires residents to plant “full sod” grass on their lawns. Fox and Penalva said “full sod” is a vague term that doesn’t exclude artificial turf.
Fox and Penalva also said maintaining natural grass has become more challenging this summer, where record high temperatures have severely dried out the grass, with all of Idaho experiencing some level of drought.
Keeping the grass green requires a lot of water. Boise residents this summer have been using 15% more water than normal, according to figures from Suez Water, in large part because residents have to use more water to keep their lawns healthy.
It’s an issue that’s cropped up in other states in the West, where the stability of water supplies has received greater attention as droughts become more frequent. The California Legislature passed a bill in 2015 saying HOAs could not prohibit artificial turf. A similar bill was recently introduced in Colorado.
‘A bit excessive’
One letter from Development Services, the association’s Boise management company, informed Fox and Penalva that the neighborhood would hire a landscaper to remove the fake turf and replace it with natural grass, charging them $1,500 apiece, according to a copy of the estimate.
The HOA’s right for the association to correct violations is mentioned in the CC&R, but Fox maintained the turf didn’t violate any rules. Fox wrote to the landscaper, threatening litigation if the company attempted to tear up his lawn.
“We just were not willing to surrender that degree of control over our own houses to these people,” Fox said.
Penalva, who is originally from France, said he was surprised by what he saw as a lack of concern for the environment in a dangerously dry time.
“In Europe, there’s a lot of support for the environment … but here, it’s all money-driven,” he said.
Two members of the board declined to comment, referring the Statesman to the board’s attorney, Patrick Galloway of Smith Knowles in Meridian.
Galloway said in a written statement that restrictions against artificial grass are commonplace.
“I suspect most communities in Idaho would not allow artificial turf to be installed in the front yard,” he said.
Not everyone agrees. Michael Madson, owner of MGM Management in Meridian, said he’s never seen an association outright ban artificial grass on front lawns. Typically, CC&Rs are written in vague language, allowing boards to interpret them to prevent fake grass, he said.
“I’ve never seen a CC&R that requires live vegetation,” Madson said.
Fox and Penalva said the negative reaction has come only from the association’s board members. They say other neighbors told them they’re interested in installing turf at their homes too.
One of those neighbors, Taylor Childs, said he and other neighbors have no problem with the fake grass.
“They (the association) like to be concerned with other people’s business, I guess,” Childs said. “I think it’s a bit excessive.”
Fox and Penalva have spent close to $10,000 in legal fees in their fight against the association, and they expect to spend thousands more. However, they say the money is worth it to stand up to an association they argue is increasingly out of touch with the desires of its residents.
“I don’t like to get pushed around,” Fox said. “That’s why we’ve stayed in this as long as we have, and why we will stay until the end.”
This story was originally published August 4, 2021 at 4:01 AM.
.jpg)