[TowerTalk] Chicago Tribune news: Ham radio tower has the OKsignal

[Jim Lux]

At 12:10 PM 9/24/2004 -0800, kelly at thejohnsons.ws wrote:
>Hams deserve to be protected, not because of their emergency 
>communications, but
>because our neighbors should not be able to tell us what to do with our 
>property
>except for health and safety issues.  They should be allowed to require 
>"reasonable"
>safety standards, but prohibiting towers...no.  If this is allowed, why 
>not allow my
>neighbor to dictate what color paint I can use, what type of architecture 
>I can use,
>what color draperies, etc.  It sounds like a planned development.  There 
>are lots
>of people that willingly move into planned developments with all of their 
>ridiculous
>rules.  Leave the rest to those of us that prefer freedom to neighborhood 
>control!!!
>If my neighbor wants to live in a cookie cutter neighborhood and wants to 
>dictate
>every aspect of his neighbors existence, then there are numerous planned 
>developments
>in which he can do so.  In fact, in this area it's nearly impossible to find
>a home built in the last 30 years that doesn't have an anti-antenna CC&R 
>and/or
>an HOA.  For every "free" neighborhood, there are probably half a dozen
>HOA controlled neighborhoods.  Trust me, people like that have a lot more 
>places
>(and nicer ones in most cases) to choose from.  Leave my neighborhood to
>those that prefer "personal property rights" to HOA control!!!!

All very nice to espouse as a philosophy, and, if ham radio were the most 
important thing in your life, a strategy that would work.

Life is usually a tradeoff among many competing requirements, ham radio 
being but one. If you have to accomodate requirements for others in your 
family, such as desirable public schools, the features of the house, the 
money you have to invest in your house, etc., you might well find that the 
only place that meets those other, potentially more important, requirements 
is a planned development with an active HOA and rules.



As far as house color goes, those are often city requirements, not just HOA 
rules.  For instance, the city of San Clemente, CA, used to require white 
or beige stucco and red tile roofs.  Thousand Oaks, CA, where I live, 
requires neutral earth tones.