A Little Dose of Bleh

 Maaaan, I kinda hate politics, even at small levels. Yesterday was our yearly HOA meeting and a new couple that has just recently bought and moved in has changed the dynamics of things with some definite butting of heads.

A few years ago one family sort of de facto "took over" the board by virtue of being motivated. In general, I don't disagree with them, so I'm not saying that's a bad thing. The complex is definitely in better shape in many ways than it has been and our finances are not constantly scraping the bottom of the barrel as they were for a decade after I moved in. So this is good.

The down side I see is the president of the last few years can be a little... authoritarian. As I agree with her decisions most of the time, that isn't really a problem, but I do genuinely wish she had a lighter touch.

The new couple moved in and immediately made a request to fence/cage off their back patio area for benefit of a cat they didn't want wandering potentially out into the street. The board discussed this. A few years ago, we granted one owner's request to fence of their space and they went beyond that to redo their back area beyond the bounds of what would normally have been allowed. Similarly, two areas that have been fully fenced since the beginning are prone to disuse and clutter outside the rules. That has definitely soured us on the idea as proof that giving units even that little extra bit of privacy leads to rampant cluttering of area that is still, technically, communal (the patio areas are not individually owned). My own concerns focus more on the functional than aesthetic - agents of the Association need to retain easy access for inspection/maintenance/repair purposes, so any fence would, at least, need to have an accessible gate. I see less importance, but still some value, in keeping things clean and somewhat uniform. Anyway, my opinion was a soft "no." The president's was much firmer. Either way, the request was denied.

As the meeting, raised the issue again in a different light. This time, the woman stated she felt unsafe due to people on the main road sidewalk being able to look in the glass back door (at an angle, but the line of sight exists). So rather than accommodating a pet, they want a fence for safety reasons.

On the one hand, yeah, you should felt safe at your own home and have some sense of privacy, sure. On the other hand, this seems like an awful convenient escalation toward the same ends and I'm not sure "but it's our only natural light" is a valid rebuttal to "okay, close your curtains" if privacy/safety is really the main concern.

There wasn't a lot of variety in that debate, but it did get slightly heated and the president really doesn't want to set prescedent, acknowledging that allowing them to fence in their area may well mean allowing anyone who wants it to do the same at this point and that means a loss of ability to monitor and control those spaces.

I remain more on the... fence... about the matter. Plus in my own perspective a fence would matter little as one of the complex buildings overlooks mine and I've long ago come to terms with needing to keep curtains closed if I don't want neighbors being able to stare directly in my bedroom/living room windows.

For now, the denial remains in effect, but it was tabled in such a way that it will come back up again, perhaps with legal discussion. I've had worse experiences with the HOA, but feeling somewhat in the middle of that clash is no fun. And this is only very low-stakes politics...