Did you Know? This is important!!!
 

Did you know that the Architectural Committee's (ARC) cannot be challenged? This is so, even if a resident totally removes all grass and replaces it with Pine Straw (4 sides of his property) on his golf course lot without prior approval. As long as the resident uses "Florida- Friendly plants, this is so in District 5, the Villages of Poinciana.

When we purchased a home in the Villages we agreed to abide by certain covenants, as are still stated on the Villages website. On one condition is: Florida Statute 373.185:
"A deed restriction or covenant may not prohibit any property owner from implementing Florida-friendly landscaping on his or her land. Florida-friendly landscaping refers to the utilization of drought tolerant "plants". It does not mean that sod may be replaced with rock, decorative stone, pine straw, mulch or similar non-plant material; however, those non-plant materials may be used as an accent around the said plantings."

If this covenant has been amended, it is not mentioned on the website. Why not?

Yet, a resident can be threatened with a fine/day if a Patriotic flower is not removed from their front lawn; also a covenant- no lawn ornaments.

I would not want to live next to someone with pine straw on all four sides of his house. Peace out...

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Me either. It is so pretty here. Wonder what the rest of the story is.

My take on that rule is you can't just have pine straw or stones, etc. But you could take all the grass out and replace with drought tolerant landscaping, around which could be mulch of some sort. So you may "drought tolerant plant" your heart out, but you can't just rip out all the sod and replace it with mulch.

Did you Know? This is important!!!
 

As I posted before- replacing Sod with Pine straw is not what we want the Villages to look like. Someone commented "What is the rest of the story" take a look at the picture I attached.!!!

did ron hess say it looks fine ???

I thought the rule was that you could only remove a certain percentage of your lawn. I can't believe the ARC allowed this. It's a fire hazard and snakes love pine straw. Removing it was one of the first things we did. UGLY!

Not to burst your bubble, but snakes like stone as well. Especially later in the year when the stone retains its heat. We have a little black snake that loves laying in our stone. As far as a fire hazard...seriously? Must explain the rash of lawn fires here. :)

You might as well face the future. Eventually, grass will be considered bad for the environment (high water usage and pesticide/herbicide runoff) by mainstream, and everyone will be encouraged or required to use different ground cover. Already, there is a movement in TV to go xeriscape.

The Windsor Green and Barefoot Resorts fires in Myrtle Beach were a result of a previously started fire coming into contact with pine straw used for landscaping. Raleigh NC and several NC cities and towns either restrict or ban the use of pine straw. It seems far fetched until there is a fire.

You have permission to xeriscape from the state of Florida. This supersedes any directive of the ARC as to how much grass you must have, it has been proven.

If you dig into the statute, it does not say you can do whatever you want regarding xeriscape/Florida friendly designs. You still have to have a design that the HOA thinks fits in with the rest of the neighborhood. In TV, you must get any redesign approved by the ARC or may be liable for a fine and/or additional redesign costs. The ARC has approved several complete xeriscape designs. Normally, these designs have a lot of pine straw initially. But, as the plants grow and fill in, less and less pine straw is required. There are a couple of mature designs in TV that are really attractive with a variety of plants.

Does anyone truly believe pine straw is attractive? I don’t have a creative bone in my body. Maybe pine straw is one of those things only creative people understand.

Unless they are venomous, and most are not, snakes are very beneficial and keep rodents and other critters in check. And snakes are everywhere no matter what the mulch material. This is Florida. :coolsmiley:

Yes a pine straw fire burns really quick. When we first moved in someone threw out a cigarette and the entire front lawn down the street was on fire.