"It's this tree, this tree, pretty much all these trees will get wiped out," Canu continued while pointing to trees behind his property.

The ones in question tower over lots along an alley. Twenty bear an orange "X" now.


Worst Degeneration-X fans EVER.

You're supposed to use *green* paint.

Or D-Generation X, if you want to get all colloquial and stuff.

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener: Or D-Generation X, if you want to get all colloquial and stuff.

That's what I was going to say that when I saw your Boobies. You beat me to the punch yet again.

*golf clap*

Pud: That's what I was going to say that when I saw your Boobies. You beat me to the punch yet again.

*golf clap*

I'VE GOT TWO WORDS FOR YOU:

Thank you.

So trees start falling on houses, and the HOA asks a city engineer to mark which trees are dangerous. People can keep the dangerous trees if they sign a waiver saying that they accept responsibility if the tree falls on something important, otherwise it will be removed before anyone or anything is damaged.

This may be the first time I've seen an HOA on Fark doing something sensible. I should mark it on my calender.

suckerpunch: It sounds like the HOA and owners failed to properly maintain the trees.

Seriously. Granted I don't know much about Texas weather but are they really getting such massive storms that normal healthy trees are being toppled left and right?

20 out of how many?

Antidamascus: suckerpunch: It sounds like the HOA and owners failed to properly maintain the trees.

Seriously. Granted I don't know much about Texas weather but are they really getting such massive storms that normal healthy trees are being toppled left and right?

Last year's drought may have weakened them considerably.

Oh, and also, I hear there is unrest in the forest.

Antidamascus: suckerpunch: It sounds like the HOA and owners failed to properly maintain the trees.

Seriously. Granted I don't know much about Texas weather but are they really getting such massive storms that normal healthy trees are being toppled left and right?

Things get quite violent here. Not as bad as Oklahoma, but you can expect a few storms a year with winds over 80 mph, golf ball or larger hail, and a dozen tornadoes.

i_got_no_strings: So trees start falling on houses, and the HOA asks a city engineer to mark which trees are dangerous. People can keep the dangerous trees if they sign a waiver saying that they accept responsibility if the tree falls on something important, otherwise it will be removed before anyone or anything is damaged.

This may be the first time I've seen an HOA on Fark doing something sensible. I should mark it on my calender.

Came here to say this. A HOA behaving in a sane, sensible manner with actual concern for the safety of members and their property? Dafuq?

Antidamascus: suckerpunch: It sounds like the HOA and owners failed to properly maintain the trees.

Seriously. Granted I don't know much about Texas weather but are they really getting such massive storms that normal healthy trees are being toppled left and right?

They're not necessarily healthy trees. Drought and diseases are weaking the trees and with most Texas oaks, you won't know they're rotted out until they fall on your house. I woke up one morning many years ago and found that one of the main trunks off a large oak (18" diameter, about 20 ft long) had fallen, narrowly missing my dog's house. About 40% of the central core of the trunk had rotted out from the inside.

That, and Dallas has gotten some pretty nasty wind/thunderstorms over the past few weeks.

If they don't agree with the findings, hire a tree guy for a second opinion.

We have a small ravine behind our house with some massive farking trees in it. Easily capable of crushing our house. The HOA has an arborist check them out every couple of years. Some have been topped but all are healthy (or so they tell us).

IvanTheSilent

"A HOA behaving in a sane, sensible manner with actual concern for the safety of members and their property? Dafuq?"

That doesn't mean we still can't turn it in to a HOA hate thread.

/lives in condo
//quite happy

SilentStrider: I Am The Bishop Of East Anglia: Antidamascus: suckerpunch: It sounds like the HOA and owners failed to properly maintain the trees.

Seriously. Granted I don't know much about Texas weather but are they really getting such massive storms that normal healthy trees are being toppled left and right?

Last year's drought may have weakened them considerably.

Oh, and also, I hear there is unrest in the forest.

there's trouble with the trees?

Do the Maples want more sunlight?

IvanTheSilent: i_got_no_strings: So trees start falling on houses, and the HOA asks a city engineer to mark which trees are dangerous. People can keep the dangerous trees if they sign a waiver saying that they accept responsibility if the tree falls on something important, otherwise it will be removed before anyone or anything is damaged.

This may be the first time I've seen an HOA on Fark doing something sensible. I should mark it on my calender.

Came here to say this. A HOA behaving in a sane, sensible manner with actual concern for the safety of members and their property? Dafuq?

HOAs: Not all wretched hives of scum and villainy. Unfortunately, all can become such if enough residents stop caring (or care too much about the superficial) and let tinpot dictators in.

nice headline

/seriously, well done

I think they should pave the entire and then surround it with rubber padding. White, because black can get hot. They should not allow people outside unless they are going to work or have special permission from the association. All units should be surround by 50 foot sound proof fences. No children or pets are allowed. No parties or guests ever. Only the owner of the unit will be allowed in. The only color on anything, cars, unit fences, clothing shal be white #001.

ask those people in Colorado about buying a "wooded lot". We all love trees. But trees need lots and lots of space far from houses and foundations. Best rule of thumb is they should be no less than twenty feet from a structure. Most urban lots do not have that kind of space.
Then there is the mistaken assumption that if you go into a forest and cut down 80% of the trees and build houses around the remaining few, that those trees that are left will still go on acting like a forest. They won't. The developer probably wasn't too careful about driving over the root zone. Instant death warrant. Then the storms come in and a tree whose root system depended on its neighbors to keep it upright can no longer hold itself up. Instant dead fall. Then one has to consider the age of the tree. Trees, just like humans, get old and die. You have to watch for that and cull the old trees and replace them with new trees. Expensive. Nobody thinks to put "consult arborist" into their yearly budgets.

Antidamascus: Seriously. Granted I don't know much about Texas weather but are they really getting such massive storms that normal healthy trees are being toppled left and right?

I get the feeling from how the article was phrased that these were trees that were native and left there when the subdivision was built, so they hadn't been maintained through their life to the satisfaction that they'll survive a major storm. Old trees crash down often enough that the HOA decided they don't want that liability.

Keeping themselves from getting sued into oblivion is probably a good idea.

At first I kinda thought this was about my friend's neighborhood down in Houston. A whole bunch of trees on the HOAs property died in the drought last year, and she wrote them a letter asking that they be removed before they fell and caused damage. They ignored it. Then, a few weeks ago there was a storm and, yeah, one fell right on her house.

\She cleverly CCed her insurance agent on the letter, so she's got the HOA board on the run.

be kewl or be cast out

Listen, if you don't like the HOA's decision then you can make like a tree, and move the fark out of there.

I like how they are called "owners", as if they actually own anything.
The HOA owns the trees and your ass too, and does whatever they want.
You signed your rights away when you bought the HOA home.

Antidamascus: suckerpunch: It sounds like the HOA and owners failed to properly maintain the trees.

Seriously. Granted I don't know much about Texas weather but are they really getting such massive storms that normal healthy trees are being toppled left and right?

Things get quite violent here. Not as bad as Oklahoma, but you can expect a few storms a year with winds over 80 mph, golf ball or larger hail, and a dozen tornadoes.

Also, as previously mentioned, there is drought weakening them. One thing that people don't seem to realize is that trees have lifespans. They get old and die just like everything else. The fast growing trees tend to have shorter lifespans and the slower growing ones tend to have longer ones, but they all get old and die. How old are the trees in the story?

/Nice to see a reasonable HOA

Reminds me of a story from my old home town. There is a track and football field behind the block I grew up on (there is a elementary/junior high school there). One of my neighbors was walking along the edge of the track during high winds and a tree fell on her. She suffered some pretty serious injuries, but she recovered. This particular tree was on the school's property so she figured that she would sue the school district to negligence (the tree had some rotting in the core, but there was no sign of this rot). The court ultimately ruled that the school was not responsible ("act of god") but the school then ordered that all trees on the school's property along the athletic field be cut down. When the school marked some tree that were on private property there was a lot of uproar and surveyors had to come in to mark out the property lines. Most of the trees along there were on private property, but enough were removed that there are some ugly gaps in the trees. Two of them were favored climbing trees from when I was a kid. I hate idiots.

Doesn't HOA stand for Hitler's Other Army?

HOAs would make a lot more sense and probably not a bad idea if they met more than once a year and were more than just a clique of one small group of homeowner in a community.

Otherwise, they're just literal oligarchies dressed up in the guise of "community democracy".

I bloody love my tree-lined street. They won't be taken down en masse here, thank goodness, because the neighborhood is so old - my house is almost 100. There's and oak in the alley out back, a redwood next door, and sycamores all over. Unfortunately the power company does total hack jobs for line maintenance (nor can they seem to maintain poles). I really like how the street looks and how the house gets shade. Even raking leaves has its moments.

And if you decide to volunteer to drink the cool-aid, should the rest of us care? HOA's were created to allow the few to dictate how the rest shall live.

If you takes your chances, you pay often more than your dues.

wambu:
Agreed, and the current plan looks like a good solution for the current problem. It appears they have only selected every tree trees that present a hazard and individuals can opt out if they already assume the liability of their decision property.

FIFY

Also:

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."

this is one of the most boring posts I've ever seen on fark.

HOAs are absolutely fascinating. They are tiny little microcosms of democracy, and as such they epitomize the best and the worst about democracy.

P.S. You can afford more in taxes, friends.

IamAwake: this is one of the most boring posts I've ever seen on fark.

Then youbeensleeping

FTA: "The ones in question tower over lots along an alley. Twenty bear an orange "X" now. They're the ones the Twin Creeks Community Homeowners Association plans to have cut down."

So, it's still OK to use Orange...

Subdivisions is a damn good song. And I've been watching Neil Peart drum solos all evening due to another Fark post. It's a Rush kinda night...

MoronLessOff: [images.wikia.com image 275x183]

BumpInTheNight: MoronLessOff: [images.wikia.com image 275x183]

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Zing!