When the HOA attacked the garden of my sister, Janet Crouch, they probably had no idea what their actions would wreak: a statewide ban on small-mindedness.
If you live in a community governed by a homeowners association in Maryland, your HOA will soon no longer be allowed to require you to grow turfgrass. It can no longer prohibit you from planting native plants and creating wildlife habitat. The Maryland General Assembly has spoken, quietly and firmly, joining a growing number of states last week by passing House Bill 322, the low-impact landscaping legislation that specifically codifies your right to be wildlife-friendly, plant-friendly, and environmentally conscious.
You can thank my sister, Janet Crouch, for that. The office of Delegate Terri Hill, a cosponsor of the bill, already did, expressing gratitude for her brave advocacy in an email the day after the unanimous Senate vote and adding, “This wouldn’t have all happened without you bringing this forward.”
Three and a half years ago, Janet and her husband Jeff began receiving demands from the Beech Creek Homeowners Association in Howard County that they convert their beautiful 15-year-old pollinator gardens to turfgrass. In a series of bullying and nonsensical letters, the HOA’s contracted law firm, Nagle & Zaller, wrote that a garden “without the use of pesticides in which they have maintained ‘native plants’ to provide food for birds, bees, and other insects and animals” is “completely contrary to the overall design scheme for the Association, which is a planned development. Lots within the Association are intended to be uniform in design and character with manicured yards and green grass for lawns.” Attorney Sean Suhar used quotes around words and concepts he apparently viewed as suspicious, such as “garden,” and wrote disparagingly of the Crouches’ “environmentally sensitive agenda.” The law firm’s letters displayed a seemingly boundless ignorance by trying to demonize my sister and her husband for adding “plantings which grow back every year.”
Misplaced and Misspent Priorities
Throughout this process, there was virtually no opposition from politicians, and even the national association representing HOAs supported the legislation. When we testified for the bill the first time at last year’s hearing, the curmudgeonly delegate who’d voted against other environmental proposals that day surprised us all by asking, “Who wouldn’t support pollinator gardens?”
His question was more than rhetorical for my sister. Janet’s HOA board was so unsupportive of pollinator gardens that it paid the law firm of Nagle & Zaller about $100,000 of the community’s money—made up entirely of homeowners’ dues—to try to get rid of the one in my sister’s yard. (Read more about a previous class-action lawsuit by Maryland residents against Nagle & Zaller.) Until this case, I thought I had heard it all during my years of habitat consulting and advocacy work—from frustrated gardeners who couldn’t even grow moss for nesting birds, baffled homeowners who’d been fined for leaving pinecones under their trees, and devastated bird and butterfly advocates who’d been forced to mow down their wildflowers. But it turned out I hadn’t heard the half of it yet, and it was about to get personal.
The entire case against the Jeff and Janet Crouch was built on the complaints of one neighbor, whose scarce smattering of plants includes Japanese barberries—which, like many shrubs grown outside their range, are environmentally harmful—and whose lawn is filled with blue chemicals that I have filmed running down toward the wooded and stream-filled park during rainstorms. He also hires pesticide sprayers routinely and accused the Crouches of attracting mosquitoes, even though his eroded lawn pools with standing water and provides perfect mosquito habitat. One of the most ludicrous complaints of all from this man—whose property and entire neighborhood abuts forest where owls, foxes, squirrels, chipmunks and many other animals live—was repeated in illogical screeds from the lawyers proclaiming that “numerous squirrels are being attracted to the subject property. The neighbor fear [sic] this will affect their property.”
No Laughing Matter
Claims of squirrel takeovers may sound laughable, but since 2017, it has been no laughing matter for Janet, who poured her heart into saving the garden that has offered so much solace to her family and so much habitat to the community’s birds and other wildlife. My sister followed all the standard advice about working with HOAs. She posted small “bird-friendly garden” signs, which she was immediately told to remove, despite the HOA’s sanctioning of “Caution: Pesticide” signs in other yards. She distributed newsletters explaining her case, but even the many supportive neighbors were afraid to speak out for fear of reprisal. She talked to every advocacy organization she could find, only to be told that they don’t get involved with such matters. She ran successfully for the board of the HOA and learned the bylaws, the state laws, and the policies and procedures inside and out—but then discovered that the board members appeared to have no idea what had been written on their behalf in shockingly unprofessional and inaccurate letters to her and other homeowners.
In preparation for a “hearing” process in 2018, we prepared many documents and photos, only to arrive and discover it was all a sham. Suhar, the HOA lawyer, immediately told my sister to “shut up” when she tried to speak and yelled at me to “be quiet.” At the same time, he invited the single complaining neighbor to run down an angry and baseless list of supposed transgressions that included calling her cherry in the backyard a “trash tree” and describing nonexistent “10-foot cranes” and “6-foot butterflies” in the garden. The biases became strikingly clear when the board allowed the complainant to yell “I’m outta here” and storm away from the building and back to his vacation—without even staying to have a discussion or hear my sister and her husband’s presentation.
The level of ignorance, unprofessionalism, and lack of common courtesy and decency was astonishing, and it continued to be on flagrant display for years. Many times over the past three and a half years, Janet has watched people pull up in front of her house and take pictures; the security camera she installed captures the harassment tactics. In court depositions in 2020, the HOA’s hired gun continued his attempts at unchecked bullying through inexplicably lengthy and meaningless lines of questioning, putting my sister and her husband through exhaustive interrogation simply because he could—and all because they’d dared to plant a garden for butterflies.
But unfortunately there was no law against such abusive behaviors, nothing to prohibit HOAs from acting in a kind of Wild West, arbitrary fashion toward gardens and nature and the people who love them. Until now.
Becoming a Force of Nature
Others had a significant and influential hand in the getting this momentous bill passed, of course. Hill’s former legislative director, Mary Catherine Cochran, originally responded to Janet’s plea for help by drafting the legislation and modeling it on a previous successful HOA-related bill. Cosponsors Terri Hill and Jessica Feldmark ensured they had support from the Community Associations Institute, which provided written testimony in support of the bill.
On the legal side, many people expressed interest in testifying as expert witnesses in Janet’s court case, but few could ultimately commit, sometimes because their employers prohibited such involvement. We will be eternally grateful to wildlife biologist John Hadidian, native nursery expert Rob Jenkins, and realtor Kristi Neidhardt for their wisdom, insight and bravery in signing on to help with the case. Most of all, Jeff Kahntroff and Matt Skipper of Skipper Law took on what most lawyers consider to be an unwinnable issue. Kahntroff’s skill and thoughfulness was matched only by his quiet dedication to doing what’s right, helping David against the aggressive tactics of a loud-mouthed Goliath.
It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the forces against nature, but my sister has taught me that you can change those tides by becoming a force of nature. “I’m a shy person,” she told me last week, “and I don’t usually put myself out there like this.” But she’s never countenanced bullies and has defended me from them since I was a little girl. This time, she was defending the plants and animals and her family, who felt attacked in their own home of 20 years. She said “no more” to the outrageous tactics of the very few unreasonable people who control some of our local HOA governing bodies. Thanks in large part to the bravery and fortitude of Janet Crouch, many more people in my home state will now be allowed to nurture the bees, butterflies and other wildlife in their own backyards.
The bill is waiting for the governor’s signature and is set to become law in October. But we no longer have to wait to tell the story. In spite of the HOA’s attempts to impose silence and keep their incompetence, unprofessionalism and wastefulness out of public view, we have every legal right to speak out. Janet made sure of that.
UPDATE: The governor did not veto the bill, and it will now become state law in October.
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More Information and Resources
Busting the Property Values Myth: Do native plantings affect property values? Sure they do—in a positive way. When the Crouches’ other next-door neighbor sold her house within days of listing it, she received multiple offers above list price. That wasn’t a surprise, and this article explains why. Read it here.
Attention, Beech Creek Neighbors: This newsletter to the community and elected officials in fall 2018 provides information about the garden; the manner in which the board contradicted its own bylaws; and the bogus “hearing” that was not a hearing at all but a display of power and control by the HOA’s hired law firm. Read it here.
Saving Our Pollinator Garden: This second newsletter was distributed to environmental organizations, native nurseries, and elected officials in early 2020. In addition to a recap of the court case, this newsletter outlines how outrageously contradictory the HOA’s demands are to local and state programs that encourage environmental landscaping. Read it here.
Beech Creek HOA Spends Approximately $100,000 in Effort to Turn 15-year-old Pollinator Garden into Grass: That headline speaks for itself. Ultimately the Crouches reached a pre-trial settlement that enables them o keep much of their garden but requires a setback along the neighbors’ property line and the sidewalk. The neighbor continues to hire contractors to spread lawn chemicals directly next to the property line, however—a double standard that keeps flowers from growing in this strip of wasteland while poisons proliferate. Read it here.
Video of Jeff and Janet’s Gardens by Mike Pugh: When Virginia resident Mike Pugh read social media posts of my sister’s plight, he reached out to help. He knew exactly what Janet and Jeff were going through, as he had waged his own battles with his Virginia HOA and ultimately saved his wildflower meadow. (You can read part of his story here in The Washington Post.) The video he created helped Jeff and Janet Crouch garner even more support:
State law text and testimony: House Bill 322 unanimously passed the Senate after passing the House by a vote of 126-4. Read the text here. To read and watch oral and written testimony from Janet Crouch, me and others, you can scroll this page.
The New American Dream: What if there were a homeowners association for bees, birds, bats and squirrels? At the height of the fight two and a half years ago, I wrote this essay in frustration, in reverie, and with tattered hopes for change. Later we continued to turn our hope into action, and it worked! Read it here.
Yes, in My Back (and Front) Yard! Some HOAs are more amenable to working with residents and more welcoming of environmental practices. If you are dealing with a less extreme case or simply trying to change hearts and minds from within, you can learn from others who have done so in this article. Read it here.
Beyond the Backyard: From parking strips to parklands, HOAs and other communities are full of mowed spaces that could be put to better use. Here’s how to help your community reclaim them for native plants and wildlife. Read it here.
Wild by Design: In more reasonable communities, it’s sometimes possible to influence those who are inherently compassionate and ethical but simply haven’t been exposed to wildlife gardening before. These tips will help you incorporate more habitat in ways that support wild neighbors while educating the human ones. Read it here.