Slashdot Mirror
Officials Sue Couple Who Removed Their Lawn
Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that Orange County officials are locked in a legal battle with a couple accused of violating city ordinances for replacing the grass on their lawn with wood chips and drought-tolerant plants, reducing their water usage from 299,221 gallons in 2007 to 58,348 gallons in 2009. The dispute began two years ago, when Quan and Angelina Ha tore out the grass in their front yard. In drought-plagued Southern California, the couple said, the lush grass had been soaking up tens of thousands of gallons of water — and hundreds of dollars — each year. 'We've got a newborn, so we want to start worrying about her future,' said Quan Ha, an information technology manager for Kelley Blue Book. But city officials told the Has they were violating several city laws that require that 40% of residential yards to be landscaped predominantly with live plants. Last summer, the couple tried to appease the city by building a fence around the yard and planting drought-tolerant greenery — lavender, rosemary, horsetail, and pittosporum, among others. But according to the city, their landscaping still did not comply with city standards. At the end of January, the Has received a letter saying they had been charged with a misdemeanor violation and must appear in court. The couple could face a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for their grass-free, eco-friendly landscaping scheme. 'It's just funny that we pay our taxes to the city and the city is now prosecuting us with our own money,' says Quan Ha."
That the prospective jail time is from contempt of court and that it is not actually a criminal offense to cover your yard in woodchips..
Right? Right?
Now get off my lawn
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
They should have watered their lawn with Brawndo. It's got what plants crave.
".. the law requires 40% live ground cover, so they should be given a citation."
Not to put too fine a point on it but, if you take any sample of their wood chipped yard, and looked at it under a microscope, it would most certainly meet the 40% live ground cover criterion.
It says live, it doesn't say it has to be visible to the naked eye...
I've always hoped that these sorts of ordinances are made up. Just scary stories you city folk tell us country bumpkins to keep us out.
Right?
Right??
... you guys in the USA need a lawn czar to stop this kind of stupidity ;)
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
I propose astroturf then. Though that's still in violation (it's not living). But plastic grass is in the true spirit of LA right? :)
One day some abusive admin did a rm -rf / or deltree C:\
Those bastards... that's why root should have no powers.
And the 'rm' command needs to be redacted.
You're mistaken. Now Red and Blue both say "Get off our lawn."
Sadly, I can't think of any viable solution to the problem.
Arizona Bay?
Brain surgery - it's not rocket science!
sigh. You do realize that the worlds biggest warlord was behind the Somali gov "collapse"
I don't know if the nytimes.com is the world's biggest warlord. Sure, it's annoying to have to register to read the article, but warlord?
they were violating several city laws that require that 40% of residential yards to be landscaped predominantly with live plants.
Maybe theirs is one of the 60% that don't have to be landscaped with live plants.
"You can't allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them." [Condoleezza Rice]
'.... In these places you've actually got such a scarcity of water that you have to measure how much you use and pay based on that! Why would you want to live like that?'
For the spice.
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
3 TONS of water. For one house. No wonder the US uses close to 10 times the amount of resources of decent human beings.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
This sounds like turning government into a giant game of flux, which is great until someone plays the "pass all bills" card.
You must hate it when highway patrol lets you off with a warning.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
Damnit! You KIDS GET OFF MY... I mean THE GOVERNMENTS LAWN!