Homeowners’ associations: Barriers or bridges to more sustainable residential development?: Fid-Bau Portal

Homeowners’ associations: Barriers or bridges to more sustainable residential development?

Carr, Madeline F. / Boyd Kramer, Daniel

Highlights • Homeowner association clauses can create barriers to sustainability. • The most prevalent barriers in clauses are large home size requirements. • Few sustainable clauses were found in Midwest homeowner’s associations. • Homeowner associations could use sustainable clauses to meet neighborhood goals.

Abstract Homeowner’s Associations (HOAs) are an increasingly prominent form of residential governance which use codes, covenants, and restrictions (CCRs) to govern the ways that HOA homes are designed and constructed as well as homeowners’ behaviors related to landscaping and energy use. We explore whether HOA CCRs in a highly suburban Midwest county may promote or prohibit sustainable residential development. Through content analysis, our findings suggest that HOAs rarely use their CCRs to promote sustainable development and more often create barriers through clauses related to home structure, landscaping, and energy use. Structural and landscaping clauses were most common with 81% of CCRs specifying a minimum home size and 58% of CCRS including landscaping restrictions on brush piles. Energy related clauses were less common, although alternative energy production was prohibited in 32% of sampled CCRs. Few CCRs included environmentally friendly clauses; 29% had outdoor light wattage restrictions and 19% required maintaining trees. While HOA CCRs more often present barriers, we end by discussing several constraints to and opportunities for HOAs to serve as bridges to more sustainable residential development.