{"id":499971,"date":"2026-06-19T00:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T00:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/499971\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T00:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T00:16:10","slug":"outrage-after-hoa-hands-out-violations-for-brown-grass-after-city-asked-for-water-conservation-due-to-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/499971\/","title":{"rendered":"Outrage after HOA hands out violations for brown grass – after city asked for water conservation due to drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of a Colorado homeowners\u2019 association <\/a>were left fuming after receiving violations<\/a> for brown grass \u2014 as city officials urged people to conserve water amidst a historic drought.<\/p>\n

Colorado declared a state-wide drought emergency on June 4 due to record-low snowpack and persistent, extremely warm temperatures across the state.<\/p>\n

Despite the declaration, members of the Rock Creek Homeowners Association, which covers a neighborhood in Superior, about 20 miles northwest of Denver, say they\u2019ve received notice from the HOA after parts of their lawn turned brown amidst the drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a neglect issue,\u201d HOA member James Shima, who received a courtesy notice about his lawn, told 9 News<\/a>. \u201cThis is basically attempting to preserve water.\u201d<\/p>\n

The notice Shima received, dated June 11, notes the violation category as \u201clandscape maintenance.\u201d Under the violation observed section, it lists: \u201cPlease address the brown turf\/dirt areas of the yard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Colorado homeowners\u2019 association has given some members violations for brown grass amidst a state-wide drought, according to a report (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The notice asks homeowners to fix the issue within 30 days, by either sharing a photo with the HOA showing that the issue has been corrected or by submitting a plan to correct it. The notice also states that failure to respond to the association within 30 days \u201cmay result in escalation of the violation process,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

Shima said he and his wife tried to reseed their lawn this spring, but the grass struggled to grow amid the recent hot weather, which has soared into the 90s across the state this month.<\/p>\n

Another resident, Michelle, told the news station she felt the violation was tone deaf given the current situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe HOA is not operating within a vacuum. The HOA is operating within a larger community,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving a green lawn is not where we should be prioritizing our water usage.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email to residents, the Rock Creek HOA community manager acknowledged the drought, but also said that Superior has not implemented mandatory watering restrictions and that the state\u2019s drought emergency makes homeowners exempt from maintaining their properties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board\u2019s fiduciary duty is to all homeowners, which includes protecting the appearance of the community and the property values those standards help support. As a result, drought conditions alone do not automatically exempt properties from maintenance requirements,” the HOA community manager wrote.<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear if HOA residents were being fined for these violations. The Independent has contacted the HOA for comment.<\/p>\n

Shima, who received the violation, noted he is not asking the HOA to ignore its own rules \u2014 but said it should be more lenient given the circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand you\u2019re in an HOA, you want your property to look nice,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s circumstances to everything, and things like drought, that\u2019s above and beyond what an HOA bylaw might say.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of a Colorado homeowners\u2019 association were left fuming after receiving violations for brown grass \u2014 as city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[229920,229921,229919,242,85,46,229922,141],"class_list":["post-499971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-brown-grass","tag-colorado-homeowners","tag-drought-emergency","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-james-shima","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}