Pubdate: Sat, 26 Jul 2014
Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM)
Copyright: 2014 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.abqjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10
Page: C9

POT GROWING, SMOKING CAN CLOUD NEIGHBORS' RELATIONS

HOAs Step in When Laws Are Changed

DENVER (AP) - Pot may be legal in some states - but the neighbors 
don't have to like it.

Marijuana and hemp have joined wacky paint colors and unsightly 
fences as common neighborhood disputes facing homeowner associations. 
Although a few HOAs have changed their rules to accommodate legal 
marijuana use or home-growing, many more are banning home pot smoking.

Homeowner associations can't ban members from using marijuana in 
their homes when it's legal. But if neighbors can see or smell weed, 
the law is clear - HOAs have every right to regulate the drug as a 
nuisance, or a threat to children along the lines of a swimming pool 
with no fence.

"The fact that people may be legally entitled to smoke doesn't mean 
they can do it wherever they want, any more than they could walk into 
a restaurant and light up a cigarette," said Richard Thompson, who 
owns a management consulting company that specializes in condominium 
and homeowner associations.

Thompson said his home condo development in Portland, Ore., is a 
prime example of how marijuana's growing acceptance has sparked 
neighbor conflicts.

"As soon as spring and summer come around, we hear complaints about 
marijuana smoke because people are out on their patios and they have 
the windows down," he said.

It's not clear how many homeowner associations have confronted 
marijuana conflicts in the 23 states with some form of legal 
marijuana. But lawyers who specialize in HOA disputes, as well as a 
Colorado regulatory agency that advises HOAs, say there are growing 
conflicts among neighbors who want to smoke pot and others who don't 
want to see it or smell it.

"What we're really seeing more now is regulating the associations' 
common areas," such as smoke wafting onto playgrounds or others' 
porches, said Erin McManis, a lawyer in Phoenix whose firm represents 
hundreds of Arizona HOAs.

The Carrillo Ranch homeowner association in Chandler, Ariz., this 
year took the rare step of withdrawing a proposed ban on residents 
smoking medical marijuana in their yards and on their patios.

The HOA planned a meeting on the topic in March, but withdrew the 
proposal after many residents opposed the ban as too harsh.

"This is a personal-freedom issue where people were going to dictate 
how other people should live," Carrillo Ranch resident Tom LaBonte 
told The Arizona Republic in February, when the HOA dropped its proposal.

HOA lawyers say the Carrillo Ranch case illustrates the value of HOAs 
when the law changes, as with marijuana.

"Coming together and working on issues is something associations have 
been doing for a long time," McManis said. "We're hopeful that's how 
it's going to go forward now with medical marijuana."

Smoke isn't the only neighbor complaint posed by loosening marijuana 
laws. Growing pot and hemp is prompting neighbor disputes, too.

A suburban Denver retiree learned the hard way this spring that he 
needed neighbors' permission before growing hemp. Jim Denny, of 
Brighton, Colorado, learned about marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin 
and decided to try the crop on a 75- by 100-foot plot in his yard.

But Denny's hemp plot ran afoul of his homeowner association, which 
ruled the hemp experiment unacceptable.

"As soon as they heard about it, they said, 'We're not going to let 
anyone grow marijuana here,'" Denny said. "I explained to them that 
hemp is not marijuana, but they were dead-set against it."

So with his hemp plants about 2 feet tall, Denny invited hemp 
activists to help transplant them to somewhere without opposition 
from a homeowner association. Denny sold the plants for about $3 
each, a good price for a plant whose seeds can cost up to $10 each 
because it can't be imported.

Hemp activists volunteered to pay Denny's fines for flouting the HOA, 
which could have run to $600 a day. But Denny decided that living 
peacefully with his neighbors trumped making a political point.

"I had people calling up and saying, 'It's just a shame; we'll pay 
your fines all the way through to the end.' But I decided in the end 
not to fight it," said Denny, a technical writer and former software 
engineer. "At the end of the day, I live here."
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