I printed off a copy and sent it to our City Manager in Round Rock. They
already have ordinance in place for commercial landscaping to use natives and
drought tolerant plant matter and mulch, but nothing for homeowners.

I would like to see an ordinance which says the builders can only put a certain
amount of turf on any given property, relatively speaking. That they must only
give choices of foundation plants which are native, never again use a
D.domestica and to encourage native grasses so some of the wildlife has some
refuge after the bulldozers bash it all down. Also, they should never again be
allowed to kill a tree, or remove any topsoil from any site.

I don't find that too radical, do you?

Of course the main issue of this HR is to help with these tight ass homeowner
associations who want azaleas and silver maples! But maybe more can come of it
if we squeak loud enough.

Victoria

On Thu, 27 Feb 2003 23:23:48 -0600, J Kolenovsky wrote:

Terry, thanks for your support.

Especially Section 202.007 - A. 1. A (drought tolerant natives), A. 1. B
(composting) and
A. 1. E. (landscaping a parcel of land). Yesterday I met with some folks
at Harris County Flood Control District and found out about FEMA's HMGP
(Hazard Mitigation Grant Program) and how abundant "open space" is and
will come into the county. I have met people who would plant natives and
buck the trend if only the HOA would back off its stand. There are
subdivisions in Houston where HOA's have leased the land from the gov't
and dedicated it to a community need to keep property values up. Thats
an irony in inself.

Tropical Storm Allison was good for Houston...

in the sense that the Federal buyout program has and will continue to
bring into the county large numbers of open space. FEMA has a program
,HMGP (Hazard Mitigation Grant Program), that allows flood control
districts to buy homes to reduce future flood damage. The land the
homes are on must be forever dedicated and maintained as open space.
http://www.fema.gov/fima/hmgp/ Some of the HMGP guidelines that define
standards and acceptable uses for open space and appeal to
conservation groups allow for wetland restoration, wildlife refuges,
bird
sanctuaries, habitats, and community gardens/farms. The Brownwood
subdivision in Baytown, TX was turned into a huge nature refuge,
http://www.enn.com/features/1999/12/...ytown_7399.asp and
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/storm2001/982409. Civic
associations, special-interest groups, private enterprise and
individuals apply to take over management of the land, persuant to
rules and regulations of FEMA. Once flooded, these lands are returned to
a
state of accomodating community needs and thus, increase the quality
of life in that community. Thats not bad for a storm having passed
through. Please be sure to see
http://www.awra.org/state/tx/acrobat/ivey.pdf to get the real feel for
the extensiveness of this storm so that you may understand what is
happening now as a result of it.

Terry Horton wrote:

On Wed, 26 Feb 2003 18:28:55 -0600, J Kolenovsky
wrote:

Went before the Texas Legislature on Monday -

Here is where you can e-mail representatives -
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/fyi/fyi.htm and ask them to support it.
Jason Spangler should like
this.

78R2860 PAM-F

By: Puente H.B.
No. 645

Thanks for the heads up. This could be of especially helpful in
subdivisions where covenants were written long before water resources
were (understood to be) the issue they are today.

Or where the neighborhood lawn constabulary arbitrarily favors pansies
over slender vervain.

Yes, many, many far better choices than these.