Water Your Lawn or Else!

An elderly woman in Utah was arrested for not watering her lawn then resisting arrest.
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6928168?source=rss

There are different ways to look at this. If you desire to live surrounded by beautifully manicured lawns, there are ways to ensure it. One way is to pay your neighbors to maintain their lawn or maintain their lawns for them. Another is through planned communities. The deed can state that certain colors of paint must used on the homes' exterior, certain trees planted, and certain lawn conditions maintained among other conditions. However this can all be handled by a private developer. There is NO reason the local government should concern itself in such affairs. A majority vote doesn't morally justify harassing an elderly woman over the condition of her lawn.

If this poor lady lived in such a privately planned community with directives on lawn care written into the deed, she is liable to be fined. I see no morally justifiable reason why she should have been arrested.

I for one would never want to live in any community that had directives on lawn care, exterior house color, or landscaping or that was zoned. (Perhaps I'll blog on my views of zoning sometime.) If other people want to live in such a way, more power to them! Either move into a privately planned community with such restrictions or buy up a large portion of land, build homes on it, and write lawn care directives into the deeds. Violators can then be fined and removed from the community if conditions warrant. Whatever type of community, cosmetically planned or cosmetic free choice, you desire to live in' there is no reason government has to play the role of enforcer.