Hacker News Reader

> When it comes to housing policy, we conservatives run the risk of becoming a caricature of ourselves, long on reactionary impulse but short on principle.

There are two principles dear to conservatives that form an antagonistic relationship in this case: 1. minimal government intervention, and 2. emergent common law/standards. When left alone, homeowner associations (HOAs) tend to form single-family zoning policies. I'm not sure how to square this circle.

View on HN

HOA law is a mess and needs repeal/reform from the state governments

HOAs survive because they are able to socialize long-term costs of maintaining them.

If an HOA mandates single-family dwellings and large set-backs, then it should be directly responsible for road maintenance, sanitation, fire, etc. If you want all those long roads, you have to pay for them.

The way it works now is that a developer drops in an HOA with a restrictive covenant, then turns the mess over to the nearest city to maintain a bunch of excessive infrastructure.

If an HOA can't be maintained (bankruptcy) then the covenant should be automatically dissolved and the easements lifted.

Yes. In colorado they actually have a mechanism where the city and developer can conspire to create a special tax district for each development area.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com