Petition Regarding the Proposed Vegetation & Obstruction Management Policy
We support NOHOA’s goal of maintaining safe roads for motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, and emergency vehicles. Most people can agree that expectations should be set and enforced. NOHOA should be well-managed for the safe enjoyment by all. However, we ask the Board not to take final action on the proposed Vegetation & Obstruction Management Policy at its August 19 meeting, and instead allow additional community review and refinement such that the final policy optimally reflects all relevant values.

The proposed policy would establish a single mandatory vegetation standards throughout all NOHOA road easements, with primary implementation and maintenance obligations placed on individual homeowners.

Before adopting such a broad policy with a generic standard applied to all roads, we ask the Board to:

• Delay final consideration until later this year to allow meaningful community input.
• Conduct dedicated e-blast outreach and a community town hall, with a clear opportunity for homeowners to identify concerns, suggest alternatives, and comment on affected properties.
• Consider a more nuanced standard, e.g. distinguishing major collector roads from low-volume residential roads or more exceptions based on plantings or topography.
• Allow site-specific exceptions where strict standards are inappropriate because of topography, natural curves, drainage, or ecological considerations -- including native vegetation or species that may be uniquely suited to particular North Oaks locations.
• Identify and communicate the anticipated costs before adoption, including the potential cost to homeowners of removing, pruning, or replacing vegetation and the administrative and enforcement costs to NOHOA. The most fundamental information of interest would be: a) of NOHOA's existing or planned roadways how many miles are already compliant to the proposed policy, b) how many miles are not compliant, and c) of the miles not compliant what are the factors which have prevented more sensible management to-date.

The policy as written represents a material and substantive community concern. It also involves two competing values -- public safety and conservation. To ensure the fulfillment of NOHOA's mission to live in harmony with nature, the natural tension between the two needs to be more fully fleshed out. Our interest is not to be obstructionist but collaborative. As drafted the policy would universally apply standards to a non-standard road system. Given the abundant "corner cases" (where the policy standard doesn't result in better visibility or flexibility for pedestrians) our strong desire is to see additional considerations made so it better reflects both values.  And because the majority of costs are to be borne by members, we'd like additional time to participate.

We therefore respectfully request that the Board postpone action, engage the community, and revise the proposal so that it achieves its legitimate safety objectives while appropriately accounting for North Oaks’ varied roads, properties, topography, and natural environment.