[jyl]

My sister's neighborhood has an HOA. It was dominated by two ladies who were real PITAs. They swamped the other HOA board members with meetings, emails, etc until the only board members left were cowed into silence. You couldn't get a fence, addition, patio etc approved without kow-towing to them. They would inspect everyone's property from the back paths and from Google Earth, looking for sheds, play structures, additions, etc that they hadn't approved. The neighborhood finally got sick of them. My brother-in-law ran for the board, got elected, the next year he got some other reasonable people to run, they got elected, and the ladies were off the board. I wouldn't live in a HOA neighborhood either.