retaining wall

Started by CharlesH9 • 3 replies • 1754 views

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CharlesH9 (Michigan)
Posts: 123

Posted:

What constitues a retaining wall? Our decleration says you can't have them. I think the bod president and several other people have one. Are they the stackable block things used for landscaping? The one's aroung here are 3-5 blocks high. They look nice in my opinion, but still not allowed.

SusanW1 (Michigan)
Posts: 5,202

Posted:

Stacked landscape blocks are not always retaining walls.

You need a legal description to figure out if these landscape bricks are retaining walls. Your bylaws should have a definition to describe the term "retaining wall" if it says you can't have one.

(To "retain" usually means holding something in, out or back, like water, or to prevent erosion. A retention pond is even diferent from that.)

GeraldT4
Posts: 1,022

Posted:

Charles - Susan is correct, onto something regarding the retaining wall. It can be constructed out of brick, stone, wood, composite, and must hold back soil for the purpose of due to grade differentials. As well, one side of the retaining wall is visible while the other is hidden from the soil or whatever it's holding back. If these "retaining walls" in your association are not holding anything back, in other words retaining anything, then they are just walls. Beyond all of the definitions I wonder what the purpose was of your restriction on retaining walls.

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Charles,
That is one of those items that pops up once in a while in ARC limits. Why is it in there anyhow? Are you a hilly area? Sounds like it is time to remove that restriction from your Docs. If they look good and are maintained and serve a purpose, then they should be of no concern. We had "NO FOUNTAINS" in our ARC restrictions that were written by the Developer. We have 565 homes and probably 200 fountains so the first thing that we did after our turnover was to pass an amendment to allow the fountains. For Gosh sakes, this is Florida and the homes are Estate homes so what was with that restriction? Who knows.

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