This is part of the reason we are moving out of our neighborhood. This is no joke, in order to plant shrubs, flowers, make a new flower bed, paint your front door, or even put up a swing set for your kid, you must seek approval from the home owners association first or you will be fined. They can fine you, make you remove the improvements or you face more fines. If the fines are unpaid they can put a lean on your home. Pretty serious stuff. They also mandate that your fence has to be stained, at least the part facing the street, which is not a bad thing IMO but they went as far as to specify that it could only be 1 of 6 colors made by Behar... and you had to ask permission first. The president of the HOA is a first time home owner and has little-man syndrome. Not that he is short, rather that he has never been asked to be in charge of anything. He was one of the first people in this neighborhood and was given the job w/o an election. He was re-elcted but nobody in the neighborhood was made aware that ther was an election. Most of the neighborhood dislikes the guy and at a meeting when asked why we were not made aware of the election dates his response was that it was in the CCR's he sent to all of us.... one one of the 673 pages of BS rules and regs about living in the neighborhood. Ahhhh, don't get me going.
It is a shame, I love the area, but the HOA is too much for me to take. So I bought 2.5 acres next to the neighborhood and I can do what I please.