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Deed restrictions intended to keep property values from declining have banned leaving portable basketball hoops out in some neighborhoods. But where will the children play?
By LOGAN D. MABE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 28, 2002
WESTCHASE -- It's already hot and sticky on an overcast Tuesday morning and 9-year-old Alex Valdes is working up a sweat in the driveway, playing basketball with his little brother and a buddy.
They're swishing shots from everywhere, the result of many hours of practice on the family's portable basketball goal. They run down loose balls before they bound into the perfect, tree-lined street. They make up games to keep it interesting, but after a half-hour or so, the boys get thirsty.
"Mom, can we go in and get a drink?" Alex asks his mother, Victoria Valdes. She says, "sure," and off they go in search of icy juice pouches.
No sooner are the pint-sized players through the front door and Mrs. Valdes is technically in violation of one of the most hotly debated, confusing and frustrating rules that govern this well-heeled development. According to recently adopted guidelines, hoops are supposed to be stored away when not in use. If not, the homeowner is deemed to be in violation of the community's deed restrictions and is warned in a letter to comply. If they don't, homeowners face possible fines of $100 a day.
Portable basketball goals have been the hot-button issue in Westchase for more than a few years, in large part because it is a relatively new community struggling with self-government. Other deed restricted communities in suburban Hillsborough have dealt with the havoc over hoops with most finding some common ground to appease most residents.
But Westchase leaders, despite numerous resident surveys, into-the-wee-hours debates, and even a kid-propelled protest, have yet to find a solution to suit everyone.
"I've been fighting this basketball hoop issue for four years and I've watched it go from the ridiculous to the sublime," said Chelmsford homeowner Sueann Mills, who is trying to get a less restrictive guideline implemented in her Westchase neighborhood. "I think the children should be in their front yards playing."
So does Alex Valdes.
"My mom said Nintendo just messes up your mind and that we should go outside," said Alex, who spearheaded a sign-waving protest several weeks ago to drum up support for more liberal hoop usage in his neighborhood, the Greens. "But we really don't have much to do in the neighborhood. They took away our last thing."
Deed restrictions in a community are written and enforced for one main reason -- to make sure that property values remain on a constant upward climb. Most of the rules deal with lifestyle choices. No cars up on blocks in the front yard. No pink garage doors. No converting the shed into a chicken coop.
But when it comes to basketball hoops, whether portable or permanent, consensus is a rare commodity. Some communities see them as welcome totems of a neighborhood that values children and family. Others see them as offensive eyesores, like metal scarecrows amid the manicured lawns.
In Avila, home to the area's top executives and athletes, basketball goals are not a problem. "We consider them with all the other architectural guidelines," said Don Newberger, executive director of the Avila Property Owners Association. "We simply require a person who wants to erect one to submit to the architectural review committee what it's going to look like and where it's going to be placed. ... Property owners are usually very amicable and cooperate well."
The same rules apply to portable hoops. They are allowed as long as they're put where they're "least visible," Newberger said.
In Tampa Palms, property manager Maura Lear said the deed restrictions designate portable hoops as playground equipment, which must be approved by a modifications committee. "That being said, if I see a child or anybody shooting hoops on a portable goal in a driveway, I'm not going to care any more than I'm going to care if a child is having a tea party on a plastic tea set in their driveway," Lear said.
Like Westchase, Tampa Palms rules require the hoops be stored out of sight when not in use. "Overall, my compliance with portables is pretty good," Lear said. And for families that tire of lugging the goals (anchored by hundreds of pounds of water or sand) in and out, Tampa Palms offers an option not available in Westchase. They can ask to put up an approved, permanent goal if it meets prescribed standards.
The same goes for nearby Hunter's Green. Property manager Ann Johnson said portables have to come in when the game is over, but residents can erect a permanent goal as long as they don't live on the golf course.
"The people who actually use (portables) in our community are the people who are willing to get them in and out," Johnson said.
In the Eagles, the situation is the exact opposite. Permanent goals are prohibited there, but portables are allowed to remain out all the time.
"They're considered not to be a permanent fixture," said property manager Leigh Slement. "That's the general consensus in the Eagles. And we don't expect the homeowners to put them away every night because of the weight."
Many attorneys for homeowners associations agree that the basketball goal issue is one of the most vexing. Steve Gardner, who counsels the association for the massive Cheval development, chuckles wryly when the topic is mentioned.
"You hear me laughing?" Gardner said. "We have gone through this exercise at Cheval West probably for the last three years. There's a lot of sentiment on both sides of the decision and the bottom line where we finally landed was to poll the residents and see what the majority wanted."
In the most recent poll taken in May, residents decided to leave the current policy in place that allows portables when in use as long as they're stored by evening.
"Some of the residents came in and started talking about how unsightly they can be when not in use. Everyone wants to provide recreation facilities, especially for children, which is a wonderful idea and should be encouraged," said Gardner, who lives on Davis Island. "When they first go up, they look great. But when left up, they can fall into disrepair and therein lies the problem. It hit close to home for me when I pulled into my driveway one day. My boys had all gone off to college and there was my basketball hoop, all rusted and the net hanging by a thread. And they were right. I took it down and my yard looks a lot better."
The Valdes boys are back firing bank shots at the backboard. Victoria Valdes greets Ellyne Myers, who lives a few doors down in the neighborhood where homes routinely sell for a half-million dollars.
Mrs. Myers says she got rid of her daughter Alissa's portable hoop just the day before. It had been a gift for Alissa's ninth birthday when the family lived in less restrictive Carrollwood. Mrs. Myers said she had already received two violation letters, and she couldn't manage dragging the hoop in and out of the garage.
"I had no place to put it and I knew I wasn't going to be putting it up and down, so what was I going to do," Mrs. Myers said. "I don't want to be a bad neighbor."
So, she called the property manager to have it carted off.
"I just go outside and shoot hoops if I'm depressed," says Alissa Myers, now a 14-year-old rising freshman at Alonso High School. "I just think it's stupid. They don't have any reason to take them down. It was my birthday present when I was little and it was like one day they said, 'We're taking your hoop.' "
-- Logan D. Mabe can be reached at 269-5304 or at mabe@sptimes.com.