making hay?????????

Probably not. Your grass is common property and belongs to all of the members. The restrictions in your Documents will tell you about Common Property. If the membership approves such a change, then it must be amended into your documents. Probably under the Covenants and Restrictions.

Loretta:

I would be curious to hear the reasoning behind this? I would also be curious to see who they feel is going to do this and at what cost? My assumption is they feel like local farmers will be interested, because they are the only ones with the equipment to do so.

A couple of things regarding the idea of making hay.

First, the thought itself is a good sign of thinking of a fix to a regular drain on the budget. Nobody here can say if it would pass muster without reading all of your documents. It would probably also depend on the people in your neighborhood.

Now, for the practicality part, quality hay is not just grass that nobody cuts for a long time. Quality hay is made of specific types of grass. I won't list them here, because what is considered good hay varies across the country. I would suggest contacting a farmer or two in your area to ask about the feasibility of such an idea before going far. Again, the answer will be very locale specific. If it is feasible, then one or two inquiries will have you pointed in the right direction. As a note, most of the places you would be looking at a lease. (You will also need to check with your city to ensure that the hay wouldn't violate a law.)

Another idea is to investigate other grasses that could be grown there. Call you county extension office and ask them about low maintenance grasses. What grasses will work varies by location. But you may find that you could replace the grass with another variety that doesn't grow as high. Of course there would be an initial cost, but it could save in the long run when you don't need to water or mow the grass.

Loretta,

Asthetics do a lot for property value and I can't see grass as tall as the sky being an asthetic quality. Even in a rural community, I would think fields of tall grass might be a turn off to potential buyers. One might think they're considering moving to a farm instead of a nice, quiet neighborhood with lush landscaping, etc.

Our members did just that. A local farmer cut and baled about eight acres of grassy-weeds on our empty lots once a month for free. This saved us hundreds of dollars. The members put up with the tall grass between mowings in return for lower dues. This farmer eventually quit this process because our lots were rough. We now exchange mowing for HOA lake access with a professional mower. He can put a boat on our lake and we get free mowing. He supplies the insurance, gas and mowers and we supply the lake. I have had a couple of other commercial mowers ask to get in on this deal if our current mower quits. This saves our 11 member association about $300 a month (8 months of mowing x $300 = $2400 a year) in mowing fees.