Good Rules Make Good Neighbors

I was surprised to open my Times Nov. 5 to discover the article (“Wall of Hostilities”) regarding (Rex and Nancy) Vance vs. the LazyCreek Homeowner’s Assn. dispute of $150,000 in Orange.

I was the first owner of that home. My husband and I bought it as a model after the other 34 homes in the development were sold.

The yard at that time was only half-finished. We completed it with a 50-foot pool, three-stall barn and small pasture and a large, covered dog kennel area. Because of the pool, we had to fence the whole yard, approximately one-half acre. We used wrought iron, to painstaking specifications, as we had Siberian Husky show dogs.

This was in agreement with our next-door neighbors, who also had dogs. I measured my dogs’ girths (widths) to make sure they could not slip through the wrought iron.

Moreover, a solid wall was not in the CC&Rs; (Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions) of the development. We lived there for five years without a problem.

The CC&Rs; are there for a reason, and those who move into any development with those rules know they must get permission to build anything unusual before they act.

What price to pay to alienate your neighbors in a small, friendly, animal-oriented community just to have a wall?

DORI MILLER

Trabuco Canyon