Residents with trees have had to use brooms, or rakes and sometimes even their own two hands to lift the leaves from the ground because Section 113 of the 3,798-page book on Lake Wildwood Rules and Regulations require homeowners to keep their yards leaf-free, or else.
These leaf-blowing renegades claim they not only have a constitutional right to use their fancy blowers, but firmly believe to do otherwise would be a gigantic waste of American ingenuity.
“God gave us the ability to invent things like leaf blowers for a reason,” one resident told me.
The Lake Wildwood Homeowners Association board argues that leaf blowers are too noisy and that if they lift the ban it will open the door to other previously-banned things, like lawnmowers and blenders, hair dryers and even chain saws.
“People here like golf and how would you like to make a 30-foot putt while a guy out in his yard is running an 8-horsepower weed whacker?” one board member asked. “It’s bad enough that the geese leave their droppings all over the greens.”
The leaf blower advocates countered that motorcycles are already legal inside the community and they make just as much noise. “It makes me sick that I have to pick up leaves by hand while these Harley Davidson riders drive past revving their engines,” one group member told me. She also said Lake Wildwood was one of only two gated communities in the state that has banned leaf blowers, noting that you can have anything you want in the gated community of Lake of the Pines.
They also argue that they aren’t asking to lift the ban on all leaf blowers, just the quiet ones. “Some people like to soup up their leaf blowers because they think it impresses their neighbors,” one told me. “Our group advocates responsible leaf blowing and we are even willing to sign a form agreeing to conditions.”
When the group approached the LWW board they were told to go hire an attorney because the association’s attorney said the ban was perfectly legal. “So we went out and found an attorney who said the LWW board certainly had the power to make exceptions.”
The board countered that any changes to the ban would require a vote of all property owners, knowing that most of the property owners are afraid of leaf blowers and would probably vote to keep the ban.
Wait a minute … I was just informed that leaf blowers are legal in Lake Wildwood and motorcycles are not.
Where was I? … Oh, yeah … these biker dudes have been trying to convince the board that motorcycles — at least the street-legal ones — don’t make any more noise than a leaf blower, or weed-whacker. They also argue that there are already laws that require motorcycles to meet certain standards in order to get registered. The ban goes back to the days when most of Wildwood was still undeveloped and dirt bikers roamed the area looking for some kicks.
“All but 90 lots are now built out and the property is fenced,” read a letter supporting the motorcycle owners. “We also have a good security system to help police it.”
By way of full disclosure, I’m officially a biker. I own a Triumph motorcycle and live just outside the Lake Wildwood fences (I can hear the leaf blowers from my deck). I’ve had the motorcycle for maybe two months and my wife let me bring it home maybe a month ago (she warned me not to bring a motorcycle home, so I brought it to the airport instead). I love my motorcycle almost as much as I love my cat. I keep it covered in the garage and tuck it under a sheet every night (with a tiny kiss to the fuel tank).
My neighbors haven’t complained yet and if they do I will do what I always do … tell them to pound sand. They leave my motorcycle alone and I leave their leaf blower alone.
So I support the right to bear motorcycles, so long as they are legal and licensed and the drivers follow the same rules of the road as those unlicensed golf-cart drivers who think they are God’s gift to motoring.
The folks working to convince the board to modify the rules seem like good, smart and responsible people. Some of them, by the way, are members of the notorious Lake Wildwood Motorcycle Club, the ones who will ride in the 20th annual Toy Run that is coming up Dec. 10. I hope to ride in that one as well, provided it’s not too cold on my nose, or feet. I love my motorcycle, but not enough to freeze the snot.
Bob Bumgarner has put in a lot of time trying to get the board to consider his request. “I have now filed for binding arbitration, where we will also assert that the ban itself is against public policy because the California Vehicle Code applies to all streets and roads in Lake Wildwood,” he wrote, attaching a resolution from the Board of Supervisors stipulating that fact. “I find all of this very sad since we worked so hard to find a way to address the legitimate concerns of the residents — noise and exclusions of non-residents and now this is likely to cost each party $10,000 to seek an enforceable opinion from an outsider.”
At the very least, Bumgarner is hoping to get a better reason than, “I don’t like motorcycles,” to justify opposition to what he believes to be a reasonable compromise.
Jeff Ackerman is the editor/publisher of The Union. Contact him at (530) 477-4299, jackerman@theunion.com, or 464 Sutton Way, Grass Valley 95945.
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