Florida HOA Lawyer Blog
Our firm’s other South Florida community association attorneys and I have written about various wildlife incursions in Florida HOA and condominium association communities over the years in this blog. We’ve covered community associations contending with alligators, crocodiles, wild hogs, vultures, and other destructive and potentially dangerous wildlife, but a recent report by Fox 30 Action News in Jacksonville is a reminder that not all nuisance animals pose an immediate safety risk requiring fast attention by associations and their boards of directors.
The station’s report focuses on the issues that the Ironwood Village HOA is currently having with a flock of wild Canadian geese that have decided to make the Jacksonville community its permanent home and nesting grounds. Residents have complained to the association and on the community’s Facebook page about the geese eating their lawns and flowers, and creating a nuisance with their droppings and honking.
However, not all are in agreement as to how it should respond.
Community resident Andy Ghelerter tells the station’s reporter that for him the geese have only presented a minor traffic issue when they are slowly waddling across the streets. The story also includes an email from the HOA to one of the residents indicating there is not much it can do, as the geese are a protected species and a majority of the HOA’s members voted against destroying the eggs and nests. The association has also instructed all the homeowners and residents not to feed the geese, calling them an “environmental hazard to the area.”
A fellow neighbor and homeowner in The Crossings at Grand Haven in Palm Coast, Barton Kaplan tells the station that the hogs have been an ongoing issue, and the problem has now become out of control.