3 ms·

Or maybe certain areas have created rules in response to past experience, such as root vegetables attracting digging pests like raccoons and opossums.

• Faaak 7y ago
  So maybe there was an opossum once, and now you have to forbid vegetables for life ? Owning a house in the suburbs entails getting apossums once or twice a year: it's nature !
  • mcv 7y ago
    If it attracts an actual plague of opossums, I can understand measures to get rid of them, but the occasional opossum shouldn't be a problem if they occur naturally in the area.
    • macawfish 7y ago
      The solution to a plague of possums is coyotes and big cats.
• saalweachter 7y ago
  In general, the front yard / side yard / back yard distinctions are entirely about the "character" of a neighborhood and making it look nice. Most places that have regulations -- at the town or HOA level -- discourage you from doing anything in the front yard besides landscaping. Eg, a shed in a front yard will be forbidden. Usually the restrictions will be more safety based for back and to some extent side yards. It's sort of a "do whatever you want but don't make us look at it" mindset. It will cause the most problems if you build the house far back on the lot (since then you end up with a lot of unusable front yard and a tiny back yard), if your back yard is unusably shaded, if your trying to maximize the use of your small lot to the limits, or if you don't pay attention to the rules and either buy a house without knowing them or do a lot of work that has to be undone.