Nov 10, 2025 | Mark Luis Foster
What happens when a Plymouth, Minn., HOA resident moves in and converts her yard into a natural meadow of “low-growing grasses in the front and tall swaying prairie natives in the back”? Turns out, a lawsuit. In today’s Star Tribune:
Three years after she [Bonnie Scott] bought the house, the property has become a focal point in the neighborhood, but not in the way Scott wanted. People have driven over the yard and mowed it without her permission. Scott enlisted the police and a private detective to find the offenders — and now, some neighbors stay away from her property.
Apparently there’s a state law in Minnesota that allows for such things. But the application of this law would have to work with the HOA’s rules and expectations in the Churchill Farms HOA in Plymouth. So Scott sued the HOA and asked the court to overrule the fines that she received from the lawn installation, which is forbidden by the HOA, but allowed by state law. The issue escalated.
The Churchill Farms HOA answered in court, writing that Scott maintained her yard in an “unsightly manner” to create “a condition which is indecent or offensive to the senses.” Scott had been fined $250 by the HOA as of that filing, which asks the court to foreclose on her home, if necessary, to pay those fees and the HOA’s legal costs.
The Star Tribune article says the HOA is a community of 103 houses with “tightly trimmed yards, 3 car garages and ponds.” When Scott moved into the HOA in 2022, she started dreaming about a native landscape “that would require little maintenance.” Apparently, the HOA Board met with the owner in advance to get an ARC (architectural review committee) filed. Scott refused, stating that she was not making any architectural changes and proceeded with her landscaping plans.
Things didn’t go well after that. There was the legal wrangling. And then someone drove across her yard. Followed a man on a “red riding mower.”
When James Hallenberg arrived at Scott’s house on July 9, 2024, he had already mowed three other yards that day. Hallenberg, who has lived in Churchill Farms for 33 years, said another neighbor mentioned to him that Scott was away.
Hallenberg took a few passes because “it’s not like some vendetta; it’s just the way I am,” he’s quoted as saying.
Scott’s housekeeper arrived and demanded he stop. Hallenberg stopped, and took his mower home, around the corner. Scott had never met or spoken with Hallenberg before, and saw the act as vandalism. She sent an email with the Ring footage to all the property owners in the HOA, asking, “Please help me identify the criminal in this video.” One person responded, “Can I shake his hand??? Did he run out of gas?”
Scott hired a detective and uncovered Hallenberg’s identity. He was then sued by her, and she won compensation of $4,700.
Scott claims that the HOA had no rules on landscaping, and only recently adopted the city’s rules, which limits native plantings to 50% of the a yard with buffers of turf or mulch along property edges. So the beat goes on in the legal arena.
You can read the story here, but it is likely behind a paywall.
