A Kansas City woman is being forced to do things the way the city wants them done instead of her own remedy, which kept her from having to mow the lawn.
Georgianna Reid, who has lived in her home for 33-years, spent $4-thousand replacing her green lawn with sand. Sounds like a good idea if you hate the upkeep of a lawn. She says she was sick and tired of the mowing and upkeep, and she wanted something simple.
Reid calls it the largest litter box in the world, but neighbors call it an eyesore. They’re afraid that the sandy yard will lower their property values. They may be right; this is the Midwest, after all, and not Miami.
She covered the front lawn of her house with 80 tons of sand about three years ago. But her neighbors and the local council don’t see it has the beach-like oasis Reid does. She has been ordered to remove the sand or spend six months in jail and pay a $1-thousand fine.
She has been given 10 days to clean her yard or local officials will take action against her. Reid says that she was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, and her doctor has given her only six months to live. She says she doesn’t want to spend the end of her life in jail, so she will remove the sand.
Reid says she called the city two times to ask for permission to replace her front yard with sand. She does not, however, say whether she was given permission to do so.
Aside from the complaints of the yard now being an eyesore, neighbors claim that when it rains, the sand washes onto the sidewalk and makes a huge mess.
Reid says she will pay to have the sand removed, but if the neighbors think she’s re-sodding the place, they have another think coming. “I will take the sand out of the yard, but I’m going to make it an asphalt yard because I’m still not gonna mow,” she says.
She doesn’t live in a gated community, so should local government be able to order her to remove the sand?