Sustainable Homeowners Associations
Did you know that 46% of homes in Chester County are located within a community that has a home owners' association, or HOA? HOA covenants often impose strict standards to regulate a community's aesthetics, although the result often restricts residents from adopting sustainable practices like growing food in a backyard garden, replacing lawn area with native flowers, or installing solar panels.
Additionally, common open space land within HOA communities accounts for over 18,000 acres of land county-wide. This open space land, which often includes natural resources like woodlands, steep slopes, and stream corridors, and sometimes historic resources, can be invaluable as wildlife habitat, greenway corridor, trails, or spaces for community gathering if stewarded well.
Many Chester County HOAs are beginning to consider what they can do to steward their resources more intentionally, whether by allowing residents to install rooftop solar, or by transforming unused lawn areas in their common open space to wildflower meadows. The Chester County Planning Commission has worked with partners to develop resources HOAs can use to reduce restrictions on residents' advancement of sustainable practices as well as spearhead sustainability initiatives for common buildings and open space.
Sustainability Action Plan Template for Chester County HOAs
A template HOAs can use to create their own Sustainability Action Plan.
Sustainable Landscaping: Spotlight on Local HOAs
This video series highlights innovative and inspiring landscaping projects that transform open space within local housing developments.
Resource Library
A curated a list of information, guides, partners, and funding resources most relevant to Chester County HOAs.
Findings from 2024 Sustainability Survey
In 2023-2024 the Chester County Planning Commission issued two surveys — one for board members and contracted management companies of home owners' associations, and one for residents of communities with homeowners associations — to gauge levels of support for a variety of sustainable practices and to better understand the barriers to adopting sustainable practices. Overall there were 123 responses to the survey for Board Members, representing 101 different HOA communities, and 802 responses from residents, representing 317 different HOA communities. View the summary of findings from both surveys.
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