Young

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The parties own single family homes on adjacent lots in a planned community with a homeowners’ association (HOA). The lots overlap and the owners have reciprocal easements for the front and rear yards. Two sets of CC&Rs burden the properties: one relates to the entire community (DCC&Rs) and the other is specific to the tract where the parties’ lots are

2 located (TCC&Rs). The HOA also provides Architectural Guidelines overseen by an Architectural Committee. The TCC&Rs authorize the Bhaktas, as the dominant owners, to use their rear yard easement only for recreational and gardening purposes, which they may landscape subject to the Architectural Committee’s approval. (TCC&R 4.3.4.) They may not plant or landscape in a manner that would “impair or otherwise threaten the structural integrity of any adjacent Residence.” (TCC&R 4.3.4.) Nor may they “permit or suffer anything . . . to be done to [the ZLL] Wall which would tend to damage, alter or impair the structural integrity of such Wall. Further, [they] shall not, under any circumstances, plant any tree, shrub or other landscaping, or build, erect or otherwise install any improvement of any kind…