Bill Description: House Bill 76 would protect property rights by preventing HOAs from restricting certain agricultural practices more severely than state law and local ordinances do. 

Rating: +1

Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?

House Bill 76 would create Section 55-3212, Idaho Code, to say, "No homeowner's association may add, amend, or enforce any covenant, condition, or restriction that prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting an owner of property within the jurisdiction of the homeowner's association from engaging in apiculture, vermiculture, aquaculture, the growing of gardens, composting, the raising of backyard domesticated homesteading food animals, or constructing or using accessory buildings, if performed according to the provisions of this section and if otherwise permitted by state law and local ordinances, on any part of the property owned by him."

The bill further says, "An owner may also delegate the rights guaranteed by this section to his tenant, agent, or contractor."

The bill states that any animals "must be appropriately housed on the property, protected, and contained by animal-appropriate fencing."

The bill does allow homeowner's associations to "prohibit the construction of accessory buildings, as defined in section 55-3203, Idaho Code, that occupy more than sixty percent (60%) of the area of a required backyard, less any setbacks, for homes located within its jurisdiction inside city limits."

This bill would still let HOAs limit property owner's agricultural activities, if those limits were based on state law and local ordinances, but it would protect HOA member’s property rights from additional restrictions imposed by the association. 

(+1)