Check to make sure that the HOA actually has the power to do this. As a land owner you are bound to follow the covenants that run with the land, but you are only actually bound to follow those covenants. You don't have to do random stuff just because the HOA board or even a majority of the HOA voters say so, you only actually have to do what's in the covenants.

Unless the covenants say that you agree to follow a bunch of dog-related rules to be defined later, you almost certainly are allowed to park your dog in your own front yard or in that of any consenting neighbor.

Clearly the solution to start owning wolves.

How the fuck are they going to enforce this?

A complicating factor: I would say ~50% of the houses are rented and only the homeowners have a say in HOA matters. So, assuming any owners without dogs (including the whole board) and any landlord would logically vote to ban all use of the grass, while all dog-owning homeowners would vote to allow dogs near the grass.

Obviously that's generalizing what the votes would be - even though the majority of the houses have dogs, I would say the minority are homeowners with dogs.

The reason I bring this up is a petition-style response may be dismissed as "well those dog owners have no say as they are not homeowners"

Find out when the next meeting is. Tell them you're going to attend.

Organize all the other dog owners and all of you attend. Explain why the new rule is a burden on you all. Explain what you want. Listen to their reasoning. Come to an agreeable compromise.

Move to a place that is not in an HOA because fuck HOAs.

I've read some folks being a bottle of water on walks to dilute the pee so it's less likely to ruin grass. But in fairness if some dog pee is ruining grass, owners are not watering their lawns enough. There are plenty of dogs in my neighborhood that are walked and I don't think there are many pee spot issues.

But even better would be to not use grass :) uses too much water in the first place hehe

So the AKC has this page that lists about half a dozen alternatives to outright banning dogs on grass.

https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/home-living/dog-pee-killing-grass/

I agree this very much sounds like the HOA taking the laziest route possible at the expense of it's residents.

But also, fuck HOAs. Get on the board and take that shit down from the inside, only reliable way to destroy those parasites.

Former real estate agent here

All you can do is talk to the hoa board. That is it. If they won't listen then you have no options. Other then pointing out this wont solve the problem and only punish members. Good luck.

Is this legal? My understanding is that the strip of grass between the sidewalk and street is "semi-private", in that the homeowner has to maintain it, but that the city actually owns it.

I'd check local laws and see if the HOA has any right to restrict dogs there.

shit like this is the reason I will never ever participate in an HOA

In an additional effort to refocus this thread to ground cover, has anyone here in the northeast US gone with a clover ground cover, rather than grass?

Set all the grass on fire. Boom, no more grass.

You have been living there for 8 yrs. Is this the first time the board has been unreasonable? If not, you might not have much recourse. Except for becoming president of the HOA and changing by-laws yourself. Unfortunately, HOAs in America are fucking weird she mostly unregulated which leads to these power tripping people.

If so, I would converse with them and present the same arguments you posted here.

In both cases, it would help if you can get your neighbors on the same page and agree. If more than half of the neighbors come to the consensus that it’s unreasonable, could easily force the board’s hand and revert. If they don’t bend, I would then ask your neighbors to re-elect the board. If at this point, you would need to check your HOA by-laws since it wildly differs across the USA.

I say burn the hoa with fire

Collect all your dogshit and dump it in the yard of the HOA president.

Can the dog owning houses replace their grass with wood chips or something?

Honestly, review you HOA requirements for imposing new rules, make sure they followed the rules and if they didn't demand the rule be withdrawn until the proper process is followed.

Try to get the rule changed so it reads "no UNLEASHED dogs allowed on.... " And try to get them to add some kind of punishment for those who don't clean up after their dogs (i.e. a $50 fine or something like that). Sure people can bash HOAs (and I totally agree with why they are hated so much), but the rule was probably not enacted because of one incident. It was probably put into place after many issues with owners not cleaning up after their dogs, so they felt they had to do something.

As with all HOA issues, the solution is to be in on it.... be part of the HOA. Run for office and get on the board. Being part of the process makes it that much easier to control what rules get put up.