Bill was introduced in Sep/25, but I only got a whiff of it in the last couple of weeks
See House Bill HB1878: https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/pa/2025-2026/bills/PAB00038963/
Are there any other states/countries taking similar initiatives?
Summary:
Pennsylvania homeowners deserve the right to choose native plant species they desire for landscaping around their homes. However, work is needed to remove bottlenecks for homeowners to select native vegetation for their desired landscaping.
This legislation will prevent homeowners associations (HOAs) from unreasonably prohibiting the use of native plants for landscaping on private property. This ensures homeowners residing within an HOA the same ability to choose native landscaping as other homeowners.
Native plants provide many beneficial functions that many homeowners desire. These include being aesthetically pleasing and providing habitat for pollinators while being adapted to the site and typically requiring lower maintenance than non-native plants. [...]
For a supposedly Capitalist country, it's amazing that the US allows neighbours to decide themselves what others can or not do in their own land and force them to do it or not.
I'm thinking it's the bastard child of extreme aversion to having oversight institutions working for the common good, so instead of like in having Europe regional/country-wide rules which apply to everybody and are enforced by some oversight autority on what cannot be done in residential areas to avoid things like for example people operating poluting industries in residential areas, you get local groups with quite arbitrary power to decide what their neighbours can or cannot do, each local and with rules not at all consistent across the country (or at last a State).
It's a system incredibly open to abuse, especially by the kind of people we in my country call "small dictators" (the kind of people who, when they have some power over others, force them to do things purelly because they derive psychological enjoyment from imposing their will on others)
HOAs are a patently un-American idea and are generally speaking viewed as such within the United States. I’m sure there are those who view them as a necessary evil, but by and large if you mention the acronym HOA in the U.S. you are more likely than not going to receive a look of unhappiness in return.
Yeah that’s interesting. I wonder if HOAs are an accepted implementation of “small government” or libertarianism.