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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl...0,721908.story?coll=orl-news-headlines
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl...0,721908.story?coll=orl-news-headlines
Tanya Caldwell
Sentinel Staff Writer
December 13, 2006
ORANGE CITY -- Greenleaf Gardens Apartments this week looked like Grinch Gardens. Gone were the wreaths, twinkling lights and bright-red bows. All the decorations were gone, except for the holly branches and ribbons stuffed into a pile of garbage bags.
It was as if Christmas had been canceled.
Residents such as Grace Smith got a harsh ultimatum from the managers of the southwest Volusia complex: Take down the decorations -- or get out.
The notice hit residents of the 77-unit complex as though somebody had socked Santa in the stomach.
"Why didn't they say something before? I decorated for Halloween and nobody said anything," she said. "When we asked for a response, they just say this has been their policy."
Kevin Flynn, the president of Flynn Management Corp. who is now known as "Grinch" to many of the residents, said the decoration crackdown had nothing to do with Christmas.
The company is simply enforcing a policy banning residents from hammering things into the buildings, he said.
"It's in the rules and regulations, which more or less says they can't affix anything to the buildings or alter the flower beds," Flynn said. "Our intention wasn't necessarily to go after people who had been using Christmas lights. We're trying to limit any damage to the buildings."
He couldn't fully explain why his Clearwater-based company decided to enforce the rules now. He said his firm, which manages about 50 subsidized apartment complexes with about 1,950 units in Florida and Georgia, has had problems with tenants damaging the exteriors of the buildings.
So the company earlier this year -- he wouldn't say when or where -- began enforcing the no-decoration policy.
The rules are included in the lease, which says residents can't "attach, post . . . any signs, decals, placards, flyers . . . including messages of business, political, or personal nature," outside of the apartment building or in the common areas. It doesn't specifically outlaw Christmas decorations, and it doesn't apply inside the units.
Greenleaf Gardens residents say they've been putting Christmas on display for years and that this is the first time anybody said it was wrong. Residents found out about the ban in a Nov. 30 letter from the on-site manager who wrote that the "owner drove through the property and has informed me that all Christmas lights attached to the buildings need to be removed."
Other apartments not managed by Flynn's firm have similar rules, though they don't use them to outlaw Christmas decorations.
Jennifer Santiago, the assistant manager at the Mallards of Brandywine in DeLand, said tenants can't put up neon beer signs or offensive flags in their windows but they are allowed to hang a wreath or string holiday lights around their doors.
At other complexes in Central Florida, residents aren't allowed to drill holes into the siding, but they can use sticky hooks or suction cups to hang lights during the holiday season.
The ban isn't being applied uniformly.
At the Willow Pond Apartments in Ormond Beach, an unsubsidized complex owned and managed by Flynn, decorations were up Tuesday, assistant manager Joyce Lafferty said.
Darrell W. Cook, a Texas lawyer who litigates leases and represents landlords and tenants, said Flynn's rule was reasonable and enforceable and clearly prohibits anything on the outside of the buildings.
Cook said it was unusual that the complex not only allowed holiday decorations in the past but also condoned the practice with a contest. But his advice: "Don't do it and risk being evicted."
The flap in Orange City already has drawn comparisons with the recent controversy about Christmas trees removed at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport because of a rabbi's complaint that holiday decorations didn't include a menorah.
The trees returned this week after airport officials got word from the rabbi "that his organization will not file a lawsuit . . .," the agency said in a statement.
The flap bolstered opponents of what some have dubbed the "war on Christmas."
David Moenning, a pastor at Deltona's Pine Ridge Fellowship, said Flynn may not be picking on Christmas, even though the company's actions do "give the appearance that they're waging a war on Christmas."
He said the ban might force residents to re-evaluate the meaning of the holiday.
"It takes a lot more than someone telling me to take down my lights to take Christmas away," he said. "I think if it's that easy to take Christmas away, then we never really had it."
But Greenleaf Gardens resident Madelyn Narsh said Flynn has destroyed her holiday, which was already depressing enough because she has to spend it alone.
"Everyone here enjoyed the decorations," Narsh said. "It just takes the joy out of Christmas."
This is more interesting than dozens of threads a week asking for fantasy football advice.
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