A portable basketball goal has been in banker Delbert Simpers front yard for 14 years. His 14-year-old son plays basketball for Quail Valley Middle School; his 17-year-old is a fullback at Elkins High School. The neighborhood kids use the hoop more than his own do, Simpers says.
Daniel Kramer
Sie Allen III, with sons Kendall and Tréson, says the game's not just for kids.
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In September, the Missouri City resident received a notice informing him that the goal violates the city zoning ordinance, which carries a fine of up to $2,000 a day.
"There're goals all in my subdivision," Simpers says. He talked to his neighbors and no one else had received a citation. "It was selective enforcement."
Driving around this southwest Houston suburb, Simpers saw permanent basketball goals on dozens of driveways, just like in most of America. "Even on the mayor's next-door neighbor's yard," Simpers says.
So he left the goal standing. In March, Simpers received a citation ordering him to municipal court.
Instead of paying the standard $209 fine levied by the city plus $90 in court costs, Simpers pleaded not guilty and demanded a jury trial. Then he spoke at the April 7 City Council meeting.
"I told them that it just doesn't make sense for a homeowner who has kids to have their kids go to a public park that's not supervised to play basketball," Simpers says.
Section 9.2 of the Zoning Ordinance of Missouri City prohibits various lawn furniture, decks, large doghouses and other items from the front yards of all residential areas. One of those categories is "children's playground equipment," and the city attorney's office interprets that to include basketball goals. Portable goals are allowed in the front yard only while they are in use -- and must be stored in the garage or in the back.
The problem is, portable goals aren't very portable. Simpers says his is filled with sand or water (he can't remember, it's been 14 years since he set it up) and it probably weighs more than 200 pounds.
"It's heavy," Simpers says. "It's not like a kid can move it."
Two weeks after Simpers spoke to city council about the issue, Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Wyatt moved to exempt basketball goals from the ordinance. "There's probably more goals out in people's driveways than we could even begin to enforce," Wyatt says.
Another problem with the existing ordinance against goals is that some deed restrictions ban basketball hoops in the backyard as well, says Barbara Gibson, president of the Brightwater Homeowners Association. When a Brightwater resident poured concrete in his backyard for a court, it created a drainage problem for surrounding homes, she says.
"If this ordinance is indeed enforced, it would basically outlaw every basketball goal we have," Gibson says. "It would prevent every resident in my community from having a basketball goal."
Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen says the ordinance was passed in 1989 after a family complained that neighbors were constantly bouncing the ball against the side of their house -- right outside the bedroom wall. The basketball ruined the landscaping and knocked out a coolant line on the central air-conditioning unit. "A basketball can do damage," Owen says.
According to the city attorney's office, only three official you-must-go-to-municipal-court citations have been issued. But in the past year, the city sent 246 initial warning letters and 92 second notices of violations. Citations supposedly are not issued unless a neighbor complains about a hoop.
Another resident protesting the hoops ban is Sie Allen III, an account executive who received a warning letter about his goal, which he's had up for four years. He argues that it isn't "children's playground equipment" because he set it up for himself.
"I'm an adult," he says. "That's kind of like saying baseball stadiums and basketball stadiums are only for kids. We have professionals; they're not children."
The only councilmember in favor of the ordinance was Eunice Reiter. She argued that when a goal is in the front yard, it's more likely that a ball can roll into the street, trample neighbors' flowers or hit houses. "I do not oppose people having basketball goals; I oppose their not being considerate of their neighbors," Reiter says.
Plus, she says basketball goals create a potential noise problem when kids blare their boom boxes while they're shooting. "It just seems that kids who play basketball feel like they need to do it to music," Reiter says.
Simpers says Reiter's complaints about the music tick him off "because you can play country music while washing your car in the driveway." Kids in a swimming pool make much more noise than kids shooting hoops, he says.
Gibson adds that backyard basketball courts are actually noisier because sound travels farther and faster across open-air yards.
And noise just isn't enough of a reason to outlaw the sport, Wyatt says.
"If people want to play music in their front yard, they do that without basketball goals," Wyatt says. "If it's a noise thing, we have noise ordinances. We can handle the noise."
A preliminary motion to eliminate the hoops section of the ordinance passed council in an April 21 vote. The proposal now goes to the planning and zoning commission for review before a final council vote in a few months, city officials say.
