OCALA, Fla. -- Subdivision rules are keeping some Ocala residents from temporarily housing Hurricane Katrina evacuees, and angry homeowners said it might make them move.

The board of Majestic Oaks Homeowners Association told homeowners their deed restrictions prohibit housing people who fled the Gulf Coast. According to the Ocala Star-Banner, a flier, distributed by the Majestic Oaks homeowners association Saturday, said that rather than allowing "additional families" in the community, residents were encouraged to contribute to hurricane relief funds.

The board sent the notice after learning that a minister in the 500-home subdivision had traveled to New Orleans and planned to take in three families of evacuees.

Resident Georgia Ann Bolla said she's ashamed to live in Majestic Oaks and she's ready to move. She told the paper that she went "ballistic" when she got the notice. . . .

"We didn't know the covenants would mean we couldn't help people,” Bryce Mercier, who is both a Majestic Oaks resident and superintendent for the development's builder, Triple Crown Homes, told the paper.

"These are single-family residences, and that's what they were intended for," Audrey Andrews, vice president of the homeowners association, said Monday.

Why would anyone want to purchase a home in a place where basic property rights are beholden to the whims of busy-body neighbors? Shouldn't you be free to choose who will and will not live in your home? What if you wanted to house an extended family member and his/her kids after they fell on hard times. If you live in a place like Majestic Oaks you apparently wouldn't be able to do that.

I don't know who to be more upset with, the morons who start these associations or the morons who give away parts of their personal liberties to live in communities with them.