Landscape and Urban Planning 115 (2013) 30–38 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Landscape and Urban Planning jou rn al hom epage : www.elsevier.com/locate/landurbplan Research paper Covenants, cohesion, and community: The effects of neighborhood governance on lawn fertilization  James Curtis Fraser a,∗ , Joshua Theodore Bazuin b , Lawrence E. Band c , J. Morgan Grove d a Department of Human and Organizational Development, Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt Univeristy, GPC Box 90, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203, USA b Institute for Energy and the Environment, Vanderbilt University, USA c Department of Geography and Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA d Baltimore Field Station and Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES), Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Suite 350, 5523 Research Park Drive, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA h i g h l i g h t s • Neighborhood governance influences households’ lawn care decisions. • Members of homeowners associations apply more fertilizer to their lawns. • HOAs mediate effect of individual preferences and circumstances on fertilization. • Neighborhood associations have no impact on fertilization. a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 2 October 2012 Received in revised form 20 February 2013 Accepted 27 February 2013 Available online 11 April 2013 Keywords: Lawn fertilization Nitrogen application rate Neighborhood governance Homeowners associations Social cohesion Non-point source pollution a b s t r a c t Lawn fertilization is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to non-point source pollution in watersheds, but relatively little is known about how and why homeowners fertilize. Lawns are a social expression of citizenship and belonging in many American cities, for a well-maintained yard reflects a homeowner’s work ethic as well as the pride in his home. There are also neighborhood influences, as homeowners conform to the dominant neighborhood standard of lawn esthetics. Homeowners associ- ations (HOAs) are one way in which neighborhood lawn standards are maintained, as they use written rules and unwritten expectations backed by legal means of enforcement to ensure compliance with neighborhood guidelines. This paper examines household nitrogen fertilizer application rates in Balti- more, Maryland. We find that households which place a high importance on lawn care and occupy more valuable homes fertilize at higher rates compared with neighbors who place lower importance on lawn care, and live in less expensive homes. We also examine the effects of different neighborhood governance regimes, specifically homeowners associations and neighborhood associations. Households who belong to an HOA apply more fertilizer than those who do not, but households belonging to a neighborhood association do not fertilize more than their counterparts who are not so affiliated. HOA membership also mediates the effect of lawn care importance and home value and moderates the effect of social cohesion on fertilization application rates. HOAs shape household lawn behaviors: by obliging people to maintain a high esthetic standard, they encourage higher usage of chemicals to attain those standards. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This paper, stemming from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program in Baltimore, reports on a study of households in and around the Gwynn Falls  This research was supported by the Human and Social Dynamics Program of the National Science Foundation, grant number 0729387. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 615 343 7638. E-mail addresses: james.c.fraser@vanderbilt.edu (J.C. Fraser), joshua.t.bazuin@vanderbilt.edu (J.T. Bazuin), lband@email.unc.edu (L.E. Band), mgrove@fs.fed.us (J.M. Grove). watershed in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, Maryland. It focuses on resident attitudes and preferences toward maintaining a lawn and predicts how neighbors and neighborhood institutions are associated with lawn fertilization rates. Many scholars hypothe- size that neighborhood norms and institutions have a direct impact upon household landscaping practices. Neighborhood norms are expectations that neighbors convey to each other in their daily activities. Neighborhood institutions – homeowners associations (HOAs) and neighborhood associations (NAs) – also communicate landscaping expectations, with the difference being the HOAs are legal entities that can levy sanctions against households that do not follow HOA covenants and restrictions (CCRs) while NAs do not 0169-2046/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2013.02.013