Residents of Rock Spring, Ga., neighborhood take growing dispute to court

Alexandria Berry talks outside her home in the Fieldstone Farms neighborhood on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Rock Spring, Ga. The Berrys have been sued by the neighborhood's homeowners association for alleged violations that include the color of their house, a missing skirt on their back porch and parking vehicles on the lawn.

By Tyler Jett December 4, 2017 8 min read

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Neighbors at odds: Residents of one local neighborhood taking ongoing dispute to court

Dead plants are seen in a garden outside Alexandria Berry's home in the Fieldstone Farms neighborhood on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Rock Spring, Ga. The Berrys have been sued by the neighborhood's homeowners association for alleged violations that include the color of their house, a missing skirt on their back porch and failure to maintain their lawn.

Alexandria Berry pulls up photos of signs she made to warn others of a disease she believes spread through the soil and killed her roses outside her home in the Fieldstone Farms neighborhood on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Rock Spring, Ga. The Berrys have been sued by the neighborhood's homeowners association for alleged violations that include the color of their house, a missing skirt on their back porch and failure to maintain their lawn.

The back porch of the Berry's home in the Fieldstone Farms neighborhood, which the homeowners' association says in a lawsuit requires a skirt, is seen on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Rock Spring, Ga. The Berrys have been sued by the neighborhood's homeowners association for alleged violations that include the color of their house, a missing skirt on their back porch and failure to maintain their lawn.

Alexandria Berry holds a flyer her daughter posted for their missing cat, which resulted in calls by her neighbors to the police, outside her home in the Fieldstone Farms neighborhood on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Rock Spring, Ga. The Berrys have been sued by the neighborhood's homeowners association for alleged violations that include the color of their house, a missing skirt on their back porch and failure to maintain their lawn.

Alexandria Berry holds a copy of a civil lawsuit against her family as she talks outside her home in the Fieldstone Farms neighborhood on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Rock Spring, Ga. The Berrys have been sued by the neighborhood's homeowners association for alleged violations that include the color of their house, a missing skirt on their back porch and failure to maintain their lawn.

Alexandria Berry checks a fig tree outside her home in the Fieldstone Farms neighborhood on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Rock Spring, Ga. The Berrys have been sued by the neighborhood's homeowners association for alleged violations that include the color of their house, a missing skirt on their back porch and failure to maintain their lawn.

Alexandria Berry talks about a lawsuit against her family outside her home in the Fieldstone Farms neighborhood on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Rock Spring, Ga. The Berrys have been sued by the neighborhood's homeowners association for alleged violations that include the color of their house, a missing skirt on their back porch and failure to maintain their lawn.

A home in the Fieldstone Farms neighborhood near the home of Alexandria Berry is missing a skirt on its back porch on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Rock Spring, Ga. A missing skirt on the Berry's porch is one of the reasons cited in a lawsuit against them by the homeowners' association.

Homes near Alexandria Berry's residence in the Fieldstone Farms neighborhood are seen on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Rock Spring, Ga. The Berrys have been sued by the neighborhood's homeowners association for alleged violations that include the color of their house, a missing skirt on their back porch and failure to maintain their lawn.

Alexandria Berry holds a copy of a civil lawsuit against her family outside her home in the Fieldstone Farms neighborhood on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Rock Spring, Ga. The Berrys have been sued by the neighborhood's homeowners association for alleged violations that include the color of their house, a missing skirt on their back porch and failure to maintain their lawn.

ROCK SPRING, Ga. – Like many good neighborhood quarrels, the Fieldstone Farms Owners Association vs. Alexandria and Arthur Berry began with a dispute about paint. From there, the feud evolved. Someone drew a rifle; someone else drew a lawsuit.

“No resident of Fieldstone Farms should have to live in fear of what the Berry family will do next,” Darren McBride, an attorney representing the association, wrote in a civil complaint last month.

“It’s ludicrous,” Alexandria Berry told the Times Free Press last week. “That’s ludicrous. Who is afraid of me? That comment is ludicrous. Why would they be afraid of me? I’m barely 5 feet tall.”

The Berrys moved here from Watkinsville, Ga., in April 2012 to be closer to family. And for the first couple of years, Alexandria Berry said, the living situation seemed fine.

Well, there was one small problem. The dog. A hound dog, she said. It ran loose, all over the neighborhood, she said. She called animal control, and an officer picked it up. The dog’s owners retrieved it. And then it was loose again, she said. And she said she tried to grab the dog, and the dog bit her. She called animal control again. Someone then wrote something mean about her on Facebook.