i have no use for HOA's.. they are simply unamerican.
there are plenty of rules and regulations on the books about how a property needs to be maintained at the city, township, county, state, and federal levels that are enforced using money from property taxes. the city, towhship, and county take car of road and street maintenance using that tax money.. i see no need to force people to pay more on top of that, but i've also got a strong "Don't Tread on Me" streak,too.
my only experience with anything similar to an HOA was about 3 months after i bought my house in the spring of '02. my 1 acre property was about 1/4 mile outside of city limits on a busy road that led to a subdivision next to a golf course that was somehow within city limits. i had 4 rusty old vehicles (85 GMC pickup, 82 Ford 3/4 ton van, 78 Impala 2 door, and 78 Ford LTD 2 sport) parked in my back yard that weren't visible from the road unless you looked at a certain angle at a certain spot on the road as you drove by at 50mph. the only way to see them up close without being on my property was to walk along the outside of the fence in the hay field that surrounded by property. all of them had expired tabs, which is why i parked them back there until i could get around to parting them out or whatever.. one day i got a letter from the township with all the license plate and VINs off those vehicle stating that i had to remove them from my property within 30 days or pay some fine in accordance with some county code, which they were also kind enough ti include.. so i did what any sane person would do- i went and bought tabs for all of them and parked them in my front yard (not in either of my 2 driveways- on the grass at weird angles..) for about 3 months until i got sick of looking at them and moving them around every time i mowed the grass. then i parted the truck and van out, sold the impala, and put the LTD2 in my mostly empty 26X48 shed.. i never heard another word from anyone about having anything in my yard until i moved out in the fall of '05, and i had some real crappy looking junk sitting there from time to time.
no one even complained about having this in my driveway for 2 months..