Sarah Flanagan learned to play basketball on a hoop in front of her family's Springfield home. This catapulted her into playing basketball for the West Springfield Spartans and debuting on the Mary Washington College team in September 2004. Shooting hoops out front was a pastime for the whole Flanagan family, until rules came into play over the last few years that forced them to take the basketball net down.
"Everybody was out here playing, it was a nice place for the kids to play," said Tom Flanagan. "I'd go out with the kids and play."
The basketball pole was on the curb, and the players used the cul-de-sac as their court, until the Virginia Department of Transportation came along and bounce-passed the rule book into play. The Flanagans could have put the hoop on their driveway, but their driveway was slanted, so they just gave the whole hoop away.
"It had been here for five years, and nobody cared," said Tom Flanagan.
William Moran, an attorney, lives next door to the Flanagans in the Center Park community. He went to court on March 18, challenging VDOT on its rules concerning basketball hoops in the VDOT right of way. Moran pointed to the inconsistency between the VDOT rule and enforcement.
"VDOT is the enforcing authority here. They are as phony as phony can be," Moran said.
Moran went as far as traveling to various neighborhoods where VDOT officials lived, noting the basketball hoops in those neighborhoods that are not being questioned. Moran visited the neighborhood of Robert S. Driscoll, a VDOT resident engineer, and Paul S. Stahl, VDOT assistant attorney general. In each case, he saw basketball hoops similar to his that were in violation of VDOT rules. He took pictures, as well.
"When I drove over there, I found eight basketball hoops near his [Stahl's] house," Moran said.
The same situation existed near Driscoll's house in Fairfax.
"On the very next street, there were two of these basketball hoops on the street," Moran said.
The whole thing started on Flanagan and Moran's cul-de-sac when another neighbor parked a car in front of Moran's house, and he complained. It grew from there.
"That's what started his vendetta to get even," Moran said.
Both VDOT and Fairfax County have rules governing the placement of basketball hoops. But since many of the hoops are portable, VDOT usually just gives the violator a notice that his her hoop is infringing on VDOT's right of way, and the owner wheels it back onto the driveway.
"It's technically illegal to place anything in our right of way," said Ryan Hall, VDOT spokesperson. If the hoop is cemented in place, therefore counted as a 'fixed object,' in their rules, "VDOT will take it out," Hall said.
Situations where VDOT does go out and enforce the rule are generated by complaints, Hall said. They do not go randomly looking for illegal basketball hoops.
"We don't have the manpower to be checking 15,000 miles of roadway," Hall said.
Moran lost his case.
"Mine was on the grass, and the hoop was in the right of way," Moran said.
THROUGHOUT the Center Park neighborhood of West Springfield where Moran lives, VDOT letters were delivered, and one by one the nets were removed to driveways or patios. Some parents look at the enforcement as overkill.
"My kids are older now and don't go to bed at 8 [p.m.], I'd rather have them out front playing basketball than at the school or something," said Alan Grogan, a Springfield resident, who claimed he had a visit from officials about the hoops.
Denise Milford thought the VDOT rules were going overboard. Her family has a level driveway, so the court fits on it, but she thought their children playing basketball on the cul-de-sac out front was a good way to occupy their time.
"It's just kids playing basketball," Milford said. "They're not in watching TV or at the mall hanging out. Doesn't the county have better things to do?"
Diane Smith has teenagers at West Springfield High School also. She received a VDOT notice about her net, as well.
"They gave everybody 10 days to move them," Smith said. "You can't have a basketball hoop facing the road.
"That's what kids do around here, it's a very positive, wholesome thing," Smith said
Fairfax County does have a rule on basketball nets, article 10-104, section 12C in the county code, which says, "when located in a front yard, basketball standards shall not be closer than 15 feet to a front lot line or 12 feet to a side lot line, and shall not be used between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m."
Milford thought the time limit was reasonable. "We do set time limits to our kids," she said.
Individual homeowners associations may have additional rules, as well. The Burke Centre Conservancy has a rule that all goals are subject to Fairfax County setback requirements but are prohibited from being located on Conservancy open space or streets.