Homeowner fights HOA over religious statue removal request

Homeowner fights HOA over religious statue removal request: "RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) - Is a homeowners association limiting religious expression in the front yard of a Rio Rancho man's home?

One neighbor is asking that question after he was recently told by a homeowners association to remove a statue of a Catholic saint from his yard, years after he says he was given permission to put it up.

The man who owns the home, Bill Maldonado, says his small, roughly two foot tall Our Lady of Guadalupe statue has been in his front yard for nearly a decade.

But just last week, right before Easter, Maldonado says his Hidden Valley Homeowners Association told him he had two weeks to remove the statue.

Maldonado called it upsetting.

I was not very happy when I received the letter," said Maldonado. "And to make things even worse, it's Holy Thursday of Holy Week."

In their letter, Hidden Valley Homeowners Association called the unmounted statue an "Architectural Control" change, writing "statue not approved.""

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He says he has "my right for religious expression," and that it has been there since 2009.