A Waxhaw-area homeowner's elaborate Christmas light show has turned his small aviation-themed neighborhood into a legal battleground, and now his neighbors are being asked to vote on new rules that could reshape what residents can do with their own properties. Neil Heuer plans to once again light up his home with roughly 60,000 synchronized LED lights, lasers and other effects this December, a display that transmits music to spectators' car radios and has attracted visitors.
The dispute dates back to September, when the Aero Plantation Association determined that Heuer's 2025 display violated the neighborhood's restrictions on exterior lighting and signs, according to the Charlotte Observer. At a Sept. 3 hearing, the board upheld two of five alleged violations while deferring decisions on nuisance and architectural issues, and it warned that future lighting violations directed beyond Heuer's lot could bring fines of $100 per day. The board also found no parking violation, reasoning that it had never adopted a specific parking standard.
A Compromise Proposal and a Separate Halloween Show
Trying to head off further conflict, attorney Shira Hedgepeth offered a compromise on Heuer's behalf in mid-September: capping the display at 30% of its maximum brightness and eliminating two 350-watt moving-head fixtures, along with the sign and banner the association had cited. Hedgepeth disputed the board's interpretation, arguing that mere visibility from another property or a road did not mean lights were directed beyond Heuer's property line.
Heuer was installing props for a separate Halloween show.
Association attorney Benjamin Karb declined substantive comment. The association was developing guest and parking rules. Aero Plantation is an upscale fly-in community built around a private airstrip, with privately owned and maintained roads.
Proposed Rules Target Public Attractions and Flashing Lights
On Oct. 29, the association circulated proposed amendments to its governing declaration. The first would prohibit residents from promoting their properties as public attractions or hosting activities expected to generate substantial or recurring nonresident traffic, while exempting private gatherings that aren't publicly promoted and ordinary real-estate sales. The second would bar flashing, strobing, pulsing or repeatedly changing exterior lights visible from neighboring properties, streets or common areas, ban certain high-intensity beams, and allow the board to impose additional restrictions on brightness and holiday-light periods.
The proposed amendments address public attractions, nonresident traffic and exterior lighting. Each amendment requires written approval representing at least two-thirds of all lots in the association to pass, and Arno has encouraged homeowners to participate in the vote. Ballots are due back by 5 p.m. on Jan. 30, 2027.
Heuer continued preparing for 2026 holiday shows. His website includes the show's address and a map.
How Far Can an HOA Go?
At the Yachtsman community on Lake Wylie, an HOA imposed $100-per-day fines that eventually totaled nearly $12,000 and placed a lien on a homeowner's house over a dispute about replacement windows, a fight that the Charlotte Observer reports ended in 2024 with a $75,000 settlement letting her keep them.
Other Charlotte-area covenants reach even further, dictating what species of grass residents can grow, what breed of dog they can own, whether kids can have a basketball hoop, and when Christmas decorations have to come down, per the same report. In Union County's Oak Grove Farm, homeowners argued their chickens counted as household pets under the community's covenants; in 2025, the state Supreme Court upheld a jury's finding that they did not. In the Palisades, architectural guidelines allow homeowners up to three garden ornaments under 12 inches tall in street-visible areas without needing approval first.
Under North Carolina's planned-community statute, if an association's declaration doesn't spell out a specific procedure for imposing fines or suspending privileges, a hearing must be held before the executive board or an appointed panel to decide whether a homeowner should face a fine, according to state law.
