I honestly don’t know what is so completely offensive about being able to see the HVAC equipment on a house from the street.
Now, if it was an outdoor shower and people were frolicking in the nude or something, I could see why the HOA would want to get involved.
That just so isn’t the case on one side of my house. Until a month ago, a privacy hedge hid the HVAC cabinet from the fragile eyes of anyone peering at the side of my house as they drove by. But that was before my kid learned all about trimming a hedge from his old man. We took a weekend morning out of the air conditioning because my oldest son wanted to learn how to use the hedge clippers. Being a dad who very much likes the idea of sitting inside the air conditioning while the kid handles the yard, I was all in. It was learning by trial and error. At the end, we had to even it up a good bit and that left it probably 8 to 10 inches shorter than it had been. This would all be moot in a month or two when it grew back. But the HOA didn’t lose a minute making sure that we knew who was in charge. There were emails and sticky tickets posted to the front door threatening all sorts of fines. I essentially told them to come on with it and they backed down. This was another opportunity to show my eldest the value of confronting a bully.