Code Enforcement

[mtruitt1971]

Making noise in the morning blows "Live and let Live" out of the water for me.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnzw_i4YmKk[/media]

If they had identified who they were, would you have buried the hatchet, or parked closer to their bedroom window?

bury the hatchet ? sure i have no problem confronting people in a peaceful manner, when i hosted my motorcycle group's party i invited everyone around me even the complainer (which ever one it was) and no one showed

i don't care if you don't like me i just want to make sure you have a reason that is valid.

lets see have it running for about 30 seconds and i am aware of how loud i am and i use caution when leaving, i do know i am a quieter than the **** down the road reving his chevy 4x4 every morning at 545 am
but i don't complain, when i hear him rev it it means time to jump in the shower.

a lawn mower is louder and more annoying than my bike

i really think it was someone just getting their feathers ruffled and wanted to bully me into bowing to their demands (I BOW TO NO MAN ......PERIOD)

and that whistling muffler thing would have to go, it serves no purpose other than to annoy people.

 

[jholler]

"Self-propelled mobile homes. Self-propelled mobile homes of any length shall be permitted to park in any residential district in accordance with the provisions of subsection (d) above. Self-propelled mobile homes shall not be used as a living unit when parked in a residential district."

There you go. Put some 2x4 bunk beds in the back and a camp toilet and call it a self-propelled mobile home, unless there's a clear definition of that somewhere else.

 

[Dave08]

Thanks A/C

I really appreciate you looking that up. However, the city does not even follow their own code. I think it is coming down to WW III but I am holding out. If I have to I will put up a fence as I believe that if it is behind a fence then you are legal. We will see. I appreciate everyone volunteering storage space but then again if I lived in Arkansas or Rhode Island I more than likely would not have these problems. If I could sell my property I would move out to Mimms or Scottsmore and buy about 5 Acres to live on.
I will keep everyone informed as to the outcome. Last complaint that had my car towed away caused me to pay $125 to get it out of impound. After I got it back, I checked with the Police and they said that as long as the car was licensed and insured, which it was, I could park it on the street. I parked the vehicle in front of the neighbor's house that turned me in to code enforcement that caused the vehicle to be towed in the first place. It stayed there until she paid me my $125 dollars back in person. She did so with a police escort one week later and I immediately moved the vehicle. WW III is brewing.

 

[A/C Cages]

Ive been looking for property over there too. even in Geneva.
I want to build an underground house with no neighbors in shooting distance.

 

[paulfarber]

Sec. 20-58. - Miscellaneous parking regulation.
(a)
There shall be no off-street parking in the front yards, rear yards, and side yards, street side, of single-family dwellings, except as normally exists in driveways or designated parking spaces or areas, unless otherwise provided in this section.

Get a few ton of rock and designate a new parking area.

As rosie said phone calls are useless. Paper trail is what you need. Write the code guy about the above restriction and what designates a parking area. If you write them and they fail to respond that can help your case if it ever gets to the 'go to court to fight a fine' phase. Make sure that they cite a SPECIFIC CODE NUMBER, SECTION and PARAGRAPH.

My crappy little town wanted me to pay a permit for a fence I put up. I said show me the statute. We both read it and due to its poor wording regarding what the fence was for I told them I was not going to pay unless they had the borough solicitor clarify.. which would cost them more money in lawyer fees than the $20 permit.

 

[porkysplace]

It sounds like you need to have a mni-rally / pig roast anst fill every parking spot on the street with GREEN IRON .

 

[Jake0147]

I actually did this so it would be harder for the Code Enforcement folks to have the vehicles towed.

Be careful of that..... I'm reading the post with interest, although I have no suggestions beyond what's been said already, except this one issue. Be careful and make sure you KNOW the ramifications.

I work for the largest light towing company in the state of Vermont, and among our many claims to fame are a multitude of city contracts. If you were here, that'd be us coming to remove the trucks. My advice is this. DO NOT make it hard to tow. When they come, they're taking it regardless. They have no choice. In most municipalities in the US, unforeseeable or unavoidable damage is on you, not them, and their expectation of standard procedure and reasonable precaution will not be high.
Instead, get in the local code. Find out what they can not touch. A fence, other property, a chain and pad lock to a post perhaps (ineffective as it may be in a physical sense), maybe a legally registered vehicle. In your law books, find the barrier legal, not physical. Now you don't need a bigger wrecker with more chains, but rather you need due process. That will buy you way more time than a "difficult tow", which I assure you municipal contractors have seen before. Forget about being challenged by them. They are usually not even slowed down. And they DO know exactly what and when they need to be careful with, and when "anything goes so long as it's gone".

 

[Welder Sam]

green iron filled PARTY!!!

 

[Flyingvan911]

1. Find out what the codes/laws are.

2. Obey them even if it's an inconvenience for a while.

3. Work to change the code/law.

The best thing is to know what's right and follow it then work to get the rules changed, if possible. You will be better off by starting off in the right. Good luck.

 

[rosie]

Good morning, Flyingvan, well put and to the point. You've melted the grease out of our and other posts and got to the basics. One addition to your basic list we'd suggest, though, is to GET NAMES. In other words, contact by email or registered mail "Joe Bloggs, Code Enforcement Officer", with cc: to his supervisor, town or county manager, etc. There is a direct relationship it seems between people's willingness to give you their name with their intention to be accountable for what they do.

Fortunately we have about 30 acres of woods and so have plenty of room for our projects. Unfortunately sometimes people develop interests (like collecting green iron!) after they have established their homes and run afoul of existing regulations. What is annoying is when new regulations are put in place that run afoul of how people are already conducting themselves. Hence, point 3 in your post: "Work to change the code/law". Social codes are way different than building codes: they have nothing to do with safety or consistency of construction. And therefore should be open to change (or individual variance). Likewise, good luck.

 

[mtruitt1971]

knowing the codes and laws is always the best way to go

my father, retired marine, cop, always said that cops don't know the laws. if they did they would be lawyers.

go on-line to your city government and get the codes, print them , and know them


when looking for a house a couple years ago, the wife and i were at odds on what type of neighborhood to live in.

my choice was in the boonies with the nearest neighbor a mile away.
her choice was a sub division

we settled on a house in some podunk town with 5 cops and our neighborhood has no HOA and if i can help it , it neverwill

i have seen neighborhoods that had cars on blocks, and even though i can apperciate anyone who does their own work, i believe that if you cannot finish it in one day , move it to the back, or put it behind a fence out of site.

i think what is happening in your neighborhood is that someone disagrees with your hobby choice (happens to all of us)

 

[JDToumanian]

I'll present a slightly different viewpoint here.... I can see the complaining neighbor's point of view because of a personality characteristic of mine:

I am easily annoyed.

I take any offense to my senses as an invasion of my privacy, or even as an assault. Only rarely do I actually complain to the city or police though. Loud music is my biggest annoyance and I have taken matters into my own hands on that issue a number of times with habitual abusers when courtesy or legal avenues did not work in my neighborhoods of the past. My current neighborhood despite being on a busy street is much better and most noise just quickly passes by. My next door neighbor is a plumber of some sort and has piles of junk water heaters and other plumbing equipment littering his yard, all of which is clearly visible through the chain link fence, but while that annoys me, he may be equally annoyed by my yard full of green iron.

My point is, these neighbors likely think of your trucks as "old junk" and do not want to see them, just as I do not want to see piles of water heaters or hear loud music. I would put a letter in their mailbox asking what can be done to satisfy them.... a fence with privacy slats, row of trees to shield their view, etc. I would see if they're willing to be reasonable before declaring war.

Jon

 

[SCSG-G4]

All this talk had me looking on what my local county covered, and I found the following on the County Web site. Note items 7, 9, and 10. HOA's can have more restrictive rules, but I don't live in one!

 

[John S-B]

 

[rosie]

Good points, Jon. There is a difference between outright garbage and clutter, rodent/pest harborages, potential contaminants of private wells (which we depend on for water in our rural setting) and useful or interesting stuff that may not be tidy. Involving law or code enforcement should be a last resort, but the unfortunate fact is that many people are not reasonable, and compromise is not in their vocabulary. On our little dirt road, we have had one guy who turned his entire lot into a junkyard--paint and oil containers, construction debris, bagged trash of unknown description, and so forth, hauled in for pay, to a depth of at least 6 feet. Another person "rescues" dogs, which amounts to taking in strays, feeding them a bit, then letting them run unattended in packs of as many as 6 animals. The erstwhile junkman finally responded to solid waste enforcement; animal control has yet to make a dent in the dog hoarder.

Good fences make good neighbors, and also common courtesy and decency goes a long way.

 

[Dave08]

Everyone has very valid points. However, working with these people is not the answer as it did not work in the past and I am tired of being the one that has to take his time and try to pacify these individuals. This is why I built specifically in a non HOA area.

On a better note, I just received my Titles (SF-97s) for bath my M109s. This is the first step to becoming legal and getting them both registered. I took the advise to email the code enforcement officer in order to have a record and to officially request who had the complaint. Unfortunately, there has been no answer. We will wait and the next step will be a personal visit to their office; more than likely the same day I get the license plates.
I will Keep everyone posted on this continuing saga.
Thanks,
Dave08

 

[Welder Sam]

Most importantly, keep a level head. Im walking proof that its hard to do but... if i can do it as my exwife turns my 5yo daughter against me... u can do it too

 

[Tow4]

I took the advise to email the code enforcement officer in order to have a record and to officially request who had the complaint.

If the code enforcement process is like Orlando, it is an anonymous system. The complainer calls in, talks to a machine, and gets a reference number. They can call back later, punch in the number, and check on the status of their complaint.

My wife found that out during one of the "code lady" visits. It so happened that a friend that is retired from the city planning division (she's the one that told me the city code that exempted my antenna tower) was there when code lady showed up. They knew each other and were chatting; code lady said this person keeps calling (I guess she recognizes the voice) about something that is permitted and there's no way to contact them.

Long story short, you probably won't find out who turned you in unless you can get a bit of inside information that gives you insight to figure it out.

There's also a law about equal enforcement. If you have neighbors that have cars and stuff parked in their back yards, the city can't single you out. You can go to code enforcement and request a list of enforcement actions in your area.

Since you emailed a code enforcement officer; it sounds like you have already received a letter notifying you of the violation. The city code(s) that you have violated is in the letter; someone already posted a link to the municode system, read up.

 

[Dave08]

Just a quick update on the Code Enforcement issue. Well the noisy neighbors called the code enforcement folks again. This time the code enforcement officer showed up and spoke with my brother-in-law. I was at work and was filled in on the visit. It seems that the code enforcement officer does not care but has to come out and investigate. He stated that he does not see a problem with what I am doing and that everything is neat and orderly. He stated that he has to come back every 20 days to see that progress is being made to correct any complaints. He told me to keep moving the vehicles around and that would show progress. I do not understand all of this BS but I do view getting harassed by the neighbors is getting old. I have started to investigate putting up a detached garage on the lot but it is very expensive. Will continue to endure and try to keep WW III from occurring but it is not really in my nature to be diplomatic when surrounded by A**holes.
On a funnier note....got my FL titles to the vehicles and did not want to drive them to the tag agency in order to get my plates. I had the Titusville PD come out to verify the VINs of each vehicle and sign an affidavit. It appears that the Titusville PD Officer turned out to be a retired M/SGT and that he and I ended up having a lot in common even though he was Army and I am a Marine. He loved the vehicles and also wanted to buy one of my trailers. I will continue to endure the noisy neighbors. I intend to get my MVs registered this week and have antique plates on them by the weekend.

 

[rosie]

Good old Catch-22; the officer "sees nothing wrong" and cannot cite a violation, but you are expected to move the bloody things around to "show progress"????

Well, I always heard the saying that the only choices we don't have in life are our relatives and our neighbors....