Friday, August 23, 2013

When is Code Enforcement Aggression Too Aggressive?


It doesn’t seem the water restriction enforcement team wants do their job in some places. The little median near 206 S Waterview probably uses more water in a month than I do in two or three months. When that little island gets watered, water ends up running from there to the creek about ¼ of a mile away. No code enforcement activity there.
 

But let’s say you decide to clean out your garage and put things in the driveway. That is more likely to get noticed by code enforcement.






10 comments:

  1. In my neighborhood (with the newly-assigned inspector), I get code violation letters for alley tree limbs. After I trimmed them, I got a second letter.

    However, when I drive down the alley, I see other properties with very low-lying limbs. Where is the consistency? Why do some people always get notices while others seem to escape?

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  2. Maybe someone complained about yours but not theirs? Maybe they got letters too and didn't correct the problem so the process continues on?

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    1. It's unlikely that anyone complained about my particular limbs in the alley, which weren't that low. I wasn't even sure what he was talking about when I got the letter.

      After I got the violation letter, I asked my neighbors. Some got letters the same week. This inspector seems to drive by only certain alleys and doesn't care about low-hanging limbs in the front.

      >Maybe they got letters too and didn't correct the problem so the process continues on?<

      You should come see this alley. There are still a bunch of properties with low-lying limbs that even touch my small car and it's been like that for two months since I corrected mine!

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  3. Hey, you live on Waterview... you get to view water

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  4. Anonymous 12:23, never thought of it that way :0)

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  5. Laura didn't want to be known as the Council of the charter review last time. How come she prefers the label of bully patrol and peeping Don?

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  6. I was watering the flowerbed on the side of my house two nights ago about 9 pm when I saw headlights slowly coming down the alley, literally at a crawl. A dark SUV comes in to view with magnetized Richardson logo signs plastered down the side. It stops, looks at me for a moment, and then moves on. A few minutes later it came down the street and did the same thing, stopping in front of the house to look at what I was watering before moving on again.

    Apparently the city has the money to pay someone to ride around looking for residents breaking the rules, but not enough sense to shut their own valves off.

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    1. I've seen a white wagon like this with a magnet saying "Water Restrictions (or Conservation)," not "Code Enforcement," cruising in Richardson Heights.
      http://www.nbcdfw.com/weather/stories/Water-Police-to-Patrol-in-Richardson-127621863.html

      The code enforcement officer who prosecuted the lady for allegedly, if not falsely, having more than three garage sales a year drives an SUV...

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  7. It’s such a shame when city management makes it so uncomfortable to live in Richardson. Nit pickin’ neighbor reportin’ city management…. I believe the city council isn’t entirely cognizant of how city management has interpreted and implemented the ordinances they (the council) have ordained. Although this can be an under lying result of inadequate legal advise and very subjectively interpreted ordinances. One example, the way they apply nuisance abatement ordinances when a neighbor is harassed for having one tire of his car on HIS yard for one afternoon. When a neighbor is cited for having the trash out the night before pickup (one time), maybe they have to be some where (vacation) and can’t put the trash out the morning of. Putting trash out 5 days before pickup and having it all over the neighborhood consistently might be a problem an over zealot code enforcer should be able to discern.

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  8. Does anyone know of any Richardson residents who have actually filed lawsuits against the Richardson Community Services Department for overzealous enforcement or criminal harassment? We're on the verge of filing a lawsuit and are wondering if anyone else has experienced the ongoing, intentional - arguably criminal - abuse that we've tolerated over the last year-and-a-half. Any help with information or accounts of actionable experiences would help. Thank you!

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