I want to try and explain what these unjustified cases are in this story.
I spent almost 1 hour taping with this reporter/ photographer yesterday. What I had talked most about was what I thought codes should be doing which is just addressing these things when they are out and see them, so that none of us have to call them into the system. Unfortunately the department is not working that way for the most part. However as noted they have done four sweeps of our area. They included Montclaire and even Selwyn Park in some of the sweeps. We have really two large areas that combined this year on the NSA reports. Madison Park is now on one NSA which is huge. That foot print goes all the way to Archdale including part of Montclaire in the NSA. All of those 3000 homes were swept for violations by Codes Enforcement officers to start with making higher numbers. Did they have violations? Sure they did, but we only asked for Madison Park’s curb it problems to be addressed after getting multiple complaints to the HOA and seeing it ourselves.
Those unjustified cases do not mean there was no violation. They simply mean that when the inspector arrived it had been corrected.
Since most of these are Curb It violations that would explain the correction. The trucks finally come and take it away.
The inspectors in some cases marked the notes picture taken / letter sent Unjustified. This was clearly a mistake.
In other cases during the beginning of the effort the inspectors waited until pick up day and marked the cases such as I see the waste, bulk or whatever the situation is but it is pick up day now so no violation. Once again there was mistake being made by the inspectors. The reason is the violation was putting it out days in advance. All the curb it -bulk if scheduled goes out the day prior to pick up and must be off street by midnight pick up day. A person would have to be a physic to know someone was putting those type things out early since not everyone puts out yard waste or bulk. City said good points but those cases were not corrected in the system. Even worse by not addressing those violations they did not educate the resident to the rules for prepping and placing waste at the curb for pickup. Which in fact lead to more repeats cases.
In some cases the inspector backed them out of the system as duplicates. So she could re-enter herself again driving up the numbers.
We asked code enforcement to address the violations that first week in the entire area in order to be fair. We had on the Thursday after our pick up 125 issues. Had they addressed it at that time as promised there would have been tops maybe 200 when other violations such as yard waste out early were added to the system. Instead they just did not get the job done. That happened the entire first month. So many cases just were not seen by the inspector and were closed unjustified. In some cases inspecotors were out on our streets and would drive past problems to mark unjustifed did not see violation. Not until I told the city they were going to have to come handle this in a sweep of all streets themselves did the problems start to decline.
None of this was to target any one location or person. Matter of fact I insisted it be done border wide to make it fair to everyone.
We just simply could not let 125 to 200 people trash our community by not following the rules. Rules that are on the city code books to protect the look of our community, for safety, and our homes values. It was unfair to the rest of the 1750 properties in our community that were able to get things out correctly week after week.
In some cases our residents had something on the street for more than a month straight. Cans one week, yard waste the next, bulk the next and then started parking on the lawn.
Codes treats each of those a different violation.
I also told this reporter and the city that Codes should simply be handling this stuff without anyone needing to call things in. It is 100% their job to address these nuisance type violations. That was what they were hired for to address Chapter 10 of the Health and Sanitation of the muni-code. It certainly does not waste tax dollars as they are already hired to do this work. I much rather have them keeping us in tip top shape than have them elsewhere as we get no benefit. Our type neighborhoods have to depend on the city to address the city rules. We have none of our own. We have been doing this for more than a decade, but this curb it issue just got way out of hand the last year.
Every violation be it cars on lawns, grass not cut, cans on curb early or not removed by midnight, yard waste out not prepared properly or out prior to the day prior, bulk out early or not being scheduled are each part of the top 10 nuisances that codes handles as violations city side.
Neighborhood Nuisances Learn more about common neighborhood nuisance violations.
On a side note you can do your yard work any day you please. I have said I keep my stuff in the rear or side yard. I have noticed some of you have started leaving items around the base of a tree and moving it forward the eve of pickup. That is fine. Others have purchased cans, and will just roll the yard waste out, or bring it to the street on the eve of pickup. All are great ideas. I know some said it was not fair we did not have Monday Pickup. Well there are 4 huge sections of town without Monday pick up. Waste is removed 5 days a week inCharlotte. I am sure City leaders thought about that in the past when they set up the rules. Besides you are not suppose to have so much yard waste out on the curb for pick up that it should take any one person but a few minutes to bring it out to the curb, or for them to pick up.
Anyway with the improvements and effort by both codes and our residents the area is starting to look great! Hopefully the others residents still not on board with curb it rules will join the effort and not end up getting fined by the city.
If your neighbor needs help with something help them out if you can.
Martin Doss
President Of Madison Park HOA
