Melting snow reveals neighbor complaints waiting to happen

Junk for treasure

You have heard it before: “one person’s junk may be another person’s treasure.” Every year about this time the calls start flooding in. The snow has melted exposing everything laying around in people’s yards.

Summer residents are starting to arrive, getting ready for another season, and see stuff laying around in neighboring properties.

Sometimes this stuff can appear a little bit overwhelming. 

Not everybody keeps their yard as neat as a pin; most do try… especially when they are in residential neighborhoods.

So when someone sees that yard with stuff piled up, all over the place, and they think it’s wrong, they call the zoning office and vent their frustrations, some more aggressively than others.

Don’t take that as this office complaining, it is part of our job to receive and look into complaints all over the town.

Sometimes we have grounds to address the situation, sometimes we don’t. Each situation can be unique.

Dealing with what is assumed “junk” on a property can often be someone’s treasures, even if it may look totally disorganized and messy.

This time of year also brings a rush of building permit, planning board and zoning board of appeals applications. Not just a couple, dozens and dozens.

Once those are reviewed, approved and processed, then starts the follow-up field inspections for the construction.

Well over forty permits were issued just in the last few weeks.

So we try to deal with everything, even zoning complaints, as best as possible.

As code enforcement officers for the town, we are charged with the administration and enforcement of the NYS Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code.

This is peak season for starting projects and the construction process of inspections does not wait, taking a certain priority over some other issues.

However, nothing goes ignored intentionally.

In due time, every complaint will be looked at to see if it rises to the level of enforcement.

Neighbors that are unhappy with neighbors may have very legitimate reasons to be unhappy.

No doubt about that. When one person keeps their property neat and free of all kinds of stuff, properly mowed, flower beds weeded out, they become very unhappy with neighbors that just do not seem to care.

Can’t blame them. But just because someone has a whole bunch of stuff outside, and they don’t mow their lawn as nice as others, does not automatically mean that this office has the enforcement powers to force a cleanup.

There are two main sources of enforcement tools regarding this issue.

The first one, which is available to any town or village throughout New York State, is the NYS Property Maintenance Code.

The second is the town’s local junk and refuse law adopted in 2007. Not every town or village will have a local law that is above and beyond the New York State Property Maintenance code.

In either code reference, the term “garbage” is easily defined. It refers to house food scrapes, animal waste, fruit and vegetable matter, meat, fish, fowl, other typical household waste or any containers from the same.

In the town’s local law the term “junk” has its own definition.

This definition is more inclusive of many things like chairs, sofas, lounges, tables, mattresses, beds, bed frames, desks, any of kind furniture, appliances, campers, trailers, construction equipment, cars or parts thereof.

Additionally “Junked Equipment” can include any equipment that is abandoned, wrecked, stored, discarded, dismantled, or partly dismantled, not in working order and has remained unused for more than a year.

If your property has a tendency to accumulate all kinds of stuff, no matter what your intentions are, you may want to re-read this article, your neighbors probably will too.

If you can see your stuff from a neighboring property, or from the road, you can expect at some time we may be knocking on your door to have you clean it up.

If you are going to have a garage sale, great.

However, if you bring in more stuff not your own so you can keep having garage sales, your actually operating a commercial activity… running a business… without Planning Board approval, or worst yet, in an area that a commercial activity is prohibited.

Your knowledge and understanding with local law and of course a willingness to comply can save everyone a big headache.