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Citizens focus on keeping up appearances PDF Print E-mail
Written by Stephen English   
Sunday, 05 August 2012 20:30

When Ron Caron sees the tilting street lights, crumbling curbs, trash piled up next to houses, tangles of brush, dead trees, cracked sidewalks and general neglect in his older Flower Mound neighborhood, he wonders why it seems like town codes aren't being enforced.

More than that, he and other homeowners wonder why it seems so hard to get elected officials to pay attention to it.

Besides being ugly to look at, he said that such neglect lowers homeowners' property values.

Caron is chair of the Property Standards Committee, which gave a presentation on its concerns and proposed six changes to the town's codes during the Town Council meeting of July 16.

The committee's July presentation can be viewed online at flowermoundtx.swagit.com/play/07162012-29/11/.

Place 1 Town Councilwoman Kendra Stephenson said via e-mail that the "Town Council appreciates the work the committee did."

She said the council will consult with town staff "to understand if the issues brought forward are currently addressed by our ordinances and where we can reasonably make improvements."

The information is scheduled to be presented at the Aug. 16 Town Council work session, Stephenson said.

At the presentation in July, committee member Laile Neal related his story of moving from his former home and being advised to rent it out, after which prospective renters told him that while they liked the house, they didn't like the neighborhood. "Which I found to be amazing" and unacceptable for Flower Mound, he said.

"This has come before councils before," Neal said. "And the committee would really like that this council be the one that takes this and runs with it."

Neal added that easily repaired issues such as weathered fences painted four different colors and neglected lawns ultimately negatively impact the town's tax revenues by lowering the property values on which tax rates are based.

"I want to make sure that this gets done for the health and welfare of the community," Caron, a 25-year resident, said about a week after the July 9 Town Council meeting.

"I'm not the smartest guy in the world and I don't have all the answers, but I know that when I'm driving down the street and seeing some of the things I'm seeing, and you have people that are on the Town Council who want to close their eyes to them because they want to be everybody's friend, instead of doing the job, then I have a problem with that.

"Trust me, I love Flower Mound; I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea," said Caron, who added that blight issues have been developing in Flower Mound since the late 1990s. "But if there's a problem, I'm going to speak up. It's always easier to do nothing and to pretend like the problem doesn't exist if you don't live where I live."

Caron said it's a matter of equal distribution of the services the town provides.

"Regardless of where you live or the cost of the home, everybody should be getting the same service," he said.  "It depends on where you live in this town -- if you live on the west side, everything's hunky-dory and they take care of problems immediately."

 

 

Comments  

 
+11 #33 Knock on wood 2012-09-06 08:35
And maybe It would be wise for Jeanne to avoid a face-to-face altercation with a neighbor over a code issue. No doubt the FMPD would agree that she contact code enforcement..and hope that they do their jobs.

It is interesting how the asumption is that the offending neighbor is an invalid rather than a slob who could care less about blight.

Even in HOA subdivisions there are some who flaunt the law: boats and trailers in the street, dead lawns , parking across or on sidewalks. Etc.,
It does not seem at all extreme to review, revise and enforce codes..which is the bottom line here
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+4 #32 concerned 2012-09-06 08:04
If this has been a problem year after year after year isn’t that a problem with who is inspecting the property or consistent enforcement? The writer mentions the town council is at fault, but the people on council come and go, so the problem must run deeper than the people on council. If the town got new people to enforce the rules, would that help?
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-5 #31 @ Ms Schultz 2012-09-05 17:46
Jeanne Schulz, Have you knocked on your neighbor’s door to ask if they need help? Maybe your neighbor is elderly and can’t put the garbage cans away. Maybe your neighbor can’t push a lawn mower or use a trimmer. Maybe your neighbor is disabled and can’t get around. Maybe you have helped your neighbors on many occasions but now you want the town employees to be your personal enforcers of your standards. Maybe you should run for city council, do you think your neighbors would vote for you?
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+5 #30 Jeanne Schulze 2012-09-05 11:59
Tom, I welcome you to my house to "talk". How 'bout this Saturday a.m.? We cam chat while you and I take a walk around my block -- not ride, walk, so you can see my neighborhood up close and personal like I do every night as I walk my dog. The lovely garbage cans, unedged sidewalks/curbs, boats, trailers, RVs, campers, dirt for yards etc. I get to look day after day. With all due respect, we don't need "projects". We need action in the form of additional codes recommended by the task force. I've been hearing this rhetoric since Van James was Town Manager and he said certain neighborhoods would be the subject of "Urban Renewal Projects" in the next decade. Shameful. Thanks for the invite for the board, but I only have time to donate to activities that get things done. I'm not into reinventing the wheel or spinning mine. I'm too busy volunteering my limited free time keeping up our common areas and helping my neighbors improve their properties.
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+2 #29 Tom Hayden 2012-09-04 09:56
Jeanne, what time would you like for me to come by your house to talk about this. 214-384-1105. Let me know when you would like to have an to have an objective conversation. By the way, we are working on a neighborhood project to help revitalize older neighborhoods, and since maintainging older neighborhoods is near and dear to your heart, I know this is something you would like to get involved in. We could really use organizational help.

Here are links to what other communities are doing.

http://plano.gov/Departments/Planning/housing_neighborhoods/Pages/Love%20Where%20You%20Live.aspx#contact

It's going to be great to have someone so passionate on board.
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+7 #28 Jeanne Schulze 2012-09-04 07:04
The codes are out dated and not being enforced or should I say selectively being enforced. Compared to the Towns and cities around us, our codes are weak at best. Our Town Council and Mayor don't want to touch this because they lack the political will. The Mayor said Leadership over politics, ya right. It's all about the new and the heck with the old. Do you really think letting the older subdivisions go down is helping this Towns image. This Town is starting to look like Lewsiville in certain spots. I will say this one more time and it's got nothing to do with class envy, our so called leaders don't live in it, see it, or care about it. Saying they know about it is one thing, doing something about it is another. Closing your eyes is not going to make this problem go away. Yes Mr. Hayden this town does need "Leadership" not politics. I'm sick of surveys, empty promises, and politics. You said you wanted to be the Mayor to make a difference, then let's see some action.
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-2 #27 Eric 2012-09-03 10:06
This is a CODE thing. NOT an HOA problem. When the town made HOAs mandatory, they were simply delegating enforcement to HOAs. We have GOOD CODES. The Town just needs to enforce them, not mandate HOAs and come up with another layer of "property standards."
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+11 #26 Jeanne Schulze 2012-08-31 14:58
As I walk around my neighborhood I am appalled at what I see. Crumbling streets, cars parked across public sidewalks, boats and trailers everywhere, it is a mess. Why isn’t anything being done about this it’s plain and simple, our Mayor and Town Council could care less about our problems. Each one of them live in mandatory HOA’s that take care of their problems. It’s East vs. West ladies and gentlemen. The East has no representation and it shows. Case in point the Mayor lives in a $861,907.00 home, and the Town Councilors are as follows, Stephenson $655,000, Levenick $647,000, Webb $482,719, Wise $450,000, and Dixon $448,669 and owns four more so the grand total is over 1.2 million. Everybody keeps saying what a wonderful place Flower Mound is to live, I'm here to tell you that depends on where you live. Dixon and Levenick were on the Council before and did absolutely nothing about this problem. It will be interesting to see what they do this time. All these people do is talk.
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+19 #25 Meghan 2012-08-21 19:28
Of the last twenty four council members only four lived east of Morris. We really shouldn't need to have someone who lives in an area be its only chance at representation. Those who are already on Council should adhere to their at-large responsibility and represent all of us.
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+16 #24 @ East Sider 2012-08-21 11:25
Good question and don't know the answer, but it is time that people from the east side of town step up to the plate and run for Council. And they need to do it without Single Member Districts being enforced or the east side may end up with a weak voice for representation.
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