News From Double Oak Town Hall – July 2016

Communication from Town of Double Oak Code Enforcement:

Double Oak’s Code Enforcement serves the entire community for the protection of health, safety, welfare, environment and property values.

The top five violations found most often are:

1) Tall grass & weeds

2) Street & right-of-way obstructions (trees, tree limbs and bushes)

3) Property Maintenance Standards

4) Parking on grass in front and side yards

5) Illegal signs in the right-of-way

All Double Oak property owners should check now to ensure your properties are in compliance.

There are MANY properties throughout our town where tree limbs are too low across a town street or where bushes have grown into the street right-of-way creating a dangerous driving hazard.

Code Enforcement will be driving every street and looking for trees, branches or bushes in violation of town ordinance. Code enforcement letters will be sent to those property owners that have violations.

DO NOT WAIT to receive a code enforcement letter. The town requests property owners to take immediate action on trimming of your trees and bushes located along or across town streets.

Double Oak Code Enforcement is asking residents to immediately inspect their properties for low tree branches hanging over streets, for dead trees along right-of-way and for bushes along streets that need to be trimmed back. This is a safety issue and all residents need to take action immediately to comply with town ordinances.

Double Oak Code Enforcement will take action against properties found to be in violation. The town doesn’t wish to do this; however, non-compliance will result in legal action.

Sec. 3.1504 – Tree Trimming/Pruning-Public Roadway

(a) All property owners of real property on which there are trees in the yard area with branches that extend into or over the space of any street, alley or public roadway shall periodically inspect such trees to determine the extent of overhang or lateral protrusion into or over such streets, alleys, or public roadways.

(b) To prevent scratch damage to motor vehicles, to improve driver visibility, and to promote public safety, overhanging branches of trees shall not extend lower than 12 feet above the surface of any street, alley or public roadway. Tree branches below 12 feet that extend laterally toward the roadway are to be trimmed or pruned back to a distance of not less than 5 feet from the edge of the paved surface of the street, alley, or public roadway or flush with the trunk of the tree if the tree is closer than 5 feet to the edge of the paved portion of the street.

(c) Property owners shall pay particular attention to those conditions where tree branches or foliage may restrict the view of motor vehicle drivers at public road junctions and intersections. Additionally, trees and tree branches that are dead, diseased or otherwise weakened and extend out and over the public roadways and are above the 10-foot height space requirement, shall be considered to be hazardous trees in accordance with the terms of this article and shall be cut at the trunk or, where appropriate, pruned, and removed.

I am happy to meet with our residents at their property to show what work needs to be done. I appreciate your quick attention to this town wide safety issue and, as always, you can contact my office with questions.

Charlie Wright
Code Enforcement Officer
Town of Double Oak
[email protected]
972-539-9464

Fiscal Year 2016 – 2017 Budget Planning and Work Begins

Budget discussions have commenced to prepare for the next fiscal year which begins on October 1^st. The current and last few years operating budgets were balanced by bringing over some reserve funds from the balance sheet. Double Oak’s ad valorem property tax rate is 0.23240 per $100, which is one of the overall lowest in Denton County and North Texas. I encourage you to check the Denton County Tax Office website link to view area property tax rates the office collects for: http://taxweb.dentoncounty.com/taxwebsite/truthintax.asp

Part of the budget planning discussions will be developing the Maintenance & Operations proposed budget and setting the appropriate tax rate.  Our town recently received another clean and very good annual audit report and has very little debt and does not have any finance bond indebtedness. Double Oak primarily operates on the principle philosophy of pay as we go and maintains a sound financial reserve for emergencies, operations of the town and unexpected business items that occur. Council welcomes residents to attend our meetings and budget workshops as we proceed with preparing the next fiscal year budget. Let me finish by saying that I do believe our town needs to adequately take care of today’s municipal needs and financially prepare for the future needs of our town.

The Town of Double Oak wishes everyone a fun, safe 4^th of July and summer!