Bad Codes Increase Greenhouse Gas Levels

Ecological Impact of municipal lawn policies

While we property owners may see codes at the enforcement end, the underlying regulations are flawed and in need of reform. So while there is a whole universe of suboptimal enforcement practices there is another parallel one, a policy universe, of essentially irrational codes, codes that ignore important parts of the real world, like the effect of those codes on carbon dioxide, levels and other emissions.

Take, for example, vegetation policies. Current codes conform to the idea of growing bluegrass lawns and mowing them twenty or more times a year. Does this make sense in terms of carbon emissions?

How much carbon is produced every time we cut an acre of lawn? How does that compare to the carbon dioxide converted into oxygen by that same lawn? I wonder if the lawn gets rid of more carbon dioxide than the mowing makes? I don’t know what the answer is. Someone should do the calculations.

Soaring carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are pushing our beautiful planet into a period of global warming that threatens to destroy much of the human and natural world. Municipalities and counties are on the front line of combating global warming. It is a mission worth being passionate about, because all future generations depend upon our success in decreasing carbon dioxide emissions and increasing photosynthetic production of oxygen from ambient carbon dioxide.

Another Environmental Specialist takes a special interest in my driveway

Well, I saw the Overland Park Codes person come by yesterday. I didn't personally encounter her or him. I just saw a figure in the yard walking across my driveway. By the time I got outside the catlike codes person was already inside a
white pick-up marked "Overland Park".

I was happy that I had hectored Daniel to get his bottle of deruster off the van bumper. Anyway, if that bottle had been out there I'm sure I would have a fine, a possible visit from private contractors in order to put up the bottle and or another visit to Overland Park's Palace of Justice.

Of course the private contractors may be sent out anyway. I have had them come out before only to tell codes personnel that the yard was in compliance with codes. The so-called Environmental Specialist nonetheless directed them to trim a little grass at the edge of a fence. It was a farce and I will not be surprised if it is a farce again.

The yard is parched, it's the beginning of August and not much growing is going to take place. Everything is cut and even the garden vines are almost completely weed free. Still the a Codes Inspector can find something to complain about. Maybe walnuts on the driveway are a violation. I saw some of those out there.

All I know is that I believe I complied with all the complaints that Codes had whether it be cutting the lawn, removing materials from the van, tagging the van and making sure nothing bigger than a walnut was on the driveway.

The Snitch System- How Code Enforcement Starts

Well, if you live in Overland Park, Kansas, or another similar city you have a strict environmental code on the one hand and zealous code enforcement officers on the other. Interestingly enough, you will never meet a code officer if your environmental violations are not complained about by another property owner!

This results in most property owners having a certain leeway. Some days their grass is a little too long. A pile of wood is allowed to compost for a decade or more. A foolish romantic grows a thistle. While all of these things violate Overland Park codes in most of these cases no complaint is filed with the Community Services ( ie. code enforcement). In more than a few cases violations go on for a decade or more because of tolerant neighbors.

Other property owners are blessed with one or more obsessive-compulsive, you know, the type the folks that live for a haircut, a freshly mown lawn and a shoe shine. Most of these people are harmless lawn enthusiasts. Some believe they are on a mission to rid the world of a terrible disorder and seek to impose their enthusiasms on their neighbors.

Then there are those imperious neighbors who, pharisee-like, take a dislike to this or that neighbor, especially if they have a political sign in the yard that doesn't say ''Vote Republican''. At least that has been the case on my block. Our family is known on the block and community as having opposed the first and second gulf wars. The two property owners who make the biggest display of their "patriotism" have lodged the overwhelming majority of complaints with the so-called Community Services (ie. code enforcement).

These right-wing vigilantes maintain a constant watch over their intended victims. As soon as a violation appears they notify their proxy enforcers at Community Services ( ie. code enforcement).

Naturally a property that is subjected to daily scrutiny by hostile and aggressive neighbors is going to get a lot more complaints than a property bordered by friendly and tolerant neighbors.

That's the way the system is rigged. It gives a lot of potential power to any property owner who wants to complain about any of the countless code violations that appear in codes. More often it leads to standard molehill sized complaints like those about violations that are run of the mill. How much do hostile neighbors skew the complaint distribution received by Community Services (ie.
code enforcement)? That is a question worth researching.

If you have a snitch complain about your property you probably don't know for sure who it is. You certainly don't seem to have any right to know who the complainant really is, certainly no right recognized by the City of Overland Park. It's supposed to be secret, that's what codes say.

Many times the snitch may fes up and admit he is the complainant. Such people are to be respected.

The snitch system makes complaints about other's property more secretive than it need be. Remember we are talking about molehills. We don't need a national security state apparatus for the enforcement of weed and grass ordinances.

The snitch system needs to be moderated or otherwise reformed. There may be significant Constitutional Rights that are being violated in the name of code enforcement expediency. The denial of any real "due process" is stunning. For example, the defendant property owner is notified of code violations by registered mail, often after the date of required compliance is passed! How could there be any due process under such circumstances?

In Overland Park a Codes Inspector (aka an Environmental Specialist) comes to a targeted property unannounced to inspect the property. While the property owner may notice the inspector and try to engage her or him there is no effort made by the inspector to contact the targeted property owner neither by knocking on the door, making a telephone call, nor leaving a notice on the door knob. (something Overland Park Environmental Specialists used to do.)

It may be legally required to send a notice by registered mail, I don't know, but it seems like plain common sense to think that leaving a list of the property violations with the targeted property owner would immensely facilitate the more prompt remediation of those code violations. Of course if the goal is the punishment of the property owner in court or turning the property over to contracters for $100.00 dollar remediation then this might explain but not justify
apparent efforts by Community Services Overland Park to make a notification which is too late to matter to the targeted property owner.

Of course the City has the right to send out contractors to do whatever they deem needs to be done on a property. Overland Park generally charges $100.00 an hour. It makes you wonder if these contractors are a political force in shaping punitive codes and a harsh enforcement regimen that just happend to put big bucks in their pockets. How many thousands of dollars of contracter "enforcement" is compelled each year by Community Services?

Community Services, an Orwellian term for Codes Enforcement

Have you ever tried to find codes enforcement in Overland Park while visiting the Overland Park web site? It's relatively easy to find the codes. The Codes Enforcement is located under the rubric Community Services. This seems to me to be an Orwellian term for Codes Enforcement and is meant for public relations purposes rather than as a name that accurately describes the activities of the codes enforcement officers.

"Community Service" is something that certain kinds of offenders do, often in lieu of paying fines. "Community Services" suggests something like social workers or do gooders selflessly serving the community without compensation. In fact the codes enforcement officer is simply enforcing part of the City Code, a part of the City Code arguably less serious than the issuance of traffic tickets.

Mountain out of a Molehill Syndrome

I live in the city of Overland Park, Kansas, where I have had to contend with the codes enforcement over the last two decades. While I concede that some sort of property code enforcement makes sense I believe that the current codes enforcement regime in many of our cities is characterized by overzealous and sometimes fanatical enforcement of relatively minor code requirements.

I call this the "making a mountain out of a molehill syndrome". Recently I spoke with a codes enforcement officer who bitterly denounced me for more years of causing trouble than I have even lived in the city. She was furious and as certain I am a terrible person as if I was a serial killer.

But codes enforcement is just about regulating the height of grass and no matter how many years you regulate the height of grass it seems to me that you need to keep chlli'n because its still just grass and weeds your talking about.

So here I was, on July 31st, 2007, trying to find out what my code violations were, because the notice, that I found out about on Friday the 28th of July, five days after the item was purportedly mailed. I signed the little form the mailperson leaves on those occasions when you aren't home, it was picked up by the mail carrier on Saturday the 29th so I was very concerned when I hadn't received this registered mail on Monday. I wasn't even sure if the registered mail was from codes enforcement (aka Community Services) but it was my worst fear.

So my point is that the codes enforcement officer seemed hostile to me even asking about the violations and seemed to have no interest in my explanation that I, the defendant in this process, was trying to find out what I am charged with and instead of getting a professional explanation I got a lecture that included the apparent confirmation of who the actual complainant was as well as the personal revelation that this codes enforcement officer wouldn't want me for a neighbor.

This codes enforcement officer got herself worked up into a frenzy that ended in a seemingly endless rightwing lecture. What's wrong with this country? How can our bloodpressure shoot through the ceiling over a dandelion or a Sunflower? Yes, the Sunflower, banned by the great State of Kansas. Banned as what? A noxious weed. Talk about irresponsible rhetoric, noxious weed indeed!