"A HAPPY PLACE FOR TREES"

Construction, Renovation and Neighbors

I'll admit I borrowed much of these thoughts from another website, which were copied, also uncredited, from somewhere else. The original author is unknown.

Renovation and construction projects require cooperation with neighbors who are impacted by the process. When planning a project, communicate with your neighbors before work begins. Sharing plans and responding to questions can resolve most issues. Anyone concerned about a neighborhood renovation should attempt to communicate directly with the property owner before involving City of Atlanta officials.

Talk with neighbors:

• Will trees be removed?
  

• Have erosion and water retention issues been addressed, especially for those homes situated on higher points?

• Have the appropriate building permits and/or variances been applied for and received?
  

• Is the renovation in keeping with the neighborhood?

Inform your contractors and subcontractors of regulations (or just good manners) and monitor for compliance.

• Limit parking to one side of the street to prevent hazards for cars and pedestrians.

• Do not allow mailboxes to be blocked.

• Locate port-o-potty away from the street if possible. (Even though this does keep some of our joggers from engaging in public indecency.)

• Require regular trash pickup and keep construction site clean. Ask that workers dispose of the remains of their meals in dumpsters and not on the ground.
  

• Install silt fencing and other erosion controls.
  

• Post permits in a visible place.

• Observe height restrictions, set-backs and all other zoning regulations.

• Schedule construction, deliveries and port-a-potty services with neighbors in mind: no earlier than 8am on weekdays and within the hours of 9am to 5pm on weekends. Excessively noisy work such as tree removal and jackhammers should not take place on weekends.

• Atlanta Memorial Park is not a dump. Landscaping debris should be disposed of lawfully. Professional landscapers are required to take it away. (Along those lines, residents may leave yard waste at the curb for pickup, so there is no reason to dump illegally in the park.)
  

If building codes and other ordinances are blatantly defied after civilized requests, of course reporting to the appropriate authority is in order. No one has the right to disrupt the neighborhood, build out of scale, damage the environment or cause someone else's home or land to be flooded.

Outdoor Watering For Dummies

One of my neighborhood reporters has passed along a clarification directly from City Hall this morning. John was indeed correct that Governor Purdue put through legislation requiring all local governments to follow uniform outdoor watering restrictions, and that means that Atlanta had to ease up on the strict bans that were in place. Unfortunately, my earlier source had been timed just prior to that passage. Here's the most current information:

• Hand watering is now allowed for 25 minutes per day on an odd-even schedule between midnight and 10 a.m. Odd numbered addresses may water on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Even numbered addresses may water Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Hand watering is defined as one person with one garden hose with a spray nozzle that shuts off when it is released. This obviously means no automatic irrigation systems set on timers. Landscape services or workers are not allowed to water in chemicals during the day or when they overseed or plant after 10 a.m. either. It doesn't matter that they are "professionals."
  
• New professionally installed landscaping can be watered up to three days a week from midnight to 10 a.m. only for a period of 10 weeks based on the odd/even schedule.
  
• Anyone wishing to water a new professionally installed landscape must register with the Outdoor Water Use Registration Program. There is only one permit allowed per address per calendar year. The program will be hosted on the Urban Agricultural Council web site at Urban Ag Council. (Link is posted to the right for your convenience.)

Mayor Franklin is extremely unhappy about having to comply with Governor Perdue's legislation, because Atlanta is still seriously short of water, and this area is still in the midst of a long-term drought, while the city is in a population-growth pattern. Purdue's legislation was in response to political pressure from the landscaping industry, which was suffering financially. It was not because there is now more water available. The City may yet request permission to reinstitute the former bans, but askin' ain't gettin'.

In any event, it would probably be a good idea if we all acted responsibly and continued to conserve water.

Soon: The park is not forgotten.

Atlanta's Watering Ban

The Gadfly was somewhat premature in reporting that the very outdated MPCA website was going to be updated. (I even hoped it would become a useful neighborhood news site.) As you can see, nothing has changed. There's not even a note about the upcoming picnic on Sunday! I apologize if I got anyone's hopes up.

As Humphrey Bogart famously said in Casablanca , "I was misinformed."

Speaking of being misinformed, it seems that certain residents of this neighborhood are under the false impression that outdoor watering restrictions have been eased (or lifted entirely) in the City of Atlanta. This is absolutely not the case.

The Gadfly has it on unimpeachable authority that no outdoor watering, as of this writing, is allowed in Atlanta by residential water customers with two exceptions:

1. Personal food gardens.

2. One exemption per address per calendar year for 30 days for newly installed landscaping installed by a licensed landscaper. (A permit is required from the City.)

There are some professional landscapers who seem to think that they are allowed to water any time they do any routine maintenance, but that is not the case. Overseeding and fertilizing doesn't get an exception, even for professionals.

There are two sources of confusion about this, I think. One is that other nearby jurisdictions have eased their bans a bit to allow more water use as recently authorized by Governor Sonny Perdue.

The second problem is that the City of Atlanta's website is not properly maintained. All the various past watering rules remain posted and are viewable, searchable and not even dated. *

However, Atlanta residents who are watering lawns, washing cars at home and letting children play under sprinklers are breaking the law and putting all of us at risk of a water shortage that could be tragic if there is a fire and there isn't enough water pressure for fire fighters.

It might be helpful to put this type of information on the MPCA website to encourage neighborhood participation in conservation efforts, along with other civic goals. Maybe some of our neighbors are not aware that it is illegal to water outdoors.

Violations may be reported here: 404 982 1414

*Atlanta's Public Works Department has a multitude of competence issues that the drought has brought to light. Website maintenance is the microscopic tip of a gigantic iceberg.

Big Yellow Taxi