Nuisance Is in Eye of the Neighbor

After a semiweekly home Bible study drew complaints from neighbors and  when the , the Planning Commission got down to the business of changing the law Tuesday night.

And discovered that what city staff came up with may be worse than what’s on the books now. Ultimately, the Planning Commission sent a draft ordinance back to staff for retooling.

The biggest challenge, commissioners and staffers said, is coming up with a uniform standard for what constitutes a nuisance.

“Do you think we can ever craft an ordinance that’s going to protect everybody in every instance?” Commissioner Robert Williams asked.

No one had an answer.

Grant Taylor, director of community development, said staff was looking at city and state laws when it came up with the magical number of 50 – property owners may have meetings of pretty much any sort involving 49 people or less once a week without running afoul of code enforcement officers, the proposed ordinance would have required.

More  than 49 or more often than once a week, and the property owner would have to get permission from the city – in the former of a conditional use permit – to carry on, according to the ordinance as it was penned.

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“The code is obscure,” Taylor said. “Code enforcement has often responded to complaints of noise parking, emergency vehicles not being able to come in. Under the current code and definition, it’s hard to identify what an assembly use is.”

But commissioners said defining it as any gathering more than 50 people or more often than once a week doesn’t take into consideration the many types of neighborhoods, commissioners noted.

Two cars visiting a condominium might be all one neighborhood can bear, said Commissioner Ginny Kerr.

On the other hand, Williams said, “We have some large pieces of property that are residential that you could have 50 cars on the property and you would never know.”

Commission Chairman Sheldon Cohen said he was concerned that coming up with a definition of a nuisance will make other nuisances permissible. He said a neighbor of his likes to have business meetings several times a month for about 40 people, but under the proposed ordinance, he  wouldn’t be able to complain.

“in fact, it’s going to hurt you. Unless there’s disturbing the peace, there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said.

Chuck Fromm, the self-described "Bible boy" whose at-home Bible studies prompted the proposed change in the law, said lack of definition hurts property owners, too.

In dealing with complaints in his neighborhood, code enforcement officials pertty much had to go on their own professional opinion without any guidance from city laws.

"This is a bit of an emotional issue for us," Fromm said. "I thnik we’re on the right path in terms of working with the city in seeing an enlightened policy develop ... S an Juan can set a model here for the country in thinking about how we deal with these kinds of issues."

Taylor said staff will take the commissioners’ comments to heart and come up with a rewrite for commissioners to consider at their May 8 meeting.