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Jan292009
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Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 12:56AM
Tonight I stumbled across the list of the Top 10 Violations cited by Gwinnett's Quality of Life enforcement unit. I find some of the things for which you can be ticketed to be appalling and an absolute assault of private property rights. Sure, some of these make sense: having garbage piled up in your yard can be a health hazard and is beyond a question of taste. Junked cars approach this rationale as well so long as cars under active repair or restoration are not included. However, digging into the Property Maintenance Ordinance and other county commission resolutions is disturbing because of the degree that government can infringe upon our property rights. Here are a few of the offensive regulations.
Protruding Nails - "Fences must be free of protruding nails of more than 1/16 inch." ONE-SIXTEENTH! Not an inch or even a half-inch, but 1/16 of an inch.
Large Families - "No more than 8 individuals, related by blood or marriage or unrelated, shall occupy any residential dwelling unit unless a variance has been granted." The Brady Bunch need not apply unless they wanted to fire Alice. Of course they could have asked the nanny-state government to grant permission on how they can use their own home.
Parking on the Grass - "In any residential district, the parking of any vehicle except on a hard-surfaced driveway or in a carport or garage is prohibited." If you have a party, be sure no one parks on the grass! Government says no! Given that this resolution was enacted in 1986, I know I have violated this law over the years. I had a friend in high school where we would often park in a large grassy area at his house. In fact, within the last several years, I had a neighbor that used to keep a truck parked on the grass beside their garage. It did not hurt anyone and it was a lot more acceptable than their van parked beside my property that leaked oil all over the cul-de-sac pavement!
Basketball Goals - No basketball goals over the street. Another law that a friend broke in the 80s. In high school, we used to have regular street basketball games on a cul-de-sac street. Who was hurt? Well aside from the scrapes and bruises from the basketball games, no one!
Prohibited Signs - Who knows what falls under this because the document is ridiculously long and detailed, much of it enforcing taste not material impact.
Finally, I wanted to highlight the picture that is on the county's Top 10 Violations website. How insulting to our Gwinnett police officers to hire them, give them quality police training and equipment, and then have them waste their time taking down signs. Perhaps, if Gwinnett scaled back some of the enforcement on these quality of life ordinance assaults of private property rights, police officers could be redeployed to real crime-fighting law enforcement duties. Maybe better use of our police professionals would obviate the need for additional law enforcement officers that the county cannot afford anyway since the government entered the baseball stadium development business.
Protruding Nails - "Fences must be free of protruding nails of more than 1/16 inch." ONE-SIXTEENTH! Not an inch or even a half-inch, but 1/16 of an inch.
Large Families - "No more than 8 individuals, related by blood or marriage or unrelated, shall occupy any residential dwelling unit unless a variance has been granted." The Brady Bunch need not apply unless they wanted to fire Alice. Of course they could have asked the nanny-state government to grant permission on how they can use their own home.
Parking on the Grass - "In any residential district, the parking of any vehicle except on a hard-surfaced driveway or in a carport or garage is prohibited." If you have a party, be sure no one parks on the grass! Government says no! Given that this resolution was enacted in 1986, I know I have violated this law over the years. I had a friend in high school where we would often park in a large grassy area at his house. In fact, within the last several years, I had a neighbor that used to keep a truck parked on the grass beside their garage. It did not hurt anyone and it was a lot more acceptable than their van parked beside my property that leaked oil all over the cul-de-sac pavement!
Basketball Goals - No basketball goals over the street. Another law that a friend broke in the 80s. In high school, we used to have regular street basketball games on a cul-de-sac street. Who was hurt? Well aside from the scrapes and bruises from the basketball games, no one!
Prohibited Signs - Who knows what falls under this because the document is ridiculously long and detailed, much of it enforcing taste not material impact.
Finally, I wanted to highlight the picture that is on the county's Top 10 Violations website. How insulting to our Gwinnett police officers to hire them, give them quality police training and equipment, and then have them waste their time taking down signs. Perhaps, if Gwinnett scaled back some of the enforcement on these quality of life ordinance assaults of private property rights, police officers could be redeployed to real crime-fighting law enforcement duties. Maybe better use of our police professionals would obviate the need for additional law enforcement officers that the county cannot afford anyway since the government entered the baseball stadium development business.
Reader Comments (3)
Do they make the police measure the nails to the 1/16th inch too? Great article that is funny and sad at the same time.
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