Hendersonville, NC inspectors may enter your home when neighbors complain( PoliceState)

The ordinance is enforced “mostly on a complaint basis” by neighbors or tenants

City inspectors in Hickory, NC are entering private homes to enforce new rules on property maintenance within city limits, according to the Hickory Daily

Record. Should inspectors discover broken windows, ripped awnings, etc., the property owner must make repairs, while being charged $50/day till repairs are complete, according to Armin Wallner, City of Hickory Building Inspections Director. Wallner says inspectors may enter private living quarters if “we get a petition filed by 5 residents.” Should a property

owner deny inspectors access, Wallner says, “We get an administrative search warrant, then they have to let us in.” He adds, “But that never happens.”

For years the City of Hendersonville, NC has utilized similar laws, says Zoning Administrator Susan Frady. However, Hendersonville’s enforcement, she claims, is not as prevalent as Hickory’s because “I don’t have that many people [inspectors] to do it.” On a weekly basis, a city inspector enters and inspects a privately owned home inside and out, says Frady. The ordinance is enforced “mostly on a complaint basis” by neighbors or tenants, she says.

Before inspecting a residence for violations, Frady must get permission from the owner. She says some owners don’t want an inspector in their home. If necessary, Frady says she will attain a warrant and proceed with the checklist inspection. In 1968 the City of Hendersonville adopted a Standard Housing Code created by the Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI) with the latest amendments occurring in 1994, says Frady.

The code states, “No person shall occupy as owner-occupant or let or sublet to another for occupancy any dwelling...which does not comply with the following requirements.” Dwellings whose exterior walls contain holes or loose boards are in violation of city law, says Chapter 3.

Also, “Dwelling units which do not have central air conditioning” must have ”Screens on windows and doors...stretched and fitted and maintained without open rips or tears.” If such a violation is discovered, Frady says the city will require the owner to fix it, usually within 40 days.

”A lot of times, people who are about to be evicted try to get one last blow in” by using this standard, she admits, adding, “99% of the time it¹s used by tenants against landlords.” When a complaint is made, Frady says, “I make an inspection and assess the entire house” with a checklist. When inspecting, Frady says she has to “sort it out” and assess the issue. “Really it [housing law] was adopted for public safety,” she says.

”There’s no reason for government officials to go into a home,” unless there’s a health hazard to the community, says resident Tony Slovacek. “Your home is sacred. I’d like to see them try and go into mine.”

Over the last few years, Slovacek and his wife, B.J., have renovated their large home, yet Slovacek admits you couldn’t tell by looking at the outside since most of his labor has focused on the interior. “It sounds like that [code] was written to get government funding,” he says, because the city isn¹t strongly enforcing the ordinance.

Should the city take increased action, Slovacek says, “The minute they start getting people to come into your house they’ll be lots of lawsuits.” After reading the code, Hendersonville resident Jean Schell says, “This doesn’t worry me. If the spirit of this law honestly protects people from substandard living than I think it’s useful.” Schell admits that her home would not pass inspection, even though she’s trying to make repairs.

”I guess the best protection is that my neighbors are excellent,” she says. ”It’s a sad state of affairs if my neighbor had to go to the law instead of coming to me.” However, Schell disagrees with letting inspectors enter her home.

”I think that too much bureaucracy solves nothing,” she says. When the issue of zoning her neighborhood a local historic district arose, Schell fought it. “I don¹t want to have to ask someone if I can put up a fence,” she says.

In Montreat, NC the Planning and Zoning board is considering implementing new regulations mandating, among others, that “every homeowner be required to provide an off-street parking space for every bedroom in the house” and regulating what landscape elements are appropriate, i.e. bushes, shrubs trees, etc.

The ‘rain tax’ cometh

Be prepared to pay the government for the rain on your roof

By Clint Parker and Matt Mittan The Asheville Tribune Aug 15, 2002 Part 1

It's been a long time since we've seen any real rain in Western North Carolina. However, the next time it does rain you might want to think about the storm water that the rain produces.

Why? Because according to the Federal government storm water runoff is a problem, and it needs to be addressed.

Storm water runoff is the water that flows off impervious surface areas such as roofs, driveways, parking lots, streets, and other hard surfaces during rainstorms. Rather than being absorbed into the ground, it pours into ditches, culverts, catch basins, and storm sewers.

According to the government, storm water can carry harmful pollutants, cause flooding, erode topsoil and stream banks, and destroys marine life habitat.

So, in the near future, the rain you hear falling on your roof might be costing you money - tax money that is.

The history behind the coming “rain tax”

It all started with the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA) which prohibited the discharge of any pollutant to waters of the United States form a "point source" unless the discharge is authorized by a National Permit Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

A "point source" is any place that you can say for sure is polluting streams and water supplies such as an industry, business or a sewer system.

In 1987, the CWA was amended to require implementation of a national program for non-agricultural sources of storm water runoff, because the government said that water quality studies showed that sparse sources of water pollution were also significant causes of pollution. They called these sparse sources of pollutants, "nonpoint source."

A "nonpoint source" pollution is water pollution that is difficult to trace to a specific discharge point because it comes from many diverse sources. Examples of common nonpoint source pollutants include fertilizers, pesticides, sediments, oils, salts, trace metals, and litter. They come from farms, yards, roofs, construction sites, automobiles, and streets.

The national program to control these "nonpoint source" pollutants is being implemented in two phases. Phase I, implemented in 1990, covered medium and large municipal separate storm sewer systems greater than 100,000 persons and 11 categories of industrial activity. Six municipal areas in North Carolina were permitted under Phase I (Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Charlotte).

Phase II rules for small municipalities and construction activity was finalized in December 1999. These Phase II rule are set to be implemented in March 2003. That is when cities and municipalities are supposed to have in place a plan to handle the "nonpoint source" problem.

What is the program for handling these problems? It has been determined that each individual city and municipality is supposed to set up their own program. How are these projects being funded? This is the critical factor and is where the "rain tax" may come in, because the federal government is not sending any money with this mandate.

Examples of what some cities are doing

Some communities across the state have already implemented the "rain tax" and other strict "environmental-friendly" programs. The storm water program in Greensboro, North Carolina got underway in 1994 during Phase 1 of the amended CWA.

The City of Greensboro has dedicated part of its website to explaining the need for the program, how it will be implemented, paid for, how one can be exempted from the program and what the consequences are for noncompliance.

"As Greensboro continues to experience growth, the level of effort and potential difficulties associated with managing the existing and developing storm drainage systems will increase," explained the city. Since "...the City does not have a complete inventory of the storm drainage features...the Storm water Management Division is conducting an extensive city-wide project to inventory storm drainage features."

According to the website the "Storm Water Infrastructure Inventory project includes three primary components: (1) determination of the location of each structure; (2) collection of structure attributes; and (3) development of a Geographical Information System (GIS) database that includes all of the information on the storm water conveyance system."

The city used two consulting firms to inventory the city's storm drainage systems, both public and private. "Therefore, temporary access to these properties will be needed," said the city so as to prepare property owners.

Asked if any homeowners had refused to allow these crews access to their property, Senior Consultant Shastri Annambhotla of the Greensboro Storm water Management Department said a couple had until "...people were informed about program. He said that the crews were also given "...authorization letters..." from the city to show to homeowners.

Under this new Storm water utility all residential customers are charged for an average of 2,543 square feet of impervious surfaces. The residential charge is $2.44 per month. Why are all houses charged the same, regardless of size? According to officials, "The city does not have the data that would allow it to charge each of the 55,000 single family homes on the basis of its impervious surface area measurement. In addition, the majority of services benefit citizens equally, regardless of how large their lot or built area is."

Commercial customers get a different set of standards to calculate that tax rate. "The impervious surfaces for each property in the city are measured using aerial photography and geographical information systems technology. The amount of impervious surfaces is divided by the equivalent residential unit (ERU) of 2,543 square feet and multiplied by $2.44 per month." The example given is a business with 100,000 square foot of impervious surfaces. That would equal 39.42 ERU that is then rounded up to 40 ERU. Multiply 40 ERU by the $2.44 per month and you get a tax of $97.60 per month.

What happens if I don't pay my bill? The city is clear about that saying, "You risk having all of your city services stopped, including water if you are a water customer. In addition, the city could place a lien against your property or file civil charges to collect."

The rain tax in Greensboro has even gone as far as to tax churches along with other tax-exempt groups. The city defends its action in taxing the churches saying, "All properties within the city that have impervious surface must pay regardless of ownership or tax status. All impervious surface contributes to the pollution problem and, therefore, all property owners should pay their share of the costs."

Asked if there were any complains from churches about the tax, Annambhotla said, "Yes, there were lawsuits." He went on to say he believed the lawsuits had been resolved and that the churches do have to pay the tax.

How does one become exempt from the Greensboro rain tax? According to the city if you have a properties that has "no disturbed area or less than 600 square feet of total impervious surface" you can get an exemption. Otherwise, "All other property owners cannot be exempted unless they remove all structures and other impervious materials from the property, and re-seed and re-plant it, returning a parcel to its natural state. The city further states, "All property owners can return property to its natural state" in order to get an exemption.

According to Annambhotla, the rain tax produces between $6 and $7 million in revenue, which is controlled by the Storm water Management Department and used for managing storm water, capital improvements and water quality monitoring. He said all funds stay with in the city and that the funds are not used for anything else.

Another city in the state is going beyond what is called for in state regulations to control the problem.

The Town of Cary, North Carolina lists as part of their storm water management program: Watershed Protection Rules, Neuse River Buffer Rules, Sediment and Erosion Control Program and Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance.

While the Neuse River Buffer Rules, which requires 50-foot buffer on streams flowing into the Neuse River, is unique to that part of the state, the town of Cary, as part of their Storm water management plan, has doubled the state's requirement on buffering to 100-feet in the city limits and the extra territorial jurisdiction. In addition, the city extended the buffers to all streams, whether they flow into the Neuse River or not. The buffers require landowners not to disturb the land inside the buffer area, which is effectively taking the land from property owners.

"Leading the state in adopting these strict environmental rules is another in a long list of initiatives we have in place that put our natural resources first," said Town Manager Bill Coleman.

How this law will affect Asheville and Buncombe County will be coming in next week's article.

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