Posted on 05/09/2003 7:22:48 AM PDT by Cagey
Stan Pike believes that if you can't beat City Hall, you can at least go down swinging -- and in his case, that means with a paint brush.
The Avondale Estates man lost his bid Monday night to get that city's Historic Preservation Commission to approve his plan to add a rounded front stoop to a house he's renovating on Kensington Road.
Pike said it was the second time in two months that he had wrangled with the board over changes to the house.
The commission didn't like the proposed designs for the house, Pike said. No member of the commission could be reached for comment. City Manager Warren Hutmacher said commission meeting minutes don't show why the commission rejected Pike's request.
Pike stewed about it Tuesday, then went to work Wednesday morning.
He called two painters. By day's end they had painted the front of the house lime green, then added large, purple polka dots.
It's quite a sight in the quiet, small town known for its tasteful residential neighborhoods.
"It's certainly making a point," said resident Karen Horace, as she lingered in her car Wednesday at the four-way stop in front of the house.
Horace added that the six-person Historic Preservation Commission, which must approve renovation plans submitted to City Hall, "does have a reputation for being a little difficult sometimes." She recalled another neighbor who got a letter from the commission scolding him for tacky yard decorations.
Pike seems to enjoy being a little difficult himself. With a large smile, he told gawkers at the lime-green house that he's amended his list of chores to next include scattering old toilets, filled with geraniums, around the front yard.
The uproar left Hutmacher, just three months on the job, scrambling to find out if he can make Pike repaint the house its original white color.
So far no luck. The city attorney was out of town Wednesday and Hutmacher's staff was continuing to comb through the law books.
Horace, who lives nearby, said she would vote for the more dignified white. "I support the man's protest, but please, that's gotta go," she said.
Pike isn't budging. He actually lives in another house in Avondale and bought this one for $180,000 to renovate and resell.
"I'm fighting them and I'm not through," he said. "I might leave it this way forever. I might just live in it."
We've got these anuses where I live too- nasty, nosy old retired folks with nothing better to do than cruise the neighborhood with a golf cart and a clipboard, taking notes on who left their garbage can out overnight.
I'm actually moving out of my current digs because of how much I hate the homeowner's association. I wanted to put a sport-court in the back yard, for my kids and his friends to shoot a little hoops-- but no, too 'out of character' for the HOA. God forbid any kids should actually have fun or make any noise in their own back yard. I'm surprised they allow us to use our pool, I'm sure they'd forbid it if they thought they could get away with it.
These old coots actually fought the city when they installed a park down the street, saying it would bring skateborders and other undesirables to the neighborhood.
I'll never again in my life live in a house with an HOA or preservation disttrict. They suck. Let them go to Sun City and order each other around. It's not the American way.
-ccm
They're positively anal about the garbage bins too, and they do cruise in golf carts with their little pads for recording transgressions.
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