Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Paving Dunwoody Roads, Timing, and Teachable Moments

(Insert picture here of Dunwoody ES, Vanderlyn ES, Dunwoody HS parking lots overflowing on to side streets during registration while road work continues on both Vermack and Womack.)

A picture of the streets-turned-parking-lots right outside of Dunwoody ES would have said all that needs to be said about schools and traffic.  But it isn't the first day of school - it's Registration Day in DeKalb County and that means that our centrally-located intersection with 3 public schools in close proximity are packed to the gills.  It wasn't safe to inch through the line while snagging a cell-phone photo of the above.

But wait, there's more.

Two much needed street improvements are also occurring at the same time.  (paving on Vermack, a refuge island outside of Dunwoody ES on Womack)

Discussion was had on Facebook with Terry Nall about the construction and its timing.  Terry reports that the contractor was required to complete work before the first day of school.
The work on both Vanderlyn Dr and Vermack Rd was intentionally scheduled to be completed before school started back.
Anyone who has ever had a child in public schools even for a single year can see the problem with that logic.  The "first day of school" is not the first day that activity gets heated in public schools.  Teachers and staff return in advance to set up their classrooms and get other operations in order.  then a few days BEFORE the first day of school is registration.  Even with prepping paperwork through the summer, families have to show up on registration day to finalize it all.  Dunwoody ES had a packed parking lot with overflow parking clogging both driveways.  Parking for all three schools spread into the neighborhood side streets.  A roundabout would have done nothing to ease the congestion at Dunwoody's most controversial intersection.

So what did we learn today?

1)  Allowing contractors to schedule street work at the last minute results in a clusterf*** by any definition.
2)  The "first day of school" is not a reasonable deadline for road work.  Assume the contractors are going to wait to the last minute to finish up.
3)  The real deadline should be a week before the first day of school, to get out of the way prior to registration.
4)  Whoever made this decision can read a calendar but needs to brush up on the actual start-of-school logistics.

Remember an earlier post where I said it's time to stop making mistakes?  This would be a good mistake to stop making.  Fortunately it's an easy one to fix.  Start construction projects around schools immediately after school lets out in May and mandate completion before August 1.

Best of luck to everyone in this new school year!


Saturday, August 1, 2015

A hole in Dunwoody's zoning code


While we're wringing our hands about what our neighbors do behind closed doors and why they have guests at their homes, and what they park on their property, behold what gets parked in the metro NYC area.

Full Story

Dunwoody's zoning code is silent on the parking of personal aircraft.  Any bets as to how long it will take to fill the hole?

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Dunwoody Home Business Update: Data through May 2015

Once again, the folks at the City of Dunwoody Code Enforcement department came through with the usual open records request of residential complaints.

Since December 2014, the number of substantiated complaints regarding home business owners in Dunwoody is:

ZERO

None of the documented home business owners in Dunwoody had any complaints lodged against them, regardless of their activities. 

There were four complaints filed against other homeowners with claims of "commercial activity" in various forms but could not be substantiated by code enforcement.  Those cases were closed with a "no violation" note.


Again, the data straight from the City of Dunwoody itself confirms that home businesses and their owners are not an inherent nuisance that requires extra oversight or public hearings for customer contact. 

Home business nuisances are the rare exception, rather than the rule, and can be addressed individually rather than restricting the majority.  Just like animal owners.

No one has ever advocated for allowing "nuisance" activity.  On the contrary, it is important to nip true neighborhood problems in the bud as they happen.  What most people forget is that in the US system of jurisprudence, the burden of proof is on the one doing the complaining.  When you report to the City, this isn't the same as your local homeowners' association meeting or over-the-fence gossip session.  Filing a complaint requires PROOF.  In this day and age of cameras on every smartphone, it isn't hard to capture photos and videos confirming your complaint.

This article in an issue of the Dunwoody Reporter last month features an interview with Dunwoody's code enforcement chief, Tom LaPenna, who offers some valuable insights into his job and ideas to make your code complaint stick.
Dunwoody code compliance officer’s job focuses on safety, aesthetics and signs

The article mentions last month's DHA meeting where LaPenna was a guest speaker.  The meeting was also summarized on John Heneghan's blog where he ran down a list of common code complaints.

Here's the article - note the conspicuous lack of mention of home businesses. 

That last one is important because John was one of the city councillors who struck down a change to our municipal codes that would have allowed home business owners to have limited customer contact with an administrative permit instead of the full SLUP required now.  He also requested data from other cities regarding their rates of home business ownership and how they were regulated.  Except for Doraville, all other cities in the survey had higher rates of home business ownership and less regulation with no increase in code enforcement problems.

Dunwoody City Council elections are in November and our Mayor and at-large council members are up for re-election.  Of those running (to date) Denny Shortal, Lynn Deutsch, and John Heneghan have all stated consistent opposition to home business owners and their customers and have stated their support for procedures that force these homeowners to prove they are innocent of any nuisance activity after being presumed guilty, should they publicly request a permit for limited customer contact. 

Dunwoody's own code enforcement data show that home business owners are not a nuisance.  That includes those with clandestine customer contact.  Should a home business owner vote for a candidate that wants to restrict an activity even if they are not causing a problem in their neighborhood?

This question will be explored again before November.  Stay tuned....