Urban camoflage to hide junk cars from code inforcement Nazi's.

"rightly" complain?, I would consider a neighbor that complained about an old car in MY backyard, that imagines he has any call whatsover to change my lifestyle is a fuckin' busybody. Nothing right about it. If it happened, I'd tell him to go jack-off in his own backyard.

Your title, including the words "Code enforcement Nazis" is right on. There wouldn't be anything such, if fuckin' busybodies didn't exist in the first place...............

I have a couple of occasional strangers, new visitors, just driving by and stopped because they see my old stuff. Last summer it was about five of them as I recall. It was my take that they had genuine interest. Didn't see any people (this year)whining about my junk, maybe I'm just lucky?

Like I said before; If I can't beat them(primary goal) that's happened in the past, Then join them, or move. Done that too......

......... yep, even here in U.S.A., as there in OZ, those that want the 'guvment to run their lives (for them) are in the majority and will win out in the end. Times is 'a changin'.
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This thread makes me realize how lucky I am. Hot rodders next to me (1/8 mile away) with a 40 Ford PU project, nice neighbors with some kids with loud systems next to me, circle track guy across the street. Plus the previous "owners" of our house were some kind of wierdo Satanists and the neighborhood seemed really really happy to see a huge assortment of Christmas lights up this past weekend on our house haha.

 

You're probably thinking it was made from an old rotty fence but this looked as good as my neighbor's privacy fence. Also, I have a matching privacy fence around the rest of my yard so it blends right in. Hence the title, "Urban Camoflage."

THAT'S BRILLIANT!!! I wish I would have thought of that first!

 

I like that idea.
The code enforcer left two bright orange warnings hanging on my door knob b/f I called him. After the second warning I called him and he was very cool. I told him the cars were my hobby and he told me if the neighbors complained again to complain about their pool. Told me to find swimming offensive and demand that they remove their pool. I put tarps over the dead cars and never heard another word.

 

In LA county, you only need a permit if the structure is permanent, meaning that it is anchored to the ground in some way. A temporary structure (which is not attached to the ground) does not need a permit.

 

it's the ole Cheech and Chong hideout....except with cars not pot.

 

I boxed in mine against the house. I have 6 houses that border my back yard. One is a two story. I planted a tree in just the right spot to block their only window overlooking my yard before I built my second "Inside" Fence.

One side of our house has no windows. The back yard is surrounded by a 6'6" fence. On the side of the house with no windows, I built a second privacy fence also 6'6" just wide enough for my car trailer (open.) One of the end panels swung out to give me a mini gate. It was far enough inside the outside fence it was impossible to see in it. Worked great and hid anything I wanted with it. They would have had to fly over in an air plane or get on the neighbors roof to see inside the box. Even the neighbors I knew before Ike never knew I had the hidden area.

Then it happened. Hurricane Ike! Trashed the yard some of the house and the fences. $26k in damage.

While our neighborhood was all torn up, I noticed something I had not seen in the 6 years we have been living here. Old cars all over the place. It seems MANY of my neighbors had the same idea. I never knew there were so many old cars here! Also boats, camper ect..... Hidden treasures that no one knew were there until the fences were wiped out.

I have rebuilt the fences, but this time, no inner hidden boxed in section. I planted fruit trees and added a nicer hidden gate. All is good and no one complains.

Of course, I mow the front yard for the old lady next door, and the other 4 neighbors that ran extension cords to my generators after Ike are all good friends now. We had them over for coffee and air conditioning after the storm when no one else had power. We all pitched in to cut the downed trees, and pile up debris for pickup. They helped watch out for looters and pitched in for gas to keep the generators singing. Like good neighbors should.

I used to regularly get code letters for stupid crap. grass in crack of sidewalk, faded paint on mail box ect....

Haven't had another one since Ike, and now have lots of close friends living around me. The wife said one day that we looked like Hank Hill and the gang standing out talking in the evenings hehehehe. Yup.

Seems you get more bees with honey after all. Good luck with your project. Be friendly and I am sure it will work out.

-Dave

 

I had a neighbor one time that didn't have anything better to do than to stick her nose in other people's business.

She wanted to argue over where the property line was and I told her it was clearly marked on the deed filed at the court house, but if she wanted to cut a foot of my property the width of hers have at it.

When she started in on my cars I had to take drastic measures. When I knew she was milling around the property line, I went out behind her place with some 2' pieces of PVC with the numbers 1-10 written on them. I drove one in the ground about every 30'. She asked what I was doing and I told her I was going to open a trailer park since she didn't like junk cars I hoped she liked trailer trash! tnrotter

 

I put up a nice 24X24 garage all vinyl side, window boxes and nice windows in my yard. The code nazi's some whom are real pains wrote it off as a shed as long as I got a permit and paid $50 bucks. I previously had a 10x12 garden shed which I removed. I As long as I didn't put a formal driveway to the garage and didn't use it every day it was considered storage. I have a grassey area out in front of the garage door apron like a courtyard. I left enough space behind the garage to stash a couple of cars. I have to be carefull because the town has a right-of-way, my backyard neighbors don't complain since they are all dead and buried. (cemetery) I found working with the code nazis before I did stuff was easier than fighting them after. I brought them the electrical inspection 3yrs later and it was okay.

I had the Amish come and put it up in one day. The town here has some real strict codes, mostly because some developments had more that the 2 allowed cars. I knew of one guy that had 20 cars all registered, one with a tree in the engine compartment. He won & lost a few code cases, until they finally got him for un-inspected motor vehicles. It cost him the small fortune he won, for lick them and stick'ems.

 

My problem with code enforcement began because I ran afoul of a city councilman.
I asked for his help in correcting water runoff from a city street in my yard along with three other neighbors.

About six months after the problem was "solved" (half hearted) my neighbor directly next to my yard and I were cited for having landscaping materials (split rail fencing) on the right of way. Now the two neighbors across the street had both fencing and dirt berms/boulders in the right of way but were not cited.

The city would not tell us who made the complaint,even though it is supposed to be public record. We found out in a roundabout way who made it. Helps having a "mole" in city government.

Well, after various appeals, we were "allowed" to keep it up. Appearances before City Clowncil (sic) and Zoning Board of Appeals. About every city department looked into it, I think the only one that did not was the Library Board.

Final decision was made almost a year later. A draw and a tremendous waste of taxpayer money, but th fence stayed up.

Fast forward to '04, we finally got fed up enough to sell and move. AFTER (important part here) we sold the house on a conventional mortgage, we received a notice from the city informing us that we had ten days to correct a violation on "our" house of no address numbers on the structure.

I called the enforcement office the next day to curtly inform them that it WAS NOT my problem, I no longer owned the house. The clerk on the phone went quiet for a few seconds and asked me if I would notify the new owners of the violation!

I said "Let me think for a second here, NO!" and hung up. Yeah right, I'm gonna help those idiots out!

And BTW, I always had all cars in the yard plated and running, my ugly project cars were always in the garage, no piles of scrap, grass always mowed, house always painted. I guess no good deed goes unpunished.

 

Good lord, never experienced such crazy crap as some of you guys have to deal with and I live in infamous Berkeley. I thought we had some bad wackos here. But, you guys are making me feel good. Never had anything but positive comments about my old trucks. Trees, now that is another story. Trees can get some people fired up around here, both for and against. Old cars and trucks, no problem. Trees, better be careful cutting, pruning or growing/planting. If you do something with a big enough tree, you'll have 10 people thanking you and another 10 ready to kill you.

 

I like what a neighbor of mine did when a new neighbor started calling the city about his unlicensed El Camino race/show car he liked to park in the front yard.
This small city has ordinances against unlicensed vehicles.
The nasty neighbor kept trying to get the city to fine my friend.

That friend of mine decided to decorate the side of his garage with aircleaners, valve covers, and other collector decorations. He even turned on an outside light to illuminate his fine decorating abilities.

The complainer put up a tall fence. My friend mounted the decorations on his garage even higher, and then called the city about the nasty neighbor's fence being too tall.
The troublesome neighbor was cited for building too high of a fence within a certain distance of a road. (safety- visibility)

So instead of forcing my friend to license his car just for spite, the nasty neighbor got a small fine, a well lit view of my friends classic air cleaner collection, and a write up in the local paper.

 

Down in my neighborhood people are always stopping to see what I'm working on, and think it's neat that I am. I have two old cars out front, an old Jeep that frequents my driveway, a Harley in the garage with 3 motors that I'm working on or putting together, and that's not counting what my buddies bring over to work on.
I'm not a pro mechanic, but I made $100 off my across the street neighbor working on her car just the other day, because I'm always out working on something in plain sight.

Sounds like you need to get out of Ft. Worth and come on down to Houston.

 

Her all it has to be is licenced. A $25 dollar antique plate dosen"t require an inspection and is good on the car forever.

 

If any of my neighbors called the fuzz....I'd just call La Migra on their asses. The rest of us in the hood wonder why the husband makes mysterious long travels down to Colombia and back quite often....no shittle. If any of the others did, I would have to employ my mad McGyver skills to fry their sump pumps next Spring. >

 

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Where I live, you'd be caught soon enough with a fly over, they take photos and that would certainly look like a structura, and they would investigate. Unfortunately, the only safe place here is inside a garage.... sorry assed fact of life.

 

I just strip um faster than they can get over to the house about the complaint

 

in most areas, if the "SHED" has wheels on it, then it is considered "portable"...
so, my shed is 30 X 30 and has six car wheels / tires on it.

normally, if something has a cement or gravel or whatever area connecting the shed to a allready known and used access road or driveway, then it is considered for continual use and then it costs you more in permits... so, just build it to the limits and then PLANT GRASS LAWN in front of it....

 

Try using some steel paneling on the top; like they use on the taller sheds.
They come in 2-foot and 3-foot wide sections, and are easy to remove and replace.

 

In the county that I live in, the zoning will allow you to build a 200 square foot shed, without a permit. As long as you comply with the setback requirements; which would be 5' from a property line and 6' from any existing structures.

I'd check with my zoning office to see what the code is in your area.

 

Over the summer I got a notice about my utility trailer parked behind the garage, the notice said it had to be in a paved parking area. Now from the vantage point of where they took the picture you can't tell the area is paved under the trailer. I just moved the trailer inside the garage figuring why and try and fight city hall.
Today I get a varience notice that my neighbor behind me has filed for because he was cited for having a fence more than 3 1/2 ft. high in his front yard. Guess what they are talking about, he has a hedge row across his front yard and a dog kennal behind that for his dogs in nice weather.
Now you can bet your ass I'll be at this meeting to voice my ideas about the busy boddy running the neighborhood turning people in and just might put my trailer back out there too..lol

 

I spent the evening at my Sister`s new house in a new sub-division. I commented on how much I like their neighbors aluminum car carrier,well her and her husband want to complain to the City Hall about the trailer because the guy parks it in his driveway....and about the van the neighbors across the street have that they only drive about once a week.

Wow,am I glad they don`t live anywhere near us anymore!!!!!!

 

God I hate nosy people.

This is why I live out in BFE.

Nobody comes snooping around your place, 'cause they're afraid they'll get shot at (and rightly so, we're at least an hour from any kind of police), even government folks (or maybe especially ). Your neighbors don't care what you've got parked in the woods, and the tweakers are afraid of getting ventilated, so unannounced visits are very uncommon, and if for some reason someone does see your stuff on your land, there's not a thing they can do about it, regardless of whether they approve or not.

It's a wonderful thing to live in a place where you don't have to ask permission to build a building on your own ground. Or line up old cars in your yard (or in the woods). Or build a shooting range off your back porch. Or plant a garden. Or do whatever your twisted little heart desires. If you hurt someone, you pay the price, but so long as you're not hurting anyone else, everyone leaves you alone.

My shop is in town (and I use that term very loosely), but it's zoned industrial and grandfathered in from before they even had codes or zoning, so we can do what we like up there too. We're on the very outskirts of "town" anyway, so there's really only just a very few houses that can even see the place.

Big laydown yard for steel and cars, no need for big fences or gates or anything like that, and no asking for permission when you want to buy/park/build/disassemble something new. I had half a '36 Ford body setting in the parking lot for damned near a year, and not only did nobody say anything, nobody messed with anything.

Now, if we can just keep the city folks from moving out here and trying to bring the city with them . . . . . . .

 

Over time I haved trained my Neighbors to be very mindfull of me,
by being the only guy on the block with a snow blower!
Good mornig neighbor!
Good morning Joe, lovely day isnt it.
Lovely day for open headers
God bless you and your headers
Thank you sir.

 

N.H. Bandit--That is a great comeback, pig farmin is not anything a neighbor would enjoy. Very Funny and good thinkin!! Don't mess with the ol el-bandito!! Ole!! ~Sololobo~

 

I was fine at my place in ATL for years until some dipshit developer built a subdivision in my backyard. One of my new neighbors decided to cut down all the trees between his house and my shop, then filed a complaint with the county about all the cars in my yard. I put the place up for sale and moved.

 

Same thing workks In MICHIGAN, If your car is 25 years old, get a antique car licence plate for $25, and they are good for 10 years!!! now you can park it out side as long as you want!

 

Ran into those problems myself. One old junker van I was going to junk when I got a round tuit, the other, a shiny red late model Pontiac coupe.

My daughter's graduation gift, she was unable to insure and plate it due to the wonderful economy we are experiencing, no job.

Called the zoning guy on the door hanger, asked him which vehicles he had a problem with, he didnt know. What's up with that? Asked him about the unlicensed junker that I might be able to see from my yard...no, he wasnt issued any violation.

Asked him if he understood "equal protections" in the Constitution... Asked him if he realized that the $1017 fine he wanted to charge me with paled in comparison to the $145 ticket the mayor was issued when he hit a pedestrian with his car...

Dude got really cooperative then, suggesting that a simple car cover would comply. Asked him why something that simple wasnt listed on the door hanger.

Junked the van, moved the grad gift to my "coatings application building" way out in the boonies {but still in city limits}, since been picked up {yea! she found a job!}

 

200 boxes of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots

awsome