Ok, as some of you have heard me complain before, the neighbors who live behind me\across the street installed a 10ft lamppost in their front yard. It is excessively bright. I by that I mean it outshines the streetlights easily. The ligh illuminates the entire backside of my house meaning it shines right through my dining room window and bedroom window. I cannot sit on my deck when it is on as it is like having a light shined righ tin your face.
So, what I have done so far....I tolerated it and paid $500 to put in a tree to help block it. That does a meh job. So I thought oh well until....CHRISTMAS TIME! What is so special about CHRISTMAS TIME and the Lamp? I will tell you....
The people put exterior x-mas lights on their home and guess what...they had to turn off their light so they could be seen. Day after x-mas the light was back on in all of its blinding beauty.
So I finally looked up the code and found an "Unlawul Illumination" code that states basically your light cannot shine across your property line to the point it is a nuisance. So I filed a complaint with the city.
The city in turn said this is an exception to municiple code and they forwarded it to the Police. The Police contacted me and said they are waiting for the blessing from the city prosector to allow a citation. This is where it gets good...
If they do get the blessing, I of course have to sign a complaint and possibly appear in court to have the light dimmed or removed.
I am half willing to accept reimbursement for the $500 for the tree I put in, though that does me no good in the winter. The wife says I should let it go. My best friemd says "**** em' they should of thought about that when they put in the light".
So would you follow it all the way to court? Or am I being a bigger dick than usual? :-)
Updated: Talked to him, asked him to either wait until 10:00 to turn it on or get a dimmer bulb.....light was off last night so he is being cool though I could tell by his town he wasn't happy about the purpose of my visit [Reply]
Ok, here's the deal. The City's response that you mentioned doesn't sound right. Which city are we talking about (cities have different applicable codes)? The part about sending it to PD doesn't sound right. Most communities have a codes enforcement officer that can write citiations. . .it typically does not require action by PD. A codes citiation should not require a formal written complaint from you, just notification to codes enforcement about the problem. If codes enforcement fails to respond to resolve the problem, call someone "higher up" with the City. Call the City Manager's Office, for example. The CM's office gets real nervous when complaints are made about departments failing to respond.
Originally Posted by petegz28:
Ok, as some of you have heard me complain before, the neighbors who live behind me\across the street installed a 10ft lamppost in their front yard. It is excessively bright. I by that I mean it outshines the streetlights easily. The ligh illuminates the entire backside of my house meaning it shines right through my dining room window and bedroom window. I cannot sit on my deck when it is on as it is like having a light shined righ tin your face.
So, what I have done so far....I tolerated it and paid $500 to put in a tree to help block it. That does a meh job. So I thought oh well until....CHRISTMAS TIME! What is so special about CHRISTMAS TIME and the Lamp? I will tell you....
The people put exterior x-mas lights on their home and guess what...they had to turn off their light so they could be seen. Day after x-mas the light was back on in all of its blinding beauty.
So I finally looked up the code and found an "Unlawul Illumination" code that states basically your light cannot shine across your property line to the point it is a nuisance. So I filed a complaint with the city.
The city in turn said this is an exception to municiple code and they forwarded it to the Police. The Police contacted me and said they are waiting for the blessing from the city prosector to allow a citation. This is where it gets good...
If they do get the blessing, I of course have to sign a complaint and possibly appear in court to have the light dimmed or removed.
I am half willing to accept reimbursement for the $500 for the tree I put in, though that does me no good in the winter. The wife says I should let it go. My best friemd says "**** em' they should of thought about that when they put in the light".
So would you follow it all the way to court? Or am I being a bigger dick than usual? :-)
Updated: Talked to him, asked him to either wait until 10:00 to turn it on or get a dimmer bulb.....light was off last night so he is being cool though I could tell by his town he wasn't happy about the purpose of my visit
Originally Posted by petegz28:
Ok, so after talking with the guy the light was shut off. Until tonight....now it is back on in all its brightness. So, now that I have tried the friendly neighbor request route....what would you do? Go back over? Call the city? Ignore and deal? Personally knowing that it has to involve the Police I am reluctant to do anything. But nonetheless I am curious to hear what others think?
See what he does tonight. There's a good chance he just forgot to shut it off. I doubt there was any sort of malicious intent. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Saul Good:
That doesn't make him an asshole. If you had asked him to turn it off at night and he refused, it would make him an asshole. I'm not convinced that it's against city code, either. There is a city code that regulates how bright a light can be, but I haven't seen any proof that this light necessarily violates the code. Just because you say that it does doesn't make it so. He hasn't been cited, and it sounds like the light has been up for months with no complaints from anyone but you.
Spending the $500 makes you an idiot, not an asshole. You make it sound like it was some act of benevolence on your part in order to save your dear neighbor a fine, but you hadn't even discussed the issue with him. It sounds like you spent $500 because you were too much of a pussy to have a man to man conversation with your neighbor on the mean streets of Olathe.
Just to avoid any further confusion:
Buying the $500 tree makes you an idiot.
Being afraid to have a simple talk with your neighbor makes you a pussy.
Still assuming the worst about a guy who, once he realized that his light was a nuisance, agreed to your request to turn it off at night makes you an asshole.
Crying about another poster telling you the truth in a thread that you started on the topic makes you a bitch.
Really amused by the OP and all the effort, and then update two days later... "so, talked to him and it's no biggie, they'll just keep it off". :-)
...pile-on aside though, I get it. You think neighbors doing obnoxious shit is "not caring" or they must be assholes, because it's so damn obvious. You might wonder why they're forcing you to say something... yet, it's usually because they're really fucking oblivious.
Whether it's people leaving dogs outside to bark at all hours of the day or the old lady who stops in the middle of a busy section of a grocery store or the idiot who blocks everyone from getting off the elevator first or the dumbass driving 10mph under the speed limit in the fast lane.... they usually have no fucking clue they're inconveniencing anyone, or at the very least play nice when you call them out on it.
And even that realization doesn't make it significantly less frustrating to deal with, but it's obviously better than spending $500 to fix an issue that a 3 minute conversation solves. [Reply]
