Fort Myers, FLOne of the things I love about small communities is that they will always
be about potholes, sidewalks, kids and dogs.It's a much better scenario than worrying about vandalism, shootings and armed home invasions. The problem we have here is that a few elected people believe they are the kings and queens, never answerable to the people. And that everything they say and do should be considered the gospel. For that we say to them go S*&T in your hat.
Take Stoneybrook for example. Right now a big issue is why "No Street Parking" signs just popped up one day. A few residents ask why and are given an answer, assuming the elected few are following the rules. As it turns out that answer many not really fly with the law of the land. Perhaps, just perhaps, the signs went up because someone just wanted them up. But, the peasants say, that type of "rule" went out with tea, when it was tossed overboard, many many moons ago.
There's been a lot of discussion about the parking signs in Stoneybrook since yesterday's exclusive, groun-breaking and scintillating "Street Parking" story in the award-winning Gateway Gazette. One of the things we found out is that Stoneybrook Board Chair Margaret Fineberg is pretty mad the story was written. Of course. Keeping residents in the dark is the specialty of elected officials so this makes perfect sense to me.
We also found out that it's possible that the signs were installed because Stoneybrook was considered commercial and not residential. That reason would be beyond belief. Even I have a hard time thinking someone could have come up with that as a reason they got the signs in.
I also found out that John Jack, a NEW Stoneybrook board member, is sending out a survey asking the residents what they really want. Something that should have been done before the signs went up. Then again that was a time when you-know-whucaar was still on the board. And, that's when Waste Management was Stoneybrook enemy number one.
A meeting will be held this evening at 5:30 to discuss Parking Signs. I just hope someone flips on their iPhone. You know, the one with record memo!
Keep the posts coming.
Full 5/12/2010 Story is Below
A few weeks ago a Stoneybrook resident was feeding me all kinds of information about how the Gateway Services District was making Stoneybrook abide by a different set of rules ever since the G.S.D. took over its landscaping. Specifically, he was concerned that the district installed "no street parking" signs barring all street parking 24 hours a day.
At the time I didn't really pay much attention to the parking complaint. After all with the Wetland 47 tractor-pull in full swing, Daniels Preserve playing games with H.O.A. fees and Bob Nielson fixing all the sidewalks in Gateway there was plenty to cover. Turns out I may have been wrong on this one.
Stoneybrook already enforces its own rules, not allowing overnight street parking. The new signs didn't seem to make a lot of sense to some residents because it means guests, repairmen, delivery trucks, to name a few, are not allowed to park on the street, ever.
The G.S.D., our mini-government with paid supervisors, a $500,000 a year salaried staff, attorney's, managers and engineers told Stoneybrook it was a Lee County law. They needed the signs. And that the roads in Stoneybrook were too narrow for emergency vehicles to pass, if cars were parked in the road. So, one of the unpaid - that means volunteer - Stoneybrook board members looked up the Lee County law and found the following:
Sec. 34-2020. Required spaces.
All uses permitted under this chapter are subject to the following minimum requirements:
(1) Dwelling, housing and living units. For all common parking lots, in addition to the spaces required in this subsection, additional parking spaces equal to ten percent of the total required must be provided to accommodate guest parking. a. Single-family, duplex, two-family attached and mobile home units. The minimum requirement is 2.0 spaces for each dwelling unit. Stacking of vehicles in the driveway is permitted.
A quick meeting has been called for Thursday at 5:30 by the district and the district's engineer to discuss the situation. In an e-mail to district Operations Manager Bill Knight, a Stoneybrook Board Member wrote the following:
"If you hold us to this standard, I expect that all developments in Gateway to have the signs installed. You can’t hold our development to a higher standard than other developments. Please make sure that you are consistent throughout your decision. Until then, the signs installed are not reflecting the proper code and that a formal letter needs to go out to the residents of Stoneybrook informing them that parking on one side of the street is ok during the day. We (Stoneybrook residents) will enforce the requirements in the CCR’s".
The signs are at the start of every street in Stoneybrook. My question, as always, would be who made the decision? And, if it was the wrong decision and the signs need to come down who will repay the residents for the cost of the signs and the time we paid people to install them. And, if it was the wrong decision, why do we have so many paid people on staff making wrong decisions when it took one volunteer to look up the code and get it right?
And, if these signs were required why were they not put in when the roads were built? Did the roads shrink over time? If they are required now was it because of an ordinance change since they were built? If not, why didn't the builder put them in?
And, just for giggles, what if a resident parks his car on the road during the day and somehow, for some reason, a deputy writes him a ticket, which WILL NEVER HAPPEN by the way. And, just for giggles, let's say the signs are not supposed to be there. Who pays for the mans court costs when he fights the ticket for parking in front of his own house? That's the same guy, by the way, who's going to paint his house purple or install an illegal hot tub or totem pole in his front yard just to get even with the moron who called the cops on him.
Sound ridiculous? Of course it does. Because it is. It helps amplify my daily rant about how idiotic it is to have 6 layers of government over-regulating ever bit of our lives. If emergency vehicles can get through the streets of New York City during rush hour, believe me, they can get through the wildly busy traffic jams in Stoneybrook at 2PM on Wednesday afternoon when Imelda falls down on her daily walk to the mailbox.
To make it evern more comical, here we have an H.O.A. (Stoneybrook) that has a board member (Fineberg) who is also a G.S.D. board member and they still can't get it right. Overlapping government and overlapping rules with conflicting county laws that both sides can reference. Pensions and bonuses all around.
