Hi Mitch, It isn't strictly speaking illegal to have flowers and plantings in terraces or yards. However, in near-downtown parts of town, it's close to illegal. First, there is the prohibition on anything besides grass growing within two feet of the curb because the city likes cars and car doors more than it likes pollinators. But the main thing tripping me up and other people victimized by the Building Inspection division is the "vision triangle" thing, which is explained in detail in the attached document. This draws a ten-foot line down the curb from the edge of a driveway (yours or a neighbor's) and then ten feet up the driveway. Then they draw a right triangle connecting the two ten-foot lines and anything growing inside that triangle may not be more than 30 inches tall. To make things worse, the city then draws yet another 10 x 10 right triangle on the land past the sidewalk. See MGO sec, 27.05(2)(bb), including with the picture that makes it looks like it's no big deal to conform.
The good thing is that although BI's claim that "enforcement is complaint-driven" is a lie, they don't actively go out looking for things. They just use a complaint about one thing to harass the homeowner about totally separate things. My complaint concerns a bush growing in my yard (not my terrace) that a building inspector supervisor saw when he came to my house to make sure I "understood" all the ordinances and was in compliance. Then he saw the bush and said, "That's got to go." As to your comment, Mitch, that "Some people in our neighborhood would be in lots of trouble if that were strictly true," in fact most people in my neighborhood (yours too, I imagine) are not in compliance. Look at the write-up of a survey we did. Over 70% of the houses were in violation. Clearly the ordinances no longer reflect community standards. But that doesn't stop the building inspectors from taking us to court, despite the shortage of funds due to Walker's shortchanging Madison and Dane County in the budget. I encourage everyone to sign the petition linked to at the bottom of this e-mail. tim On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 3:48 PM, Mitchell Nussbaum <nutt...@well.com> wrote: > Is it really illegal to have flowers and plantings in terraces? Some > people in our neighborhood would be in lots of trouble if that were > strictly true. > > I do know there's a height limit for plantings in terraces. We ran afoul > of that limit once of twice (we still don't know which neighbor ratted us > out; most of them say they like the flowers), but the inspector actually > told my wife flower stalks were exempt from the limit. > > ------------------------------ > *From: *"bikies" <bikies@lists.danenet.org> > *To: *"bikies" <bik...@danenet.org> > *Sent: *Friday, November 27, 2015 3:40:31 PM > *Subject: *[Bikies] Putting the VMT Increase in Perspective > > > The city council approved the "Pollinator Protection Task Force" report > which seeks to protect pollinators--bees, butterflies, moths, bats, > hummingbirds, etc. But the city's Building Inspection Division continues > to order plantings that pollinators use removed and is prosecuting people > who don't comply. I have an upcoming court date. I have drafted a petition > that I would like others to sign: > http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/revise-ordinances-banning-flowers-in-yards-and-terrace > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > Bikies@lists.danenet.org > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > -- The city council approved the "Pollinator Protection Task Force" report which seeks to protect pollinators--bees, butterflies, moths, bats, hummingbirds, etc. But the city's Building Inspection Division is actively ordering plantings that pollinators use removed and prosecuting people who don't comply. I have an upcoming court date. I have drafted a petition that I would like others to sign: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/revise-ordinances-banning-flowers-in-yards-and-terrace
Time to Update Outdated Ordinances,11-29 version.docx
Description: MS-Word 2007 document
Survey of Yards on Dunning Street.docx
Description: MS-Word 2007 document
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