MANCHESTER – Two topics dominated a recent lengthy Township Council meeting and they concerned permit requirements for sheds in senior communities and a driveway parking restriction that is getting a second look.
Joseph Clegg of Commonwealth Boulevard spoke about a gravel parking violation he received recently from the code enforcement officer. “I’ve been a resident for 19 years and the citation was for parking on my gravel. I have a two-lane driveway and no street parking. I can’t park on the street behind me because there are no sidewalks. My kids can’t even walk from their school bus to my house without being picked up because there is no way for them to safely get home.”
Clegg added, “My mailbox has been taken out (by cars) multiple times, I’ve almost been taken out trying to get my mail. It’s crazy so I appreciate the added law enforcement that is coming around Pine Lake Park especially on Commonwealth which seems to be a drag strip most of the time.”
“I understand what the council is trying to do by cleaning up the township. There are people who are parking on their grass and have 12 vehicles. I am not that guy,” Clegg noted. “I park my cars neatly and am cognizant in making sure people can see past them. I just think it is kind of unfair. I think 40% of Manchester doesn’t have paved driveways. A secondary offense has now become a prime offense.”
Clegg told Council members that those being hit with the same citations he has were not the intended target for enforcement of this regulation. “It is more those who have 12 cars parked on the front lawn – which I’ve seen – and then there are houses that look like they came off the set of ‘Sanford and Son.’ I get it, the town is going to pot.”
Council President Roxy Conniff said the matter would be looked into more thoroughly and the regulation reviewed.
“I don’t know if we can make an exception or not but we can see what can be worked out,” Councilman Craig Wallis said.
Township Code Enforcement officials present at the meeting stressed that every case was different.
Rosetta DeLuca of Chelsea Drive at Crestwood Village VII, where she serves on the Board of Trustees, brought up the complicated issue of sheds within that development that did not have required permits when first placed there by residents.
“They started out with a bin,” she said, “and then two door and now we are told we are not allowed to have them and it says the shed requirements is for the whole town and not for Village V, VI and VII. I don’t understand why all these residents cannot have sheds?”
“People need the sheds. Some people are planting vegetables by their homes from April to September and everything is taken down and cleaned. I can’t find anything (in the township code) so why can’t we have a shed,” DeLuca asked the governing body.
“Because right now the code doesn’t permit you to have one. There has to be a change in order to allow you to have a shed,” Township Attorney Lauren Staiger responded. “I believe your bylaws also dictate what you are allowed to have in there. The council would need something from your association to say that you want to make this change.”
DeLuca cited a June 2007 ruling saying the bylaws said anything placed on resident property required the homeowner to go before the trustees and they approved residents of the development to have two sheds.
Staiger informed her a permit was also required from the township.
The sheds however have been on the residents’ properties for nearly 20 years in many cases according to DeLuca.
Staiger said making the sheds legal will mean a change of those senior development bylaws.
Township Business Administrator Carl Block told DeLuca her community’s bylaws need to be “in sync so the ordinance has to be amended to include it in that particular zone for it to be allowed. You decide the other side of it which is the bylaws. Both have to be in sync. If you are saying the bylaws have changed you will have to send verification of that to the town. It can’t just be for Crestwood Village VII. It is a land area.”
Right now, the sheds are not permitted in the planned communities according to township code. The issue also seems to be the same for Crestwood Village VI which also has sheds that were added without a township permit issued.
Councilwoman Michele Zolezi asked if all the Villages “need to amend their bylaws first?”
Bylaws can be stricter than a township’s ordinance but a township permit would still be required. The bylaws of such a community can’t circumvent a township ordinance.
“They are asking what they need to do to have their shed within their community,” Zolezi clarified. She noted that if the proper changes were made by the Village Home Owners Associations and the township ordinance was amended, the residents would still need to apply for a permit for the sheds.
Councilman Craig Wallis recommended a meeting between the DeLuca, Block and the Code Enforcement office. “Find out what you are doing exactly and let them give you a plan because there are three people telling you to do something different. I’d sooner you go through the business administrator as he runs the pulse of everything.”
As to the violations issued, they were granted a 30 day extension and no court summons have been issued to the residents of Crestwood Village VI and VII until a resolution has been developed, according to code enforcement officials who were present at the meeting.
