Hi Pat,
I have a dilemma that I hope you might be able to help me with. Here's the situation:
Last spring my neighbor (at 35 Boysenberry Drive ) put up a very large skateboard ramp on space between our two houses (I am at 27 Boysenberry Drive ). As you probably know, the houses here on Boysenberry Drive are all fairly close together. On a very small amount of space between our houses, they have put up a skateboard ramp that is 7 feet high, 8 feet wide and 25 feet long. And this gigantic skateboard ramp is only 13 feet from my house!
In addition to the excessive noise it generates when kids are using it (and I mean all kids -- it's used as a public skating ramp by all the neighborhood kids), I also feel it is an invasion of my privacy and personal space. Since the ramp is so tall, kids can see right into my living room when on it. It is so noisy that when it is being used it is impossible to have a conversation in my front yard and the noise in the house is not really acceptable either.
Such a large, noisy, disruptive structure surely must be covered by some ordinance here in South Portland . Wouldn't a permit or some sort of variance be needed to put a public skating ramp on a private residence? I haven't had my house reappraised yet, but I'm certain this ramp has lowered its value.
What recourse do I have beyond continuing to express my displeasure to my neighbor and begging them to move it?
Thanks so much,
Paul Lefebvre
27 Boysenberry Drive
South Portland , ME 04106
Home: 207-799-6847
Cell: 207-712-2522
Dear Mr. Lefebvre - how far away from the side property line (the common boundary line that you share with your neighbor) is the ramp?
Patricia Doucette
Code Enforcement Director
Deputy Director of Planning & Development
City of South Portland , Maine
207-767-7603
Hello,
The skateboard ramp is precisely 2 feet away from the boundary line. Thanks so much,
Paul Lefebvre
Ok, I have talked this over with staff. There is no requirement for a permit for this type of structure and there is no setback for this type of structure. It is viewed the same way a play ground set or a basketball hoop is. As far as the noise goes, our ordinance does not address this type of recreational noise. I am very sorry I can't be of any help to you. My only suggestion to you is to speak to your City Councilor about the possibility of an ordinance to address this type situation. Hopefully, you can work this out with your neighbor.
Patricia Doucette
Code Enforcement Director
Deputy Director of Planning & Development
City of South Portland , Maine
207-767-7603
Hi Pat,
I appreciate you looking into this for me. What about the public aspects of this? The ramp is available for use by pretty much anyone, none of whom actually live in the residence (in fact, I don't think anyone who actually lives there uses it for skateboarding at all). Surely, there must be something in the ordinance about using a structure on a private residence as a public park?
For the sake of other residents here in town, there really ought to be an ordinance regarding skateboard ramps and other large sports structures. After all, what if someone wanted to put in a hockey rink, full basketball court or a tennis court without some sort of setback?
I'll follow-up with my councilor about getting this added as an agenda item to a council meeting.
Thanks so much,
Paul Lefebvre
Dear Mr. Lefebvre: I don't believe that we can classify this as "public" in anyway. It is on private property and I would assume that the kids are there with the property owner's permission. Otherwise, they would be trespassing. I wish you luck in pursuing this issue with your Councilor.
Patricia Doucette
Code Enforcement Director
Deputy Director of Planning & Development
City of South Portland , Maine
207-767-7603
Thank you again for looking into this for me. I really appreciate it.
Paul Lefebvre
Paul and Julie:
Pat Doucette was kind enough to contact us and to forward your e- mails to us so that we could get a better understanding of your complaint about us.
Given that your e-mails have a lot of misinformation, I feel that it is necessary to correct several points.
1) The skate ramp is not 7 feet high. The platform upon which the children stand is 3 feet, 4.5 inches high and has an added hand rail for safety.
2) Our family members use and enjoy this ramp.
3) We welcome neighborhood children who are friends of the family to use the ramp (including the Weden and Sowerby children). It is not open to the public.
4) We do not allow children to use the ramp without our permission or when we are not at home.
5) We do not allow children to use the ramp during dinner hours or after 7:30 p.m.
6) The children are too busy enjoying skating and having fun to look in the windows of your house while on the ramp.
7) I am able to carry on a conversation in my house or yard with no problem while children are playing on the ramp.
I believe we have addressed any issue you have brought to our attention about ramp noise to date. We have put appropriate rules of > use and protocol in place to ensure that children can have fun safely while causing minimal disruption. (Unfortunately, I would guess that our definition of "disruption" probably varies from yours.) I would like to believe there is some common ground we could find on this issue; we did not install the fence and ramp to be "bad neighbors" or to offend you. We do not have any plans to take the fence or ramp down, as the ramp provides fun and enjoyment for our family and friends; however, if you have any reasonable requests you would like to make about utilization of the ramp, we would be happy to discuss them.
Darrell and Janice
Hi Darrell,
I'm puzzled why Pat felt it necessary to discuss this with you (I certainly didn't ask her to), but it appears this has been blown a bit out of proportion. I was in the process of gathering information before talking to you about this.
My comments are below, but feel free to stop by anytime to chat some more, I'm always here. This disagreement is between us as neighbors and does not really need to directly involve anyone else. I am not angry about this, so I hope we can come up with a mutually-agreeable solution.
Thanks,
-- Paul
Pat Doucette was kind enough to contact us and to forward your e- mails to us so that we could get a better understanding of your complaint about us.
Actually, I have no complaint about you. I simply had questions about the placement of the skateboard ramp and its proximity to our home.
Given that your e-mails have a lot of misinformation, I feel that it is necessary to correct several points.
> 1) The skate ramp is not 7 feet high. The platform upon which the children stand is 3 feet, 4.5 inches high and has an added hand rail for safety.
Since it extends about 1 foot beyond the height of the fence, that makes the structure 7 feet high.
> 2) Our family members use and enjoy this ramp.
But it does appear that the majority of the skateboard-related use is not by you, Nate or Sam.
> 3) We welcome neighborhood children who are friends of the family to use the ramp (including the Weden and Sowerby children). It is not open to the public.
I am glad to hear that and this would be a misunderstanding on my part then. Last summer, multiple people in the neighborhood were coming to us mentioning that you had offered a skateboard ramp for their kids to use and were asking us what that was all about.
> 4) We do not allow children to use the ramp without our permission or when we are not at home.
That is also good to know. It would appear that wasn't always the case last summer.
> 5) We do not allow children to use the ramp during dinner hours or after 7:30 p.m.
Yes, I was aware of the after 7:30pm rule, although that was not always followed last summer. We also had more than one occasion where there were kids on the ramp during dinner hours.
> 6) The children are too busy enjoying skating and having fun to look in the windows of your house while on the ramp.
I don't accuse the kids of doing anything bad. In fact, they've all been quite respectful. But it is more than awkward to be sitting on my front porch and feel like kids who are on the platform are staring at me. It is also awkward to be looking out my living room window directly at kids on the platform.
> 7) I am able to carry on a conversation in my house or yard with no problem while children are playing on the ramp.
That's probably because your garage blocks most of the noise from the ramp into your yard. Whereas, most of the noise from the ramp simply bounces off your garage and into our yard and house. We've had more than one occasion where folks have been visiting here and have simple said "My god, what is that noise?". I certainly cannot keep any windows on that side of the house open.
> I believe we have addressed any issue you have brought to our attention about ramp noise to date. We have put appropriate rules of > use and protocol in place to ensure that children can have fun safely while causing minimal disruption. (Unfortunately, I would guess that our definition of "disruption" probably varies from yours.) I would like to believe there is some common ground we could find on this issue; we did not install the fence and ramp to be "bad neighbors" or to offend you. We do not have any plans to take the fence or ramp down, as the ramp provides fun and enjoyment for our family and friends; however, if you have any reasonable requests you would like to make about utilization of the ramp, we would be happy to discuss them.
Yes, based on my e-mails with Pat you have met every rule that the town requires of you regarding the skateboard ramp. The only thing left is consideration of the impact to us.
Let's be clear: I don't have a problem with a skateboard ramp in general. The only problem I have here is with its placement. The ramp noise likely does not affect you as much because it is on your garage side. However, it is on our living room side. The noise is incredible when kids are skateboarding on it. It sounds like thunderstorms emanating throughout our house. I don't want you to get rid of the skateboard ramp, but it just seems like it would be more sensible for you to put it somewhere else. I think it would make sense that it ought to be in your backyard or perhaps on the other side of your house since there is more room and it's on the neighbor's garage side.
Darrel, I don't think you are a bad neighbor. And I don't believe, I've ever used that term. You're a good guy and not a bad neighbor at all, actually.
Again, my problem is simply with the placement of the ramp. The space between our house and your garage is very narrow and it just seems like it was a bit inconsiderate to put something there that would obviously have an impact on us without discussing it with us before you did it.
i've talked with a lot of people (both in the neighborhood and out of the neighborhood) about this. Without question, every one of them is incredulous that someone would even consider putting such a large, noisy structure in the narrow areas between our two homes. They also all say that they love the idea of a skateboard ramp, but they are glad that it wasn't their neighbor that put it up.
> Also, I'm not exactly sure how you know that the ramp is "precisely" two feet from the property line, but in the future, if you need to come into our yard, please just ask us first.
I had no need to go into your yard. Because the ramp is so high and so close to the fence it was pretty easy to measure its distance from my yard.
|
