By: Sharon Aron Baron
On January 8, 2011 I posted a video showing a stretch of Commercial Boulevard across the street from the Woodlands that I see twice, sometimes more each day. After more than a year, I still haven’t grown immune to this neglected part of our City.
I found out that this particular area in Tamarac has had complaints as far back as four years ago. The video made it’s way to the City of Tamarac where on Wednesday, January 19, I met with Jennifer Bramley who is Director of Community Development and oversees code compliance. After seeing the video, they stepped up their plan to clean up the area. She explained that she very concerned about the area as well, discussing with me the challenges of beautifying this particular area:
“In regards to Commercial Boulevard, I think everyone is in agreement that something needs to be done to beautify the property on the north side of the road from Rock Island Road to just west of Woodlands Boulevard. Any solution involves 19 different property owners which makes this no simple task.
The property owners have been cited by Code Enforcement in the past regarding the condition of the fences, walls, hedges and trash and debris. No matter how many times the property owners are cited, it doesn’t negate the underlying issue that the area is very hard to maintain so improvements are short lived. A more comprehensive approach needs to be taken.
There is a certain expectation that the City can rather quickly build a wall and plant a hedge or make other improvements to fix this problem. There are issues involved in this area of which I don’t think very many people are aware. These issues are as follows;
1) There is no maintenance easement along this strip of land. The adjacent property owner owns the area up to the edge of the sidewalk. Given private property rights, an easement needs to be established for any type of organization to construct a wall or fence and ensure continued maintenance of the area.
2) There is not an active homeowners association in this neighborhood, so the City would be the logical entity to be responsible for maintenance of any improvements and in order to do so must obtain an easement from each of the 19 property owners.
3) Some of the homes have swimming pools and decks constructed very close to existing walls and fences which make construction of a wall problematic given the size of the footer.
4) If the city does nothing and just steps up code enforcement there is no provision in the Code of Ordinances which requires that there be a wall or hedge along this strip of land, or that the wall or hedge be uniform. Even if the City cites the property owners it will not ensure the higher aesthetic standard we would all like to see.
At the request of the Mayor, staff has been working on a solution to the problem for some time. Staff is proposing that a 6-foot easement be established in favor of the City of Tamarac so that the City will be permitted to maintain fences, walls and hedges in the easement. The City will install irrigation in the easement and a Podocarpas hedge which is a fast growing, dense hedge. Walls and fences will be painted a uniform color. The City will maintain the area in the future.
City staff invited via direct mail all 19 property owners to a meeting at the Tamarac Community Center to discuss this proposal. Only six owners attended. After following-up, the City has now heard from 10 property owners in total who are willing to dedicate the easement. Staff will go door to door next week in an attempt to contact the remaining nine property owners.
The long term solution is that a masonry wall and hedge be constructed in this area. Although not out of the question, the City needs to take an equitable approach to this issue given there are other areas of the City in need of improvements as well.”
We will be looking forward in seeing this area looking as great as the rest of Tamarac. Stay tuned for more updates.