"worker bee" wrote in message
...
Interesting story just developed over the past two months that I figured
I'd let you know about in case it happens to you.

For about five years, I've been in an unfriendly situation with my
nearest neighbor (over past events with the kids getting into trouble and
barking loose dogs).

Then, the past two months, no less than 5 inspectors came to my property
to check for hazardous conditions due to 'anonymous' complaints.

The first was the fire marshall who was told I had 'large gasoline tanks'
on the property. Turns out, fuel containers of fewer than 60 gallons each
are exempt from fire marshall permit needs (a permit application alone,
he told me, is over $750).

That didn't strike me as too weird until the zoning guys dropped by. They
said someone complained about an improper 'accessory structure' used to
house gasoline. Turns out any accessory structure that is six feet from
the property line meets zoning requirements, so he left me alone.

It started to get weirder when the building inspector showed up for the
same reason (don't these guys talk to each other?). He too left empty
handed. Apparently an accessory structure only needs a permit if it's
greater than 120 square feet and if its highest point is greater than 14
feet tall.

I knew someone had it in for me when, a month later, my wife called me at
work to say there was a guy snooping around the property without even
knocking on the door! She called the police and then called me!

Turns out, it was a hazmat inspector who had received a complaint about a
'primary container' leaking with no 'secondary containment' in place. He
left before I arrived but told my wife that there was nothing he could or
would do unless it was actually leaking as there are no storage
regulations for private property other than you can't actually leak
gasoline into the ground.

He did suggest a 'secondary containment' of an oblong horse trough though.

I rushed home early from work to find both the police and yet another
inspector talking to my wife in the back yard. This inspector was from
the air quality management district. He said that organic fuel gas tanks
less than 260 gallons were exempt from vapor recovery & pressure venting
requirements, so he left before the cop finished asking questions.

The cop seemed amused by the whole story - but he asked a LOT of
questions about the gas cans lying around.

Turns out that you can't transport anything heavier (yes, heavier) than
500 pounds of "fuel" in a vehicle (not counting the vehicle's gasoline
tank itself) which he said was 62 gallons of gasoline (#11160 title 13
California Code of Regulations & 32000.5a California Vehicle Code). He
also mentioned that 172.504c Title 49 of the code of Federal Regulations
requires a placard if you carry more than 1,000 pounds of gasoline.

Since I'm only carrying about 50 gallons, I'm exempt from that too!

All in all, an interesting story. Now, I do have a sense of humor so I
have to figure out how I can get my neighbor back.

Have you ever engaged in these type of neighborly wars? Any good ideas?

Years ago, I had house that backed up to a drainage easment (i.e., an open
ditch). As it turned out, I owned both side of the easment (ditch). The
easment was lined with rip-rap. When I got the house, the neighbor behind me
routinely weed wacked the ditch. I decided that I wanted to plant trees to
shade out the easment. So, I bought a buch of trees and planted them on both
sides of the ditch. Of course this meant the guy had to stop weed wacking
the ditch. Meanwhile, I also fenced in my backyard, The fenced in area did
not include the ditch. I got all the proper permits for the fence. As it
turns out, the house next to me on one side was very close to my property
line and in fact most of their "backyard" was actually my backyard becasue
of the way their house was located on the property (it was corner lot and
the house was angled to face the intersection and pushed way back on the
lot). So, once I built the fence, they essentially had no backyard. Shorthly
after building the fence, I got a letter from the city telling me I had to
clean up the ditch, or they would do it for me and charge me $300. I
immeadiately called down and asked for an explanation. They said they had a
complaint. I asked under what ordinance they were threatening me. They sent
me a book with the infomration. It was clear I was not in violation (wooded
areas, flood plains and drainage easements were specifically exempt from the
particular ordinace cited). I expalined this to the burecrat in charge. They
said it didn't matter and that if I didn't want to have them clean it up, I
would need to present my case to the city council. I said no problem, I'd be
happy to. The fact was, this same drainage easment (ditch) went throughout
the sub-division and only one hudred yards or so wasn't wooded. I was just
updating my portion to be a wooded area. I assumed that I would be notified
when I needed to appears and that I would have time to prepare my case. Ha!
I was called the next day and said I need to come to the council meeting
that night. I complained that I need time to prepare my slides (I planned to
present the ordinates on a slide, with the exemptions and pictures of the
easement in other parts of the sub-division.). Finally a somewhat friendlier
bureacrat said she would remove my name from the council schedule and round
file the complaint. As long as they didn't get another call, I was OK.
Apparently they never did get another call becasue I never had to do
anything. If you go by that house today, It has a nice wooded area in the
rear with a variety of interesting trees that looks a heck of a lot better
than a rock lined ditch.

Ed