By: Sharon Aron Baron
Affordable prices make Tamarac an attractive city for home buyers. While low prices are important, our city needs to sell buyers on the beauty of our city, not that it’s the cheapest place to live.
Coral Springs is a very desirable place to live as well, not only are there a wide range of pricing options, but buyers want to live in a community that looks attractive.
Coral Springs City Commissioner Vince Boccard knows this and says that he wants to see the city reinvest in itself. “The real estate market is going to change, when it does, we need to be ready by having the curb appeal,” he said.
Coral Springs already has a Neighborhood and Environmental Committee which addresses issues and promote projects that will favorably impact development, preservation and environmental enhancement in the city.
Also, because aesthetics are a key issue with the Coral Springs city officials, they have implemented a new program called “Code Rangers.”
The Code Rangers are volunteers that help code enforcement officers by informing residents about violations affecting the aesthetics of their home and property.
According to the article in the Sun-Sentinel, thirteen residents have already signed up to be a part of the program, and their code department staff hope they will soon have at least 25 people lending them a hand.
The City of Tamarac does not have either a Neighborhood Committee or Code Ranger program. Residents state that the codes we have in place are routinely ignored and not enforced by those hired to do so.
Many neighborhoods are in poor shape due to a lack of codes or code enforcement. For example, The City of Tamarac allows overnight parking on the streets even though the city ordinance states that it is illegal to park on the street after 2 a.m. There are neighborhoods that have 3-5 cars in front of the homes. BSO and city officials admittedly look the other way because many residents have inadequate parking for these small homes.
Just last night in the Mainlands Section 6, I saw three cars parked across a lawn with the fronts of the vehicles facing the home. The driveway was empty. It looked liked a ghetto house,” – Chris, a Mainlands resident.
This home in the Mainlands 8 has a driveway that has been properly widened to accomodate their vehicles
Chris suggests that one of the things the city should do is urge residents to widen their driveways to accommodate all of their vehicles. “The permit procedure is long and expensive, to say nothing of the actual widening. However, In these tough economic times, the city and BSO are being lenient. This leniency doesn’t give homeowners any incentive to widen their driveway.”
According to Mainlands 8 President Patti Lynn, the problem is twofold: She said she would rather see residents in her community park overnight in the street, a violation of city ordinance, than on the grass.
“Parking on the grass breaks sprinkler pipes, creates ruts and dead spots on the lawn. It makes the community look a lot worse than exposed air conditioning units or garbage cans that are left outside.”
Lynn said that a drive through any of the Mainlands communities show how hazardous the streets are to maneuver. The extremely narrow streets make backing out of driveways very difficult for the residents.
She is also concerned about the legal liability that the city and BSO have by not citing those in the streets overnight. “No one, at any time is allowed to park in a street. It is a roadway, and parked cars are impeding traffic. Those lawn trucks, tree trimmers, and painters are violating the law when they park in the street.”
In Westwood 24, BSO routinely ignores the various city police cars that line the streets at night. Residents believe these owners seem to be above the law and are afraid of repercussions by making a complaint.
“This is just one example of the devaluation of the properties of residents who do follow the rules. You don’t buy a home with parking for two cars when you have five,” said Chris.
He believes residents and city officials are using the economy as a reason not to enforce codes or to raise the standards. “It’s nothing but an unjustifiable excuse and it has nothing to do with economics.”
“It’s times like these that we should be raising our standards.”