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Survey: Aesthetically, Tempe homes fall short Tempe home survey yields new code enforcement By Dianna M. Náñez The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:21 PM Hoping to evaluate homes that might not violate city code but still are regarded by city inspectors as having an unappealing “aesthetic value,” Tempe recently surveyed 640 residential properties and found that not one of the city’s four ZIP codes averaged even an “OK” rating. Results were presented at a City Council strategy session, according to a May 7 public staff report. About 25 houses received the coveted perfect rating. Tempe’s scoring of each home for aesthetic value ranged from 1 to 3, according to the staff report. A 3 rating equated to: “That looks good. I like that. I’d live there.” A 2 rating equated to: “I’ve got no opinion. It’s OK.” And a 1 rating equated to: “That looks ugly. That looks boring.” Tempe reported that the citywide average for “aesthetic value” is 1.74. Some residents were uncomfortable with the city conducting a subjective rating. The Arizona Republic asked them to weigh in on the survey. [What's next, are we going to have "beautiful home cops" in addition to messy yard cops??? Are the royal rulers of Tempe going to come up with a silly dress code for Tempe residents??? Maybe they will even let us dress down on weekends???] Hollie Schineller, who has lived in Tempe for more than a decade with her husband, Freddie, and their children, took issue with the aesthetic-value rating. Schineller lives in a house south of Baseline Road where the survey said there were fewer issues with code-enforcement violations. “An aesthetic value on anything, I think, sounds really subjective,” Schineller said. “Something that is aesthetically pleasing can be completely offensive to somebody else.” [Yea, so subjective that the jackbooted thugs on the Tempe City Council shouldn't even be thinking about it!!!!] Neighborhoods north of Baseline in Tempe were found to have more issues, which the city said it would address by adding at least three temporary code-enforcement inspectors to monitor those neighborhoods for code violations. Tempe City Councilman Kolby Granville, who spearheaded efforts to deal with residential code enforcement, said that the aesthetic value was not used as part of the scoring system to evaluate problem neighborhoods. [Well then why was it used jerk!!!!] Rather, it was used to determine whether there are issues at homes that might be unappealing but not in violation of city code. The city may find that changes should be made to the code to improve neighborhoods’ aesthetic value. [Oh no!!!! I guess we are going to have "beautiful home cops" in addition to messy yard cops???] For example, Granville said that people who own their home do not have to landscape it per city code. They can have dirt instead of a lawn, as long as it has no weeds, he said. [Tempe City Councilman Kolby Granville sounds like a nagging mother in law instead of a public servant who pretends to protect our rights!!!!] |
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