2020 Urban Purple Martin Drama Filled Season
2020 Martin Season of Drama
UPDATE 1:
I guess I violated several things and offended enough neighbors about a structure they don’t understand. Here’s what the city told me:
“Several neighbors complained about the structure”
“Accessory structure has to be in the rear of the property and you have to get a zone permit.”
“Too close to the property line.” (Not 3 feet from it)”
“The bird sounds playing are too loud”
I guess it’s coming down today. Half the people I have talked to thought it was a tv antenna. I just wish the people would have came and talked to me about it. Thank you all for your concern and for your help in this group. It’s been amazing.
UPDATE 2:
Thanks to all of you I will be calling the city again tomorrow requesting they come out to my property to do the following:
1) Measure the ground sleeve to verify it violates the 3’ from property line rule.
2) Educate him about how this is not a permanent structure rather it is a seasonal structure and will only be out 5 months of the year from April-August
3) Challenge the classification of this type of structure as a flag pole, not a shed structure that must be at the rear of the property.
4) Educate the city and all neighbors on the benefits of Purple Martins. (Anybody have good flyers/hand outs?)
Will keep this posted updated.
UPDATE 3:
Called the city back today and talked to the zoning permits woman and found out they never actually measured the distance of the pole to the property line.
I explained that this structure is not a permanent structure and will only be up during the breeding season (April-August in Ohio)
I challenged the ruling of classification of it being deemed an “accessory building” as that puts it in the same category as a shed. I said it should fall under a flag pole or TV antenna/dish which can be in side yards and require no permits. She sounded like she mostly agreed with that and that I have a case. She said they are working on updating the ordinances since they are from 2010.
I was happy to educate her briefly on what purple Martins are, gave her the PMCA website and explained the types of structures they nest in and that their numbers are declining and they depend almost entirely on humans for nesting sites. She was very thankful to receive the knowledge and be given this new information about the structure, how it pieces together and she said she will call me tomorrow with more information/next steps. Neither her or the code coordinator have dealt with Martin houses so she sounded excited to do some digging on something new. 🤷♂️
Will keep you all up to date on what happens next!
UPDATE 4:
(This is the city’s response to our conversation, they emailed me back because I wasn’t available to take the call.)
Good morning Tyler,
So I did some code research to try to find the closest definition. Oddly enough, a bird house could be considered a “building” and be regulated like a shed according to our definition of building –
BUILDING. A structure designed, intended, or used for shelter, enclosure, or protection of persons, animals, chattels, or property.
Can you imagine though if I started telling people they had to put all their regular-sized bird houses in their back yards? I think following that definition is going to lead to a result no one is calling for.
So what I think the closest concept is for the taller structure you’ve got is the rule listed in § 154.125 for radio towers. The rule is, however tall the tower is, that is how far away it needs to be from the property line. This prevents various types of tall structures from looming over a neighbor’s property. So if the pole is 14’ tall, it needs to be behind the front plane of the house and 14’ away from any property line. If 13’, then 13’ and so on. I think this is the appropriate rule to apply to this situation, and no permit would be required. If you can move the pole to a location that follows this rule, that’s as far as the City would be concerned with it. I think this is going to push the pole toward your house a bit and from my purple martin research, this might be an issue. But it almost seems like there isn’t any perfect location on your lot given the central placement of the house.
My strong personal preference is to not have to regulate this type of thing at all (what is the world like when you get a call from the City about your bird house, tree house, or lemonade stand). But I’m not all that surprised we heard a complaint about it. When I think about it, it seems to me the issue stems from the fact that this structure looks really funky, like it almost looks like it’s painted to look like a communications tower, even though it’s made out of gourds. If it looked like a house-shaped bird house, I don’t think anyone would notice or mind. I’ve got no jurisdiction over the aesthetics of bird houses, of course, so this falls in the territory of my opinion.
UPDATE 5:
The city is sticking with the ruling of a radio tower which means it needs to be 14 ft off the property line since the structure is 14 ft tall. I have attached a new image showing in yellow my options available for putting up the 6 gourd rack. At this point since I missed the remaining season I won’t be mounting anything and am currently looking for country land. If I’m still here by next season I may try to dig up the ground sleeve and move it over about 10 ft closer to my house. Such as waste of time but it is what it is.
UPDATE 6:
Last week I emailed picture of a large tv antenna 25’+ in a side yard in my neighborhood with about 25 ft between houses to the city out of curiosity of what code it follows. The woman I’ve been working with said she would need to talk to her supervisor and get back with me. She calls yesterday and doesn’t answer my question but mentions that she brought up the Martin house situation to her boss. Apparently the boss nearly laughed about it and said something to the extent of “All this because of a bird house!? Let him put it up where he wants.” She said I could go ahead and put it back up where I had it before. I was pretty shocked and she said without my persistence this wouldn’t have happened.
But wait there’s more: I started
working on it in the late evening and mount the pole and begin
assembling the gourds. My neighbor is out watering grass. He doesn’t
acknowledge me for several minutes and finally comes over and says ya
know I never see ya out here much and we don’t talk much and asks if he
was to put up several 30 ft trees in his side yard only feet from my
Martin house, would it be interfering with what I’m doing? (He already
knows from a previous conversation about why I was putting it in my side
yard that they need to be in an open area) I said it could, but it’s
your yard, you do what you want to and I’ll figure out something. And he
just kept repeating this over and over during this seemingly never
ending conversation. He goes on to talk about a house down the street
that renters put in an above ground pool without telling the owners and
the city is making them take it down. He said that wasn’t very good
communication and above ground pools are kind of trashy looking and he
doesn’t like that kind of trashy stuff in the neighborhood. Nice things
like driveway expansions and good looking grass can increase property
values and keep the neighborhood looking good. He mentions its kind of
like at work, sometimes you got to check in with the boss before you do
something. Again he keeps asking me if it’s ok to plant big trees and I
said have at it and he says he probably will after oking it with the
wife. I am just dumbfounded this pretty much one sided conversation even
happened. From this whole 30 minutes I gathered that he says I don’t
communicate well and my Martin housing is trashy. I’m not sure what’s
going to happen next but I’ll continue to post updates. I’m glad my
housing is back up but I’m still going to be looking for country land in
the near future.
UPDATE 7:
To my surprise today there are utility marker flags in the neighbors side yard next to my Martin housing. It appears he may be planting trees in the near future. I’m almost positive this is to encroach on and interrupt my Martin gourd set up. I suppose this could be a bluff, will have to wait until we see holes dug.
UPDATE 8:
So after a few weeks of the cal before you dig flags stayed in his yard he took them out to mow. So no trees for now, he probably found out how expensive that could be.
The latest I heard was he asked the subdivision builder if he could expand his garage out towards me. This idea was quickly shut down due to his utilities coming in on that side. He also rarely comes outside and if he does he like hides in the garage. I did see him out doing yard work but never acknowledged me or my family with a wave or anything.
You can find the original Facebook post and comments located at the below link. I’ll continue to post updates on this blog website.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Prognesubis/permalink/10158367582879096/
Below is an aerial shot of where the gourd rack sits in the highlighted area.
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