Controversial Salemtown Developer Gets His 15 Seconds of Fame in the Nashville City Paper

City Paper writer William Williams decided to showcase controversial developer and Salemtown Duplex King Taurus McCain in an article that suggests Hume Street is moving on up thanks largely to McCain's Schoene Ansicht development, which has its own checkered past with the residents who actually live here. Say what you will about the Tennessean's flawed past reportage on Schoene Ansicht; at least they acknowledged that the development generated controversy. The City Paper sexes up 6th as halcyon and heavenly.

Mr. McCain, whom I once witnessed threaten the Salemtown Neighbors President with physical violence, is quoted as saying that he's bringing diversity to our neighborhood (as if we were not already diverse):

UP’s Taurus McCain says Salemtown, once fully redeveloped, will offer significant diversity in both its building styles and the socio-economic/age ranges of its residents. “You will have something very special that Nashville hasn’t seen,” McCain said.

Diversity from Taurus McCain? The same real estate investor who has only built one duplex (priced above $200,000) and the Schoene Ansicht townhouses? The same guy who has opposed every attempt to have downzoning include detached single family homes? The same property owner who intends to keep blighted trailer-like duplexes on 6th Avenue standing rather than tear down and build quality detached and affordable single-family homes after Metro Council rezoned his lots for the same?

Mr. McCain has demonstrated over and over again that "fully developed" means one thing: "fully duplexified for the fullest dollars." If appealing to Taurus McCain as a source on diversity in Salemtown is supposed to inspire street cred at the City Paper's neighborhoods department, then the CP has shot itself in the foot.

The fact that a Salemtown renaissance is being narrated by a journalist who not too long ago mischaracterized and overgeneralized all infill in the neighborhood as "run-down, outdated and/or ugly" is laughable. And Mr. Williams' ideation that the developments of Taurus McCain represent part of a cleansing surge is a total farce. Just keep in mind that the last time Taurus McCain and William Williams came together in the same City Paper article (written by reporter Bill Harless) it was a total debacle for our neighborhood under the headline "Developments cause trouble in Salemtown." After that circus, Taurus McCain told me that his investment team was considering never using the "Salemtown" name again in their developments.

That's how committed Mr. McCain is to our neighborhood. His community commitment extends only as far as his credit limit and his bank account will allow. If there weren't any money to be had in Salemtown, he wouldn't be here. And both the developer and the journalist seem to be concocting a fable about our neighborhood that serves their own purposes rather than the neighborhood itself.

Duplex Kings Attempt to Attract Other High-Density Drones

The investors at UP, LLC Someone that I do not have permission to name are is marketing one of their "for sale" properties at 610 Hume (across from Werthan Lofts) as ready for a "horizontal property regime" with no further zoning changes (current zoning: R6). "Horizontal property regime" is legalese for condominiums, townhouses, and other high density builds that do not include single family homes. Keep in mind that R6 also allows developers to build single family homes, which is the Planning Department's current land use description of the property.

It seems that [name removed at request of the person mentioned] and the bunch at UP, LLC are the investor is not satisfied with building only the highest density themselves himself. They He also seem[s] intent on drawing in as many like-minded duplex kings to their his own personal $alemtown as they he can. Single families be damned.


CLARIFICATION: I have been asked to remove the name of the person associated with the development firm identified by Planning as owning the property at 610 Hume based on reasons that I do not have permission to publish. I am removing the name out of more respect for that person than he has shown Salemtown. I regret that the editing of this post is confusing, but I am told that I do not have permission to write any explanation for the editing you see above. For the record: to the left is Metro's public record on 610 Hume as of today.

Until the owner's name is made public, readers will have to decipher his identity themselves, because as I said, I do not have permission to disclose it. Hell, I don't even know if I have permission to disclose that I do not have permission since the refusal of permission came with the info that I do not have permission to give you. So, you could still see future edits.

Outside Judgment: Salemtown Brought Down by Duplex Kings

The duplexes are plenty, all over Nashville in all of our neighborhoods. Every time I pass a lot where one is being built it makes me think about how much the developers dont care about anything accept pulling the biggest possible profit they can. With no regard for the neighborhood or anyone who lives in it .... [A]nyone who's taken a peek at Salemtown knows the duplexes there are very very plentiful .... The only urban neighborhood that comes to mind when I think of single family homes is Hope Gardens, which IMO is starting to gain steam because of that and surpass other neighborhoods who tend to build way more duplexes.

- -Onyte9, earlier today at the Charrette

Such is the reputation we are getting to some planning-conscious outsiders, Salemtown. People look at the some of the multi-familyindividual/high density crap that builders like the Duplex Kings are putting up lately in Salemtown and wondering whether it is setting us back behind neighborhoods like Hope Gardens, which seems to attract single-family homes and more attractive builds.
We better start strategizing and doing something about it, folks, or people with lots of money and little taste (like UP, LLC and the development groups at the corner of 6th and Buchanan) will take over and supersaturate our neighborhood with more crap that makes others scratch their heads in puzzled disaffection.

6th and Garfield Rezoning Public Hearing Two Weeks Away

Which is more balanced: 6 duplexes on 5 properties or 2 duplexes and 3 single-family homes on 5 properties? It's a rhetorical question, but the rezoning of 6th and Garfield pits the Planning Commission backed by the neighborhood association and residents against the outside property investors at 6th and Garfield.

To back the Planning Commission's more balanced plan please attend this meeting:

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 @ 6:00
(Council Meeting starting time)
Metropolitan Courthouse

(corner of 3rd Av. N. and Union St.)

We need a big turnout in order to express opposition to the investors' duplexes at the Public Hearing. Please reserve at least a couple of hours during the evening on May 1, as bills on Public Hearing will come along somewhere in the middle of the meeting.

Neighbor's Letter to Metro Council Opposing the "Duplex Kings" Plan Points to Neighborhood Plan for Single-Family Homes and Low Intensity Balance

A neighbor here in Salemtown forwarded me a copy of a letter he sent to Metro Council today opposing the zoning of the properties at 6th and Garfield back down to a duplex-exclusive zoning (BL2007-1422, which is up for Public Hearing on May 1). While a number of residents have sent letters to the Council, this letter is unique in that it calls upon the Council to stick to the neighborhood plan formulated a while back:

A few years back our association received plans for the future of our neighborhood that stressed the importance of single-family homes, great walkways, along with some duplexes and other improvements that would enhance this area. It is beginning to look like the developers of this neighborhood are putting too much emphasis on building duplexes and disregarding the need for single family homes that will give the area needed balance. For this reason, I oppose Ordinance BL 2007-1422 and I hope you consider the recent Planning Commissions judgment on the issue, which was unanimous against it as an indicator of the feeling of residents of this community.

Indeed, the 2002 Neighborhood Plan for Salemtown adopted by the Planning Commission calls for the balance in housing that many of us living in Salemtown are now advocating over BL2007-1422:

Neighborhood General covers areas with primarily residential character. They include a full range of residential housing types from well-integrated apartment buildings to single-family detached homes. Neighborhood General covers a majority of the Salemtown neighborhood. It includes a lower intensity residential character and plans call for it to remain as such with the addition of new residences on vacant lots (p. 9; 3.4).

A full range of types with a lower intensity character is exactly consistent with the Planning Commission's March 22 recommendation to rezone the 6th and Garfield properties for 3 single-family homes and 2 duplexes. The Metro Council should stick to the plan.

Salem's Lots Takes on $alemtown

Hutchmo gives the Duplex Kings a dressing down and sides with the Planning Commission. And he coins a new label for greedy development possessing little regard for our community: "$alemtown"

How Many Metro Resources Would Be Wasted to Get Back to Square One at 6th and Garfield?

It is rather wasteful and distasteful that, over a year after the properties designated for Salem Gardens were zoned up from R6, they would revert back to the same R6 zoning if the partnership's request is approved the day after tomorrow. Metro has traveled a mile on zoning these properties to move a foot.

It is hard to judge who was responsible for this duplex-friendly regression. Planning tells me that they were not made aware of the existing stormwater challenges, while the Stormwater Department approved of the Salem Gardens zoning request to MUN, and the developers did not originally grasp what the underground requirements were. Why--in the name of saving Metro resources--did questions not get asked and details not get covered before the request came before the Planning Commission over a year ago?

The Duplex Kings of Salemtown: Planning Tells More on What Might Happen If Salem Gardens Property is Rezoned on Thursday

I'm getting the message that the Salem Gardens partnership is angling for returning their 5 properties at the corner of Garfield and 6th to R6 zoning in order to build duplexes on each. Planning officials have also seen one of their plans, which would convert 2 of the 5 properties into 3 and put a duplex on each (6 duplexes total). In order to subdivide 2 into 3, the partnership would have to submit another request and face future Planning Commission and Metro Council Public Hearings.

Two of these partners, Taurus McCain and Steve Yokley are duplex kings; they either own, have built, or plan to build duplexes almost exclusively. According to one of my neighbors, Taurus McCain has expressed total disinterest in building even one single family home in Salemtown. If you walk up 6th Avenue, you'll find a street already super-saturated with duplexes, and so the Salem Gardens partnership obviously sees no reason to diversify that location.

It appears to me that the only way to apply brakes to the continued hyper-duplexification of 6th Avenue North is to oppose the current proposal before the Planning Commission on Thursday, March 22 (at 4:00 p.m. at the Howard Office Building on 2nd Avenue) to return the 5 properties to R6 zoning. The Salem Gardens Partnership has not shown their new plans at a Salemtown Neighbors meeting, so we have to assume that they could put anything, including something sub-par on the properties; that could threaten our real estate values and the overall quality of life here. I am considering attending the meeting on Thursday. I hope other neighbors feel motivated to exert some influence on these developments before we lose the opportunity to do so.

Planning: Proposed Salem Gardens Development Cancellation Based on Owners' Unwillingness to Pay for Stormwater Hook-up

The Planning Department responded quickly to my query about Salem Gardens' proposed re-zoning this morning. They tell me that the re-zoning is a switch back to the original zoning and a cancellation of the Salem Gardens Urban Design Overlay. You can read the Planning Department's memo after the jump (p. 55, items 12 & 13).

The owners did not choose to pay for 450' underground hook-up to the storm sewer for their surface run-off and they were not allowed to hook-up to the sanitary sewer because that might result in sewerage overflowing into a waterway, something over which Metro has lately been in federal trouble.

But this news casts a puzzling light on co-owner Steve Yokley's comments to my original post on the run-off issues just down the street at Schoene Ansicht. Back on January 25, in an attempt to address mixed messages on Schoene Ansicht's stormwater run-off (surface vs. sewer) Mr. Yokley wrote:

I would like to make a comment on the mixed messages sent. That was not my intention; it was actually a misunderstanding on my part. The Salem Garden project at the corner of 6th and Garfield, was slated to discharge underground. I assumed that this project [Schoene Ansicht] would be done the same way.

Late last year, another Schoene Ansicht owner, Taurus McCain had met with Salemtown Neighbors and said that the Water Department was opposing plans to have water run-off at the surface of Salem Gardens. He also mentioned that the Salem Gardens partnership would try and enlist the association's support allow their partnership to discharge water on the surface rather than underground.

My questions: was the Salem Garden project ever truly "slated" to be discharged underground if running it to the sanitary sewers was out of the question and if running a 450' line to the storm sewers was cost-prohibitive? If it was "slated," then why did Mr. McCain speak with us last year about possibly supporting a request for an exemption to allow surface water run-off?

I'm confused about all of these details, and I don't know whether I would support this request to go back to the original R6 overlay.

Some Things Change; Others, Not So Much

One of the interesting parts about being on vacation for about ten days is coming back and seeing the changes around the neighborhood: greener grass, emerging flowers, budding trees. But some things don't change. Take, for instance, a certain 6th Avenue development, previously cited for soil erosion, which put up silt fence before we left. We've returned to find that part of the fence is down, a fresh new bank of dirt is waiting, unobstructed, for the next rainstorm, and a new layer of silt occupies the curb run-off at 5th and Hume from last week's rain. Some things don't change.

But some do. We also got back to find a notice of Public Hearing in the mail sent to us from the Planning Department. That notice says that the owners of Salem Gardens (corner of Garfield Street and 6th and co-owned by Schoene Ansicht owners) are requesting a zone change from the last year's zone change for which they got our neighborhood association's support. I remember watching the Metro Council Public Hearing on last year's zone change request during which a Salem Gardens co-owner told the Council that they had received the support of Salemtown Neighbors.

Yet, the owners have not come back to us and asked for our support on this zone change, and I have to wonder why. What is it about this zone change that makes Salem Gardens partners think that we won't support it? I've taken that question and several others to the Planning Department and I'll keep you posted, because the Planning Commission's Public Hearing is this Thursday, March 22 at 4:00 p.m. at the Howard Office Building on 2nd Avenue.

Without Question, The Worst North Nashville Blog

The Tennessean and reporter Lea Ann Overstreet have made perhaps the worst effort I've ever seen to blog Nashville/Davidson Co. North. Their effort is more like an afterthought than an attempt to be taken seriously by a North End audience. Ms. Overstreet's blogging is spotty and sporadic and her blog has recently become a spam magnet, inundated with advertising commenters.

After she took a development story last week that first appeared on Enclave without proper attribution and spun it promotionally, I left the following comment:

Ms. Overstreet: Your somewhat promotional piece of Steve Yokley's planned developments in the Feb. 28 edition failed to point out that much of what people are reading in the "neighborhood blog" was taken straight from e-mails that passed between Salemtown residents and Metro officials and at least one e-mail that Mr. Yokley sent directly to me. By quoting Mr. Yokley's comments about a "neighborhood blog," without presenting what was actually on the "neighborhood blog," your story makes it seem like that "neighborhood blog" simply fabricated information about Schoene Ansicht, which is in fact false. You also failed completely to source your article back to the "neighborhood blog," which is where you originally picked the story up as you intimate above. I hope that this is not the unbalanced, unsourced kind of neighborhood reporting that the Tennessean intends for the North End in the future.

Indeed, if proper attribution and fact-checking set real journalists apart from "pajama journalists" as

bellows, then Ms. Overstreet seems more of a blogger than a journalist, but she does not even seem to maintain her blog. I did not receive a response to my comment and nobody besides spammers--whom she does not seem to feel the need to control--is reading it as far as I can tell.

Schöne Ansicht Investors Cited by Metro Stormwater for Run-off Violations

This afternoon Enclave obtained a copy of the $200 Metro citation (pictured above) that was served earlier today by Water Services to Schoene Ansicht investors for allowing sediment to run off their property and cover the 5th Avenue and Hume Street intersection. Investors are required by Metro to:

• Stop illicit discharge immediately
• Remove discharged sediment from street
• Install and maintain erosion controls by March 8

I spoke by phone with inspector Phil Saad this afternoon after I received the citation copy. Mr. Saad told me that he discovered the violation this morning on his regular rounds. He also said that Metro does not specify the exact erosion control to be used by the violators.

Development Controversy Hits Pages of the Tennessean

People just need to give me the chance to tell them what's going on and not just believe what they read in a neighborhood blog.

- - UP, LLC Investor Steve Yokley defending Schoene Ansicht's problems in yesterday's Tennessean

So, don't believe those Schoene Ansicht mudslide pictures from 5th and Hume that Enclave published this morning. S-townMike could have just photoshopped the muddy mess into a picture of a clean intersection. Don't believe what you see here. Go see the intersection with your own eyes and judge for yourself. Stand around the intersection after it all dries and let the dust blow up and sting your own eyes.

On the subject of believing what you read: I agree that you shouldn't believe everything you read, just like I shouldn't have believed Steve Yokley when he e-mailed me saying that the Schoene Ansicht run-off would connect to sewers underground. Wait, didn't he just ask for a chance in the Tennessean? It sure sounded like a chance when he e-mailed me. In fact, these investors have had countless chances to work with neighbors on design issues, but as one commenter put it in a previous post, they keep shooting themselves in the proverbial foot.

There's nothing I would like more than not to have to blog about questionable investment and construction practices in the North End. As I told these investors face-to-face the other night, I shouldn't have to blog on it. They should be doing the right thing.

But, the Tennessean reporter of yesterday's story--which also promoted Steve Yokley and Taurus McCain's Salemtown developments with some free right-column advertising--paid attention to the controversy after reading about it on Enclave. And nobody outside of the six people who were there would have known about a UP, LLC investor physically threatening the President of Salemtown Neighbors had I not blogged on it yesterday. So, go ahead and give Steve and Taurus more chances than they have been given already and more than they deserve, but just remember that there are other sides that don't get public mention short of a neighborhood blog.

Schöne Ansicht Mudslide II: Electric Boogaloo

After our overnight rain, another layer of Schoene Ansicht silt ran down Hume Street and clogged 5th Avenue once again, thanks to refusal of UP, LLC investors to put up silt fence on their property. They are telling Salemtown residents that they do not have enough room on the site for silt fence. Funny how they think that Salemtown's streets have enough room for their mud and debris. Here are today's mudslide pictures:







For comparison, here's a picture I took of the intersection last September before Schoene Ansicht mudslides became a problem.

Curb Your Hostility

Dear Hostile Real Estate Investor,

You publicly embarrassed yourself after last night's Salemtown Neighbors meeting by flying off the handle at our president for merely disagreeing with you. There was no need to get out of your seat and stand up over him slurring his good name and cussing him out when all he did was attempt to tell you how he believed that you should be treating the people who actually live in this neighborhood; this neighborhood, which you merely visit once and a while to see how your latest construction project is progressing. There was no need to threaten him with a physical assault when he merely suggested that you retake your seat and show him the same respect that he was showing you.

That's an interesting way of doing business: hearing something you don't like and trying to intimidate association members as if getting support for real estate development is nothing but a brawl that you can win by force and intimidation. As if public relations can be grabbed by the collar and held up at the end of a clinched fist. I've got news for you. That's not how our association operates. You can't push your way around and think that people are going to roll over and submit to you if you get up in their faces and yell loud enough.

You, Mister Investor, gave Salemtown residents every reason not to believe you care about their concerns last night, even as you supposedly showed up (unannounced and uninvited) to address their concerns. You already had a PR problem; one that should have been dealt with from the beginning. You failed to spend enough time going over the details of your build with neighbors and getting their feedback. You wanted to do things strictly your way; now you don't like it that some here are not on your page. You've got no one but yourself to blame.

Part of your steam-rolling performance included screaming that you've put a lot of money into your Salemtown properties. But which of us who live here has not put a lot of money into our properties? And which of us has failed to put more than just our money, but our lives and the lives of our children into this community? On that latter score, you haven't invested a damned thing. You don't live here. You're an absentee landlord who invests nothing in the neighborhood that doesn't personally benefit you. The fact that last night you lost all sense of restraint and good judgment, and that you lashed out violently at the public face and the elected head of Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association, merely confirms my worst fears about your intentions.

In all seriousness,
S-townMike

Last Night's Stormwater Run-off Mires Intersection with Schöne Ansicht's Mud

While the intersection of 5th Avenue and Hume Street has had its share of ponding problems after storms, now it has the extra problem of silt run-off from the Schoene Ansicht project. Only 10 short days ago I warned that UP, LLC investors, Steve Yokley and Taurus McCain failed to respond to neighbors' requests to put up a silt fence or some barrier to keep debris on the construction site. Now the fall-out--after what was an unremarkable rain event in Nashville--is a muckety mess for neighbors to walk and wheel across. And once it dries, it will be a dust bowl blowing up in our faces.

The curb cuts--designed for wheelchair access--at both west corners of the intersection were choked this morning with an inch of mud and water. We have had Salemtown residents in the past who were wheelchair-dependent. Today they would not be able to cross the street at this intersection without a winch system to pull them out of the mess.

A stroll from 5th up Hume past the Schoene Ansicht construction site allows one to see a foot-wide channel adjacent to the street gutter where stormwater run-off picked up the silt and small gravel, carried it down hill and deposited it at 5th Avenue. Before the storm, freshly dug piles of dirt extended uneroded to the edge of the street. Now the run-off channel is clearly visible, as is the lost opportunity to save Salemtown the headache of a debris-clogged thoroughfare by putting up a simple, inexpensive, properly installed silt fence, which "can detain hundreds of pounds of sediment and water--even a concentrated flow" [source].

Indeed, there are other North End investors and developers who take their responsibility to the community seriously, even while they still intend to make money. A property at the corner of 5th and Monroe in Germantown has had silt fences up for weeks even with minimal construction. Moreover, the block on which the Germantown site sits seems flat. The potential for stormwater run-off damage to surrounding properties appears slight compared to that of Schoene Ansicht in Salemtown. Even so, Monroe developers installed it, and they communicated their intentions truthfully to the neighbors affected, which is a courtesy that Salemtown does not get from UP, LLC.

I do not know if the mud-caked curb cuts affect Metro's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and I do not know whether UP, LLC is required by Metro Codes to clean up their 5th Avenue run-off silt drop. But I do know that the investors' failures to prevent easily preventable problems is just another black eye for them, and it is further indication to me that, relative to other property developers, they have little regard for the neighborhood outside of the money that they intend to make from it.


UPDATE: pictured on the right is a construction site on 6th Avenue North near the Buchanan Street intersection in Salemtown. Its developers have put up a silt fence to catch stormwater and debris from running off the property. At least they are making an effort.

The Ole Bureaucratic Bolero

Metro is misdirecting Salemtown residents who may be affected by the Schoene Ansicht stormwater run-off system, which empties into the alley between 5th and 6th Avenues at Hume Street. This morning I spoke with a neighbor on the adjoining property who told me that she contacted the Metro Sewer Department. Metro Stormwater Engineer Steve Mishu had left her with the impression that they were her next stop after he washed his hands of the problem. Metro Sewer officials told her that they rarely act on problems like this without first getting a recommendation from a stormwater engineer (you know, like Steve Mishu).

Do you get the feeling that bureaucrats just bounce you back and forth in order to tire you and drive you away?

Other Hume Street Development Will Connect Stormwater Run-off Underground

The developers of the property at 8th Avenue North and Hume Street say that their stormwater run-off system includes treatment and purification and that it will connect underground directly to the sewer system. The 8th and Hume development is scheduled for Metro Council Public Hearing in March.

In the wake of the controversy over the Schoene Ansicht development two blocks away from 8th and Hume, I contacted Core Development and asked them if there had been any changes made to their plans presented to Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association in January 2006. I also asked them how they were going to handle stormwater run-off.

According to Metro contour elevation maps, Hume Street drops 36 feet from the top of the hill at 8th and Hume to the corner of 5th and Hume, which is the site of regular ponding during storms. The problem with the Schoene Ansicht development is that directing run-off on the surface instead underground would not seem to alleviate the problems at 5th and Hume. Likewise, if the 8th and Hume development did not direct their run-off underground, it would create more problems for residents living at the bottom of the hill. Fortunately, the Water and Sewerage Department has communicated that 8th and Hume will be allowed to hook-up directly to the sewers. And Core's Aaron White confirmed that no changes had been made to the original plans (which received positive feedback at last year's Salemtown Neighbors meeting).

What is not clear yet, according to Core, is whether or not they will hook-up to the 8th Avenue sewers or to the Hume Street sewers. If the latter, I am left to wonder: if 8th and Hume can go underground, then why can't Schoene Ansicht do likewise? However, at the very least, less stormwater run-off will be flowing down Hume once the 8th and Hume project is completed because they will be channeling it underground directly to sewers. That's good news for neighbors down hill of the development.

Tennessean Blog Picked Up the 6th and Hume Water Run-off Controversy

Sorry I missed this, but the Tennessean's North Nashville blog posted on and linked my original story on the 6th and Hume Stormwater run-off controversy over two weeks ago. Today was the first time I checked out Reporter Lea Ann Overstreet's blog, so only now do I refer you to it. Hutchmo left a comment there (sorry, John, I should have linked it a long time ago).

Schöne Ansicht Owners, Despite Invitations to Neighbors, Have Been Unresponsive on Trash Problem

It is one thing to post your phone number over and over in the comments section of Enclave for Salemtown residents to call with questions or issues. Actual follow-up is another matter. Some neighbors of the Schoene Ansicht townhouse project tell me that they have been complaining about blowing trash from the site since construction started months ago, yet co-owners of UP, LLC have yet to respond with a silt fence or staying barrier to protect the rest of the neighborhood.

Only within the past two weeks, after controversy involving a drainage pipe boiled over, did hay bales appear across the driveway onto the property. Those bales looked like they were meant to keep debris on the property. However, the bales were often stacked to the side to let trucks in and out and not put back out after everyone had left. And now they have disappeared altogether.

So, once again and with several units yet to start construction, trash is free to blow around the vicinity of Hume and 6th and 5th and Garfield. A few weeks ago I saw one of my neighbors with a leaf-blower walking down the alley and moving all of the Styrofoam, dry wall shrapnel, and workers lunch sacks that had blown out from Schoene Ansicht back up on to the construction site. However, cleaning up after bad neighbors should not be the work of the rest of us. If UP, LLC is really invested in the development of the neighborhood and not solely in squeezing as many bucks as they can as quickly as possible, then why aren't they policing their own sub-contractors?

UP, LLC co-owner Steve Yokley countered S-townWife in the comments section of one of my posts when she complained about construction workers from his site dumping cut-down trees in back of our property:

This is the first time that I've heard about this. If you want to contact the builder directly, call me and I'll put you in contact with him. There are a lot of sub contractors that come and go in a project, and if I don't know about an issue it can't be addressed.

There is absolutely no reason why S-townWife should have to take responsibility for Steve Yokley's problems by dealing with the builder herself. And there are no guarantees according to their track record with containing their trash that any of the Schoene Ansicht owners were going to follow-up even if she had called them rather than hauling it back over herself.

So, neighbors: call UP, LLC at the phone numbers they list on Enclave every time I post information that they do not care for readers to see. But do not be under the illusion that whatever issue you have will get follow-up.


UPDATE: Bales are now back.