This is a true story. It happened in Utah and was on the news!
I thought each of you could use a little comic relief today. Here's the story...
A city councilman, Mark Easton, lived in this neighbourhood. He had a beautiful view of the east mountains, until a new neighbour purchased the lot below his house and built.
Apparently, the new home was 18 inches higher than the ordinances would allow. So Mark Easton, mad about his lost view, went to the city officials to make sure they enforced the lower roof line ordinance. Mark and his new neighbour had some great arguments about this as you can imagine — not great feelings. The new neighbour had to drop the roof line — no doubt at great expense.
Recently, Mark Easton called the city offcials and informed them that his new neighbour had installed some vents on the side of his home. Mark didn't like the look of these vents and asked the city to investigate. When they went to Mark's home to see the vent view, this is what they found... (see attached pictures)
The origin of these photographs is essentially as described above, something that arose over a dispute between neighbours in the southwest Salt Lake Valley community of Riverton over an adjacent property owner's construction work on his home.
The conflict started when Darren Wood excavated dirt from a hill on which the homes of his neighbours, Mark Easton and Stan Torgersen, sat. The Eastons and Torgersens were concerned about the stability of the hill and contacted city officials, who ordered Wood to have a soil test performed. Wood was disgruntled by the decision because the previous owner had already done a soil test, and performing it again would cost him $3,000 and delay his construction project by four months.
Then, when Wood began raising the frame for his house, his neighbours were again concerned because the structure rose higher than the rooftops of the other homes around his lot and partially obstructed their view of nearby mountains. Easton and Torgersen again asked city officials to intervene because they believed Wood's house exceeded the maximum height allowed by local building code. Although Wood conceded that his house might have exceeded the height limit by about a foot, he was again disgruntled because he maintained that once the house was completed and the landscaping laid out, the home would fall within the code, and, in any case, the city had already approved his plans.
Feeling that he was being unfairly harrassed by his neighbors and upset that the construction interruptions they prompted had cost him an additional $25,000, Wood created a visible symbol of his displeasure by installing the vent covering pictured above, which he described as a decorative piece of "abstract art" representing a cactus. His neighbours, of course, viewed the vent cover as a giant hand flipping them off, sending them back to city officials to complain about Wood's home for a third time.
Wood said he would remove the vent cover art if he received apologies from his neighbours. When, a week later, Mark Easton expressed to him that he was sorry for any discomfort that he had caused his family or him, and that he had no intent to do any harm to him when he called the city with his concern about safety, Wood apparently found that sufficient and took down the controversial abstract "cactus."
The conflict started when Darren Wood excavated dirt from a hill on which the homes of his neighbours, Mark Easton and Stan Torgersen, sat. The Eastons and Torgersens were concerned about the stability of the hill and contacted city officials, who ordered Wood to have a soil test performed. Wood was disgruntled by the decision because the previous owner had already done a soil test, and performing it again would cost him $3,000 and delay his construction project by four months.
Then, when Wood began raising the frame for his house, his neighbours were again concerned because the structure rose higher than the rooftops of the other homes around his lot and partially obstructed their view of nearby mountains. Easton and Torgersen again asked city officials to intervene because they believed Wood's house exceeded the maximum height allowed by local building code. Although Wood conceded that his house might have exceeded the height limit by about a foot, he was again disgruntled because he maintained that once the house was completed and the landscaping laid out, the home would fall within the code, and, in any case, the city had already approved his plans.
Feeling that he was being unfairly harrassed by his neighbors and upset that the construction interruptions they prompted had cost him an additional $25,000, Wood created a visible symbol of his displeasure by installing the vent covering pictured above, which he described as a decorative piece of "abstract art" representing a cactus. His neighbours, of course, viewed the vent cover as a giant hand flipping them off, sending them back to city officials to complain about Wood's home for a third time.
Wood said he would remove the vent cover art if he received apologies from his neighbours. When, a week later, Mark Easton expressed to him that he was sorry for any discomfort that he had caused his family or him, and that he had no intent to do any harm to him when he called the city with his concern about safety, Wood apparently found that sufficient and took down the controversial abstract "cactus."
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