Thursday, February 11, 2010

Neighborhood feud boils over in Dardenne Prairie

The Riverfront Times reports on a subdivision problem that looks like a disaster waiting to happen. Read the full article at: http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2010-02-10/news/peeping-tom-and-jerry-dardenne-prairie-neighborhood-feud/1

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On the afternoon of June 24, 2009, Jerry Andres burst into Dardenne Prairie's city hall and demanded to see the mayor. Then Andres said something that stopped city employees in their tracks. Accounts of the exact words he uttered differ greatly, but everyone agrees that he referred to the rampage at a Kirkwood City Council meeting in 2008 that left six dead and two wounded.

Andres purchased his home on Nash Drive in Dardenne Meadows, a sleepy subdivision in suburban St. Charles County in 1999. For him, it was the ideal abode: four bedrooms, two baths and an expansive garage that allowed him to "fiddle with cars" and forget about the previous year's bitter divorce that left his ex-wife with custody of their two children.

Most neighbors welcomed the newcomer with open arms. His greasy coveralls were slightly out of place on a block where the homes sell for $200,000, but whenever there was car trouble, they called Andres.

"He was always nice. When I did some damage to my pickup truck I asked Jerry to take a look at it," Fisher recounts. "When it was just in his garage, I believed it was a hobby. But when he's got five or six cars out in the driveway, I got tired of it. I went to him like a man and asked him to stop. He didn't, and it's been getting worse and worse ever since."

Fisher complained to the subdivision's board of trustees, but nothing came of the matter until June 2008. It was then that Andres lost his job at a St. Charles body shop. To make ends meet, he began salvaging cars and selling them on Craigslist.

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The bottom line problem is too many cars on his property and conducting a repair business from his home. This is not a uncommon problem in many subdivisions. Read the entire article at:
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2010-02-10/news/peeping-tom-and-jerry-dardenne-prairie-neighborhood-feud/1

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous8:27 AM

    That is why they have Zoning Codes.

    Enforce them.

    If they don't exist.

    Draft them, and pass them, then enforce them.

    It's not rocket science.

    ReplyDelete