About The champion newspaper. (Decatur, GA) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (April 2, 2015)
The Champion, Thursday, April 2 - 8, 2015 LOCAL Page 15A Clutter Continued From Page 1A improperly maintained property. “I’ve been communicating with [Code Compliance] off and on for about three years now. We’ve been successful in correcting a lot of the violations in this area,” Davis said. “But so far we’ve been unsuccess ful in getting these illegal subdivision signs removed,” he said. “Subdivision signs are supposed to be in front of the subdivision. [Subdivisions] are limited to having a maximum of two signs in front of the subdivision, not lined up all alongside the road.” Davis referred to a laminated paper citing Chapter 21, Article III, Section 21 of the Georgia sign ordinance. “The director or his/her designee may issue a citation for violation of this chapter by any person, including, if applicable, the owner, manager or tenant of the building upon which a sign is located,” he read. “Further, Sec tion 21-13 states that any commercial message on a sign located on any lot in any residential district must be related to the physical premises on that lot.” In 1998 Davis started a nonprofit corporation, Strategies to Achieve Res toration Today Inc. (START), to “do something constructive in the commu nity” he said. START is “concerned primarily about improvement in the quality of life in the community where we live-to maintain and upgrade property val ues. . .and keeping the streets clean of litter, illegal signs. We are also involved in community gardening—trying to get people involved in nutrition and health.” The organization is primarily made of members of Davis’ church, Atlanta Family Church, located on Boulder- crest Road. “We get volunteers from members of the church on Sundays for about a couple of hours,” Davis said. “We’ve gone on some of the cleanups with Keep DeKalb Beautiful along Boulder- crest.” Partnering with Hands On Atlanta, Atlanta Food Bank and Keep DeKalb Beautiful, the church also is working on turning property on Flowerwood Trail into a community garden. But the signs are a major concern of the group. Davis spoke to the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners about the problem March 24. “That’s clutter,” he said about the signs. “It’s polluting our community and possibly affecting our property values.” “I want all these illegal signs to be removed,” Davis said. “They shouldn’t be here. They’re polluting our com munity. “They are aesthetically unpleas ant,” he said. “When you ride through a community you want to see some pleasant things. They have so many of them scattered throughout the com munity that they are not aesthetically pleasing. Remove them.” “It’s the last combined sewer overflow site on the South River,” Echols said. “It’s the only one, and if we can get this one cleaned up South River would be so much better off. It can be done. You have to let the community know what’s going on because some people don’t have any idea that out of this overflow site comes human poop every time it rains.” From 2000 to 2005, members of Clean Streams Task Force, a multi-jurisdictional coalition of community and watershed groups, formed to provide community input into implementation of At lanta’s combined sewer overflow federal consent decree. The task force combined education and ad vocacy to win changes to the Na tional Pollution Discharge Elimi nation System permit for Atlanta’s combined sewer overflow system, resulting in water quality improve ments for South River. Atlanta has been operating on a permit that expired in 2010. San dra Sutton of SRWA said Atlanta drafted a permit this year, but the permit would allow the city to release more untreated feces into South River. “Which means everything down stream is going to be more polluted,” Sutton said. “All of the wildlife will be affected with more pollution in the waterways.” The task force wants Atlanta to follow the permit that they had in place, rather than put another per mit in place that will allow them to release more feces. The task force plans to hold more rallies. “The thing is to make the pub lic aware because no one knows about this,” Sutton said. “And you can’t participate or you don’t what to be responsible for what you don’t know. [These are] our wa terways and if we don’t take pos session of our water waves we’re going to lose it.” SeauhL NTwey BUMPS' INTO Tijf Shandra Gallashaw waves at cars driving by the Custer Avenue Combined Sewer Overflow facility. Environmentalists said they are tired of feces flowing in the South River and want the public to know about it. Sandra Sutton (left) and Dr. Yomi Moibi protest near the Custer Avenue Combined Sewer Overflow facility. Stream Continued From Page 1A
