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#245768 by Badstrat
Mon Jul 27, 2015 4:35 pm
County cracks down on wafting BBQ smoke

http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/county-crack ... at_orig=us < Video at link

'Is that against the law? Man, everybody around here cooks out'
Published: 3 hours ago. Updated: 07/27/2015 at 9:11 AM

Cheryl K. Chumley is a staff writer for WND and author of "Police State USA: How Orwell's Nightmare is Becoming our Reality." Formerly with the Washington Times, she is a journalism fellow with The Phillips Foundation in Washington, D.C., where she spent a year researching and writing about private property rights.

A Pinellas County, Florida, permitting official has sparked some nationwide discussion about the powers of local government after he was caught on video chastising a couple of residents for the code crime of letting their barbeque smoke leave their property.

The exchange, which lasted more than five minutes, was captured on video. It shows the local government official responding to the complaint of a neighbor who lives diagonally across the street from the barbequers, and telling them bluntly: Hey, you must contain all smoke within your property line.

The residents, meanwhile, express shock and disbelief.

"So this is a nuisance," one of the men said, referring to the idea of smoke from a barbeque drifting into the street, the YouTube video showed. "So this dumb[expletive] neighbor over here –– nobody on the street, I been here 40 years, has ever complained."

The government official then says, of the complaining neighbor: "She may be upwind."

He then referenced how he took three pictures of the smoke drifting off the barbequers' property, and reminded how such breaks local code.

"I can smell it again right now, but I'm on your property," he said. "You're allowed to have the smells on your property, so that doesn't count. But when I'm on the street, that's when it counts."

The shocked men then ask, "So you can't smell barbeque smoke on the street," without breaking the law? And one adds: "Is that against the law? Man, everybody around here cooks out."

They then tell the code officer the neighbor who complained about the smoke and smell has targeted them for the last three years she's lived in the neighborhood, calling the police and fire department every time they barbeque.

And then this from the government official: "So I'm just suggesting there is a rule in play here and what you're doing looks like it may be counter to the rule ... I'm simply suggesting it appears from my observations of your site here you have smoke leaving."

The video shows the men expressing disbelief and one of them saying: "So we're supposed to control the smoke and the wind? Where it's blowing? ... What else can I do?"

The permit officer tells them he has to write them up and turn in the complaint to his department.
#245772 by DainNobody
Mon Jul 27, 2015 4:51 pm
another post demonstrating the new world order's diabolical plan to "push" us all to an agrarian lifestyle,in which self-sufficiency will play a large part.. if they can make weird restrictions on city-dwellers, then eventually many will leave the cities voluntarily, tired of being harassed with impact fees, licensing fees, zoning restrictions, .. like the people parking cars in their own driveway, and barbecuing meats, causing smoke, the government will harass until they have to force you either into a FEMA camp, or if you are smart enough, try making a go on the land free from stupid government control..natural resources are running out in a 100 yers or less, and then what are you going to do?.. no more coal, no more, natural gas, no more .. Jethro Tull's Heavy Horses explains this quite thoroughly in a song.. :D :roll:
#245786 by GuitarMikeB
Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:51 pm
Yes, you too can get the whole story by doing a little googling.
From http://www.saintpetersblog.com/archives/236285 :

Now here’s the part that is – as Paul Harvey used to say – the rest of the story.

In an email obtained by Florida Politics, Pinellas County Administrator Mark Woodard put Jordan’s “conflict” into context.

Woodard explained to county commissioners that the incident was not isolated, but part of an ongoing problem with Jordan using commercial grilling equipment in a residential neighborhood.

Graham was responding to a series of grievances — 15 individual smoke and odor complaints since September 2014 – related to Jordan’s home, which up to that point, had not resulted in a single county citation. Fourteen of the complaints did come from one neighbor.

The only citation was in 2014, by the City of St. Petersburg.

In June, officials also attempted to “address the numerous complaints and educate the homeowner,” with an advisory letter to the property owner detailing various county and state regulations regulating open burning.

The county letter also provided suggestions as to “minimize the impact of smoke and odor on neighbors” from grilling activities.

Again, it should be noted that Jordan was using heavy-duty equipment in a residential zone.

It was not as portrayed in the blogs as an attempt to “limit everything from BBQs to wood stoves” under the pretense of reducing pollution.

“Pinellas County Air Quality has regulatory responsibility countywide and is obligated to respond to citizens’ complaints,” Woodard continued. “It is important to note that we were not there to regulate barbecue grilling.”

It is a simple equation – a complaint was received from neighbors about smoke and odor; the county employee responded.

There was no citation issued. Graham’s visit was simply trying to answer questions and educate the resident.

And no jackbooted Environmental Protection Agency thugs were to be found.

Jordan’s videotape did have a tangible effect, Woodard concluded.

“In the future all Pinellas County Air Quality Environmental Specialists who have contact with the public will be provided with clearly recognizable uniforms with county logos.”

The change will “bring consistency” with other county code enforcement personnel. Also, Pinellas County will have a standard response to any inquiries through the county’s email web portal.

So while bloggers smelled smoke – and there was an awful lot of it — there wasn’t really any fire.

Speaking of which, here is the Pinellas County Municipal Code on open burning:


Sec. 58-216. – Permitted open burning.

(a) A campfire or other fire will be allowed that is used solely for recreational purposes, for ceremonial occasions, for outdoor noncommercial preparation of food, or on cold days for warming of outdoor workers, as long as excessive visible emissions are not emitted.

(b) Open burning for the flaring of waste gases is allowed for reasons of safety, as long as excessive visible emissions are not emitted.

(c) Open burning is allowed for the instruction and training of organized firefighters or industrial employees under the supervision of the appropriate public control official.

Sec. 58-217. – Open burning for recreational purposes.

… Cooking fire means the noncommercial, residential burning of materials not exceeding three feet (0.9 m) in diameter and two feet (0.6 m) in height, other than rubbish in which the fuel burned is contained in an outdoor cooker, a barbecue grill, or a barbecue pit for the purpose of preparing food.
#245789 by Badstrat
Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:25 pm
Since it does not say that he was cooking commercially for a restaurant or how much he was cooking your response story is a bit thin.. Just because you may find a bargain on a commercial cooker does not mean that you must use it to capacity, only that it was something fun to acquire, if even simply for bragging rights. It is still BS that what you use to cook is restricted. He was simply using a commercial cooker. It does not specify that he was using it at full capacity as you would for a restaurant, only that the smoke or smell was the complaint, even though it may simply have not been any smokier than any smaller BBQ grill.

"Graham was responding to a series of grievances — 15 individual smoke and odor complaints since September 2014 – related to Jordan’s home, which up to that point, had not resulted in a single county citation. Fourteen of the fifteen complaints did come from one neighbor". 14 complaints from the same guy so it sounds to me as if the city was trying to find some way to shut up the chronic complainer. Not enough information about the circumstance to call it "the rest of the story " since it leaves a lot out of it to favor the city. It also mentions that quite a few residents were "shocked" at the actions of the city, so that would indicate that he was not cooking commercially.

The story is not about the size of the cooker, nor is it about the amount of smoke being emitted from it, it is about smoke or the smell drifting to the neighbors property , who most likely would have complained if he was using a 1' square cooker to cook. ALL BBQ cooking produces smoke, so the size of the cooker would be irrelevant. Perhaps the government should have "sniffers" to regulate how strong the smell is permitted at a distance of 50'.The complainer was probably a liberal, although it wasn't mentioned. Libs love to bitch about everything someone else is doing. It does not even mention how strong the smell was. Barley noticeable or very heavy that is the question. A chronic bitcher with a grudge about anything else would complain even if he had to make a great effort to smell it. And that appears to be what is going on. But you would have to evaluate the city's response to come to that conclusion. If the same resident complained 14 times, and the city did not tell him he couldn't use the commercial cooker the first time, 2nd time, 3rd time---- to the 13th time. I would suggest that anyone with a brain could see that the cooker itself had little to do with your feeble "rest of the story, which sounds more like a city hiding behind their actions in response to the shock and complaints of the other residents who objected to their banning his cooking on that grill. Evidently they aren't liberals and can see that if he can be banned, so could they if their smoke received any complaints.from a neighbor with a grudge.

I don't care how big or how small a cooker is, smoke travels on the wind and so does the smell of the food being cooked. Here is another limitation of the distance BBQ smoke or smell can travel. My neighbors 1/2 block away cook out every night. The smoke and smell travel that far on a consistent basis when a breeze is blowing. Therefore outdoor cooking on any scale can be regulated if someone bitches enough. So come up with another feeble rest of the story for this one. I know you will miss it, but the important part of this is the DISTANCE the smell or smoke can travel, more than it is about who is cooking or for what reason. Now that I have explained that perhaps you will get it... or not. If commercial food cart cooking can be regulated through smell/ smoke vs distance, this could be applied to residential cooking as well if fought in court.

Austin Gives Early Approval To Regulate BBQ Smoke
By Eric Scheiner | April 16, 2015 | 10:41 AM EDT

http://cnsnews.com/blog/eric-scheiner/a ... -bbq-smoke

WXAN reports Austin City Council members debated a plan earlier this month to put restrictions on smoke from barbeque restaurants.

Council member Pio Renteria asked council to regulate the amount of smoke that comes from food trucks and restaurants within 100 feet of residential areas.

Renteria said residents complained to him that smoke coming from BBQ joints caused them to not be able to open their windows or enjoy their backyards.

Restaurant owners also went to the council asking for flexibility, especially for places that have not faced complaints.

“My concern is that that if we have an ordinance that paints all of us into one group of folk that may not be good neighbors,” said Hoover Alexander, board member of the Greater Austin Restaurant Association. “We’re going to be penalized without considerations of other solutions.”

Council members ultimately gave preliminary approval to the smoke restrictions. A final vote is not expected until the summer.

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