Photo by Metro Creative Images.
At least four North Lake Highlands homeowners found unexpected greetings taped to their front doors over the weekend. The citations were from City of Dallas inspectors for “prohibited watering” on Friday. Residents now owe a total of $386 in penalties and fees.
Recipients weren’t happy.
“Fine for morning watering?!??,” wrote one woman, who lives in Whispering Hills near Audelia and Walnut and shared her story with neighbors on Nextdoor.com. “We have our sprinklers set to go on from 6-7 am. Confused because we have had it set like this for about 6 weeks or so since we redid our yard. [The inspector] came with a ticket around 8:15am. (They weren’t even on at that time.) Please advise if we have missed some water restrictions due to heat. This seems ridiculous!!”
The woman, who asked Advocate not to share her name, said she wasn’t aware of the prohibitions. She recently laid new sod and set her sprinklers to run three to four times per week. Between shelling out $3,000 for the yard work, hundreds more on higher water bills and almost $400 for the citation, it will be an expensive summer. She called the citation “absurd.”
First-time homeowners and newcomers to the area may be unaware of city water restrictions, but Dallas’ ordinance governing water conservation was implemented in 2012. From April 1 to October 31, automatic sprinkler systems may only be used before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. on assigned days based on the last digit of one’s home address. For odd addresses, watering is permitted on Saturdays and Wednesdays. Homeowners with even addresses (or no address number) may water Sundays and Thursdays. Watering during any form of precipitation is also prohibited, and automatic sprinklers are required to have working rain and freeze sensors. Broken, missing or misdirected sprinkler heads are also prohibited, as is the spraying of driveways, sidewalks or streets. Watering by hand or with a soaker hose is allowed on any day, at any time. Homeowners may apply to the city for a variance, which would allow additional watering days for up to five weeks after installation of landscaping. The variance form is available here.
David, who also received a citation and lives down the street from the original poster (he also prefers that Advocate not use his full name), said he’s talked to the other recipients, and all are law-abiding citizens. David and his neighbors made a simple mistake setting their sprinkler systems to run Wednesdays and Fridays, and the city is making them pay for it big time, he said.
“I called the Northeast Code Office on Goforth, and the lady apologized and said she didn’t know what happened. We called for an explanation from the officer, and she claimed she mailed us a warning. None of us received it. We all think it’s a little shady.”
Commenters on Nextdoor postulated that a neighbor must have turned the violators in to code inspectors, but David’s not so sure.
“She sounds like a rogue agent. She was very angry on the phone, and she told us we should have known better. If she had posted a warning to our door — or knocked to let us know of our mistake — we would have simply flipped the sprinkler system from one day to the next. It’s an easy fix.”
David said he moved to the house two summers ago, and he watered at his former residence on different days. He’s aware that Dallas has instituted water restrictions — “rightfully so” — but he thinks homeowners should be given a chance to cure an honest mistake.
“I’ve been told there’s information about the rule in the water bill which arrives in the mail,” David told me. “But we’re paperless. My water payment is auto drafted, and I don’t get a bill by mail. One of the neighbors who got caught in this sting is an elderly person on a fixed income, and they have no recourse.”
“All we want is a chance,” David said. “We’ll adjust our sprinklers and switch our days, just give us a chance.”
