Residents fear code enforcement whitewash

A former Building Inspector considered to be single-handedly responsible for Lower Greenville becoming a haven for bars in the late 90's is back on the streets. And local residents want him gone before he whitewashes all the controversial mistakes he created years ago.

Sources at City Hall tell BD this inspector - whom we won't name publicly yet - has been assigned to NSA Hunt's so-called Lower Greenville Task Force in order to review the large number of parking agreements and verify all the parking spaces claimed by local scumbars.

But folks like BD and area resident Bill Dickerson have raised questions to the City's Planning & Development department, noting this is the same inspector who approved many of the controversial Certificates of Occupancy at the heart of the Lower Greenville mess.

BD learned this one-man wrecking crew was loose on the streets again when it was announced at a local crimewatch meeting that many of the so-called facts we had all been using to describe Lower Greenville - parking, CO's, zoning, etc - were in fact not true and all under review by the Task Force. We were told -

Everything you thought was fact is not even close to reality. Up is down, left is right, and in is out.

One of the first items under review are the numerous parking agreements showing which spaces are leased to which scumbars for valet and free parking services (as if there was any free parking out here?). Instances of double- and triple-dipping [two or more bars claiming the same spaces] were found during a cursory review, prompting a more in-depth on-the-street review.

The last review of parking agreements for this area was done nearly ten years ago. At that time, it was determined the area was nearly 715 spaces short of what would be required if there were no Delta or Modified Delta credits, variances or other exemptions granted by City staff and inspectors over the years. With more scumbars in business, this number has surely gone up.

The former Antiques Mall is now occupied by four bars and a rooftop patio. Even though at least two homes were razed to provide so-called free parking, a rooftop patio's square footage is not counted against a bar's parking requirements

This inspector, who had retired a few years ago only to be brought back to work in the City Attorney's office, was asked to do an on-the-street review of all the agreements against current reality - new dumpsters, new lots, new development and construction taking out old parking lots, etc.

Having this guy go out and review the parking agreements and contracts is the screwiest thing we've heard. But then you realize we are - after all - talking about City Hall, said Bill Dickerson.

Bill, who owned his own construction company for many years, was usually the one who called City Hall to complain after this inspector issued a permit that made no sense at all.

The short list of stupid permit tricks we can tie to this guy include -

• Approved the permits for businesses claiming to be restaurants without drive-in service which in fact were bars who could not spell the word kitchen on a good day. This includes Suede, Ecco, Eclipse Bar (now Barrocco), Cafe Nostra and its predecessor (both claiming to be caterers), Shade, Whisky Bar, Medusa.
• Allowed Dragonfly to undergo a complete renovation on a demolition permit.
• Not requesting a structural engineering study for Dragonfly's rooftop patio until Bill complained.
• Allowed Soul 2 Soul to pave over a parking lot for a patio and NOT replace it with parking elsewhere.
• Allowed Soul 2 Soul to switch addresses within the shared structure in order to claim the building was in use (as a biker bar) for nearly a year (based on water meter records) when in fact it sat empty for more than 12 months. Z occupies this building and is using the right side without a Certificate of Occupancy.
• Had no problem sharing a beer at scumbar with his friends - the scumbar owners; on one occasion he was confronted by Bill Dickerson at a bar and laughed in Bill's face when he was asked to justify some of the permits he issued.
• Allowed valet services and businesses to lease parking lots not used after 6 pm as bar parking, a violation of their Certificates of Occupancy (allowing secondary uses of the parking lot). Much of this was corrected in 2003 when BD published a list of violating businesses, many of which gave up their valet services contracts

In some Texas cities, operating a business not in accordance with your CO is an open invitation to having your electric meter pulled of the wall. But in Dallas, the City Attorney's office has already told the Task Force they are not going to ever use that process to close a business down.
Nope, it ain't gonna happen.

Building inspection records are not searchable by the names of inspectors, making it difficult to tie more permits to this inspector.

Residents are justifiably fearful of a whitewash by this inspector, allowing all the errors of nearly ten years to become de facto realities on the ground, grandfathered as legal by the City since that is the easy way out.

We want this guy kicked off Lower Greenville as soon as possible; if not, you can make book that the results of the Task Force will be rendered useless five seconds after they are presented publicly.