THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 19, 1995 TAG: 9501170101
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 184 lines
LIKE A JUNKYARD DOG, Ocean View resident Rodney D. Meyer stood his ground in a legal scrap with the city to prove its nuisance ordinance unconstitutional.
Meyer, a resident of the 2700 block of Pretty Lake Ave., was charged and convicted last year with accumulating too much junk, collecting water where mosquitoes can breed and having unlocked refrigerators on his property.
But a recent offer by the city to dismiss the charges may mean that although he didn't win the war he wanted, he still can claim a small victory against the city's ordinance.
``I don't want to give up,'' said Meyer, a commercial diver. ``By dropping everything, nothing has been corrected. . . . The code still stands, and the code is still wrong.''
As a part of the city's code enforcement efforts to improve blighted areas of Ocean View, inspectors ``sweep'' neighborhoods regularly and respond to complaints if residents and absentee landlords allow eyesores to remain on their property. Inspectors look for abandoned cars, broken windows, peeling paint, discarded building supplies, trash and other refuse.
``The civic leagues . . . are the ones dictating to us to clean up the blight - clean up the trashed yards,'' said Mike Babashanian, the city's chief of inspections. ``We're only responding to their demands . . . and if anything, they'd like to see more of us out there.''
But Meyer, who said he supports keeping his community clean, is not happy with the city's mandate.
After he was convicted in General District Court for the three misdemeanor violations last year, Meyer filed an appeal in Circuit Court.
During a November hearing, Meyer told Circuit Court Judge Charles E. Poston that health inspectors violated his constitutional rights when they came onto his property without his permission and without a search warrant.
``I'm fighting the City of Norfolk for invasion of my privacy rights,'' Meyer said. ``The city is overstepping their boundaries.''
Judge Poston deferred ruling on his appeals until Meyer's lawyer, Clay Macon, and assistant city attorney Cynthia Hall submitted briefs outlining their arguments on the ordinance's constitutionality.
However, in a letter dated Jan. 6 to Judge Poston, Hall offered to dismiss the charges and forgo a pending Jan. 25 court appearance.
Hall, who was out of town attending a conference, could not be reached for comment.
However, Macon said the judge must make the final decision concerning the city's offer.
``I think Rodney had a valid constitutional argument, but now we'll never know how the judge would have ruled,'' Macon said. ``If the judge were to have ruled on the constitutionality of the ordinance, then that might have hurt the city in the long run.''
But city officials say the problem in Meyer's case was not the constitutionality of the ordinance but simply a question of procedure.
``When we get a complaint, we go out to investigate,'' said Pete C. Nicholas, deputy director of Environmental Health Services.
``We ask permission to do an inspection,'' he said, but ``if we have to go get a search warrant or an administrative warrant, then we will do that.
``The people in the civic leagues and the majority of the citizens in this city want the city to be cleaned up, and there's a myriad of codes out there that allow us to do that.''
Inspectors can issue citations for violations that are visible from public rights of way and streets.
``We don't have to go on people's property if violations are in plain view,'' Nicholas said.
Good-natured with a quick wit and easy grin, Meyer is eager to show off the treasures he has acquired at his home.
Known to some as the ``Mayor of 8th Bay,'' Meyer's crowded home sits partially hidden on the corner of Pretty Lake and 8th Bay streets. The shady brick home is bordered by thick shrubs and woods, and a small creek in the back where he stores his boat.
Three ``No Trespassing'' signs are posted throughout the property amid small and large piles of bricks, lumber, metal tubing, tires, wooden oars, a shopping cart, lumber, a bathtub, a birdbath, a bathroom sink and 630 flower bulbs he intends to plant in the spring.
``All of this material is being used,'' Meyer insisted, pointing to the three air conditioners and locked rusted refrigerator in a backyard corner.
Meyer said he keeps the recycled building materials on his property for use in improving his own home or renovating dilapidated homes he purchases with home improvement loans.
``I didn't really think Mr. Meyer was part of the problem,'' said John Barkley, past president of the East Ocean View Little Creek Improvement Association. ``He's been part of the solution.
``He has done much to contribute to his property and other properties he's acquired in Ocean View. We certainly want people to act responsibly and maintain their property, but we've always been concerned when the infringement upon the property rights of individuals are completely ignored.''
But some community leaders disagree, arguing that the best way to ensure a decent neighborhood is through stringent code enforcement efforts.
``This is one of the best ways to keep a community from deteriorating,'' said Jim Janata, president of the East Ocean View Civic League. ``If you look at the communities that have severe problems, what you can see is severe code enforcement problems.
``We want more of the city's resources put into code enforcement so that violations are an exception, not the rule.''
Like a proud new father, Meyer grins and blushes as admirers compliment the craftsmanship of his work at 9533 7th Bay St.
``The city is on me for what I haven't done, but no one gives me an ounce of credit for what I have done,'' he said with disgust. ``If I'm going to do something, I'm not going to do it halfway.''
The Ocean View duplex, which swells his chest up with pride, was built almost entirely of recycled materials.
In 1991, Meyer bought the property and moved a dilapidated house onto the lot. With barely a frame, he worked alone to create a home that now has a mortgage of more than $100,000.
The doors, walls, floors, tub and his trademark cedar wood and ceramic tile are all recycled from demolished homes. But in the process of Meyer's work, the lot began to accumulate iron scraps, trusses and railroad ties that were used for construction and landscaping. The city cited Meyer for the pile of material left behind the house, and he was fined $150.
``I've still got work to be done here,'' he said. ``I've got a lot of irons in the fire, but I'm starting to get burned.''
Meyer, who has bought and remodeled several other properties in the neighborhood, said he prides himself in providing sturdy, attractive homes for decent families.
``You give somebody a nice yard and a nice house, and you've got good tenants,'' Meyer said, showing pictures of other homes he has remodeled.
His chiseled features soften as he walks past two smaller houses along 8th Bay Street that he has purchased and remodeled.
One home was rumored to be the neighborhood crack house and the other a house of ill repute, according to Meyer and several neighbors.
``These people were taking down the neighborhood,'' he said, walking past an Adopt-a-Street sign with his name posted underneath.
``I'm not a slumlord,'' Meyer said, stooping to pick up pieces of litter alongside the road. ``I care about the tenants.''
In spite of a large two-story garage he built next door to keep his building materials and other tools, Meyer's yard is still littered with odds and ends.
``There's a lot of work,'' Meyer said, acknowledging his yard's crowded conditions, but ``Rome was not built overnight. It takes a long time to do something and to do it right.''
Since he has been cited by the city, Meyer said he has tried to make some improvements.
``I've brought lumber from the side of the house to the back'' to obscure it from street view, he said.
``When I bought my house, the pool was used as a landfill, and it had twelve-and-a-half tons of garbage in it,'' he said. But now the pool is fenced in, filled with water and contains fish, frogs and turtles.
On his other properties, Meyer can repeat by rote city codes that govern how materials can be properly stacked or stored.
``You can't have two-by-fours in your back yard if you don't have a building permit,'' he said, pointing to a city permit posted in a living room window.
``I moved this property here because it's going to be used here,'' Meyer said. ``I'm not a commercial property. They try to tell me that I'm running a business out of my home.''
So, he has tried to cover the neat stack of 8,000 recycled bricks he has collected over a 3 1/2-year period to use to build a wall.
But city inspectors have cited it as a ``rat harborage.''
And the birdbath, which sometimes fills with rainwater, Meyer said, has been cited by city inspectors for breeding mosquitoes.
The city also has towed his Fiat sports car, and city officials broke through a six-foot privacy fence in order to tow a utility trailer.
``We are citizens,'' Meyer said. ``This is not a communist state.
``We cannot have prayer in our public schools because we might offend somebody, but city officials can crawl in every nook and cranny of our back yard. . . . That is wrong.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
HIS CRUSADE CONTINUES
Cover photo and inside photos by L. TODD SPENCER
Rodney Meyer, on the steps of one of his rental properties, is proud
of the work he has done in buying and remodeling properties in his
neighborhood.
Rodney Meyer and some of his friends have adopted a street near his
home in Ocean View.
Above, Rodney Meyer stands before a pile of 8,000 bricks he has
collected over a 3 1/2-year period to use to build a wall. To his
left is his fenced-in pool, which is filled with water and contains
fish, frogs and turtles. In the photo at right, Meyer walks through
his back yard, where he kept a trailer that the city towed away. To
get to the trailer, city officials broke through his privacy fence.
KEYWORDS: CITY CODE CODE ENFORCEMENT by CNB