Well, just when I thought people would run out of things to complain about... There is an ordinance controlling BBQ smoke. You may have heard about it in Florida, and most recently explored in Austin, Tx. I can't even. I get the right to peaceful enjoyment of your property, but controlling air-bound substances? This is next to impossible. One guy is complaining his home backs up to a BBQ restaurant and they BBQ all the time, and he cannot enjoy his home. I get this, but who was there first, your home or the BBQ place? I would wager the BBQ place. So you buy a home that backs up to a BBQ restaurant and you want to whine because smoke goes in the air? As a homeowner some four times over, I get it. As a human, I get over it. I think sometimes when new subdivisions go up and back up to places like this, and it's not divulged, this sucks, but lots of things in this life happen that suck.
I lived next to a neighbor on acreage once, and he was talked into one of those fancy aerobic systems that waters your yard with recycled turd water, which is so clean you can even drink it pitch, by the salesman, and the poor dude was out there once a month working on it. I know they say chlorine tablets once a month does the trick, but it doesn't, or didn't in his case. As a neighbor with two acres of my own, I could smell his sewer water sprinkler come on, and went inside. I chatted with him about it, and at the end of our conversation I decided this poor guy had bigger issues. You eventually get used to it and realize some days are better than others. This poor fella would literally flush his toilet and cue his sprinklers that sprayed all over his garden. Tomato a la turd anyone? He called back the company that installed it, and they serviced it free the first year and then is was like $75 a service after that, which was like monthly. I seriously considered catching something of that water in a glass, and asking that dude to take a damn drink, since it is so "clean".
My point? Aerobic systems are regulated and meet ordinances, and they flat stink, in the literal sense, but I don't hear anyone putting an ordinance on the fecal water that hits the air, and wafts across yards. I would rather smell BBQ than human waste, just saying. I am not quite sure how you can control what hits the air. I mean can I be like, "Officer please cite my neighbor over here that has coffee breath that hits the air, wafts over here and ruins my quality of life?" Or lets just complain about the neighbor that has incessant flatulence and farts all the time, that's airborne, how are we going to control that? What about the chemical mowing and insecticide that meets most ordinances, do you complainers somehow think that when that stuff is being sprayed that the wind isn't catching it and its also becoming airborne, and getting all over your gardens, in your lungs etc.?
Maybe I am just a jerk. That's probably it. I wasn't such a jerk to my neighbor that tried his very best to fix his new system, to the point he had to dig it up and start over. All I am saying it there is bigger shit happening, and sometimes that bigger shit is literal shit, (in my case) but you know what, my neighbor was trying, and I respected that.
Why do these homeowner's somehow think their idea of peaceful enjoyment trumps the owner of the other piece of lands entitlement to peaceful enjoyment of their property which may include BBQ? Everyone's idea of paradise and peaceful enjoyment are very different. Maybe the BBQ place should make a counter complaint for this dudes whining hitting the wind, and getting wafted into a city complaint. There is a fine line, in disruption of peaceful enjoyment. I would say the guy that minds his own business, but tries to appease your request is a stand-up person. Its better than having the jerk that parks on your sprinkler heads in your yard and gets mad when you as him to move, every. single. day. That's not just disruption of peaceful enjoyment, that it a water leak, and another story.
There are mature ways to handle this. Ask the BBQ place to use less wood, put a large blower fan and three walls up or anything of the like to minimize the smoke, but to regulate how much smoke escapes from private property is just silly, and almost impossible. There is a difference in being neighborly and whiny, and there are bigger issues to contend with.
Sincerely, Control the perfume of your roses wafting into my yard when the wind blows.
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