Respect For Canal Homeowners

[Reefmonkey]

My family has had a house at the end of a canal in a subdivision on the west end of the island since 1983. It's been a real treasure for our family, a place for us to come together in the summer and on holidays, make memories, enjoy the great outdoors. There has been one chronic irritation, however, and it seems to have gotten considerably worse in the last few years. As I said, our house is on the end of the canal, ie it is the corner lot on our street, with the canals running opposite the street, so we are at the "cul de sac" so to speak, of the canal. Our lawn meets the lawn of the house across the canal from us exactly midway on the end bulkhead. Our lots are level with the street, no curbs or storm sewer or ditch. This setup seems to be an invitation for people (mostly from outside the neighborhood, but also short-term renters) to treat our lawn like a public right-of-way to access the canal to fish. This weekend I had to chase two separate groups off our lawn, they had both driven their large pickup trucks completely onto our lawn. This often results in deep ruts in our lawn and/or damage to our underground sprinkler system. We've also had people drive their golf carts straight onto our lawn to fish while we were sitting on our deck over our boat dock. On two separate occasions when we've told them to get off, they've argued with us, one insisting it was public property, another insisted that he had fished here for 10 years, then knew we had caught him in a lie when we said we'd owned the house for 30. The first one only left after we dialed the police. Golf carts are a special nuisance in our neighborhood. Parents set their kids loose to drive them around the neighborhood (ignoring the "Licensed golf cart drivers only" signs posted at every stop sign), and the kids cut through our yard to round the corner.

 

We've had underwater lights off our dock for about 15 years, we liked watching the sillouettes of the big trout and redfish at night, and sometimes fishing for them. Several times we'd walk out to fish our lights, and find someone in a kayak already on top of them, or we'd be out on our deck watching the fish and throwing shrimp to them when a kayaker would paddle up and start casting at the fish, scaring them away. I know the canal is public waterway and the kayakers have a right to fish it, but there are legal rights, and then there is common courtesy. So little of the latter has been shown, that when our lights burned out recently, we considered the cost of having them and the problems created by them being on, we decided not to fix them. The inconsiderate kayakers by themselves probably wouldn't have been enough to push the decision, but along with the attraction the lights presented to the pickup trucks and golf carts to drive onto the property, it did. By paying for the lights themselves and the electricity to run them, we were providing a free fish attractant for kayak fishermen, and would have continued to do so if it had just been kayakers fishing our lights when we weren't out there, but that was ruined by the rampant discourtesy and lack of respect for property rights of others. The removal of the lights has cut the traffic down somewhat, but as this weekend demonstrated, there are still plenty of people willing to disregard private property rights to get to canals.

 

I am posting this in the hopes that at least one person who might go down to Galveston in the future will stop and think before going into a subdivision of private houses on canals to fish. If you enter the subdivision from the water, via the canals, and stay on the water, you are fine, but if you drive in to fish from a canal, you are in all likelihood trespassing. And even if you are fishing from a kayak and fishing over underwater lights in the canal, please just be considerate of the private homeowners who paid to put those lights in the water, and if they look like they want to use them, move on to lights where there aren't people out.

[august948]

 

Are you allowed to fence off your property?

[Reefmonkey]

No, not where it’s needed, POA rules (ie, has to be within front building setback line)

[august948]

How about decorating the perimeter of your yard with knock-out roses?

[Reefmonkey]

Wouldn't want the maintenance, and honestly, might be a target for some hotrodders to plough through, that's how disrespectful to property some people can be. If only they did live up to their name, and "knocked out" anyone who tried to drive through them We're considering a bollard and chain swag barrier, and submitting to the POA for approval. The POA is especially strict and prone not to approve otherwise reasonable additions when submitted by people on corner lots because of their visibility.

[mkultra25]

4 hours ago, Reefmonkey said:

We're considering a bollard and chain swag barrier, and submitting to the POA for approval. The POA is especially strict and prone not to approve otherwise reasonable additions when submitted by people on corner lots because of their visibility.

 

I was wondering if something like this might work earlier. If it gets shot down, what about strategically-placed, ostensibly decorative boulders/large rocks? They seem to be popular with Heights homeowners intent on laying claim to parts of the public ROW (you obviously have a more legitimate use in mind), but they usually don't attract much unwelcome attention from the Powers that Be. 

[samagon]

On 3/4/2019 at 10:42 AM, august948 said:

How about decorating the perimeter of your yard with knock-out roses?

 

On 3/6/2019 at 8:02 PM, mkultra25 said:

 

I was wondering if something like this might work earlier. If it gets shot down, what about strategically-placed, ostensibly decorative boulders/large rocks? They seem to be popular with Heights homeowners intent on laying claim to parts of the public ROW (you obviously have a more legitimate use in mind), but they usually don't attract much unwelcome attention from the Powers that Be. 

 

knock out roses don't take much upkeep.

 

knock out roses with boulders interspersed, when you do get the hot rodder he'll be in for a surprise that leaves a smile on your face.

[arche_787]

Agave plants -aka- Century Plants (Agave americana).

I’ve got two large plants in my yard and they are the devil!  Poisonous sap (leads to itchy welts if it gets on the skin) and sharp dagger fronds which also contain countless little thorns along the length of the “leaf/frond”.  They grow easily, and if you don’t trim them they grow prodigiously!  The fronds can get big enough they could impale someone with ease.  Perfect to thwart potential ne’er-do-wells!

 

I reside in the CLC area and would be happy to let you take them if you so wanted.  We are going to get rid of them this summer anyway.