LBPNA Resident's Guide

A Registered Ann Arbor Neighborhood Association Endorsed by Mayor John Hieftje

Resident's Guide

Welcome to our Neighborhood!

This neighborhood has a great balance between a vital urban environment and a quiet family community. We hope you enjoy our friendly and diverse community, which includes many families, children, university students and elderly folks.

This is a quiet, pedestrian neighborhood where residents enjoy a great deal of camaraderie, and we pride ourselves on community respect. We hope that if you have any questions or needs you will not hesitate to call on your neighbors for assistance.

The long-term residents want to keep the neighborhood a pleasant place, and we hope that everyone living here will help us. We ask that you become aware of rules and ordinances held by the City of Ann Arbor because we monitor and enforce them.

The Lower Burns Park Neighborhood Association (LBPNA) comprises homeowners as well as renters. We hope that you will take the time to get to know us, and will call upon us anytime you need us. We will always be happy to lend some help to you when you need it.

Renters’ Assistance

One of the major roles of the Association is to act as a liaison between renters and their landlords or property management companies. Renters have been helped in the past with problems such as defective plumbing, gas leaks, and black mold.

Additionally, renters will find that their homeowner neighbors are often happy to loan tools, lawnmowers or other items to help renters maintain their property.

U-M's Student Legal Services can help students with landlord-tenant issues.

Block Parties

The Association will be holding block parties in the fall and spring, with food & great music. Look for flyers in your mailbox.

If you want to host your own block party, it's possible to get a permit from the city to close the street. The Block Party Permit must be filed five days in advance of the event, and you need signatures of 70% of the residents of the street to close the street. Parties must end by dusk or 9 pm.

City Codes and Neighborhood Rules

In order to keep our neighborhood the pleasant place it is, you should be aware of the rules and ordinances of the city of Ann Arbor.

Parking

Some blocks in the Lower Burns Park neighborhood have limited parking for the number of people with cars on the street. You may have to park around the block.

Cars are not allowed to be parked on lawns or blocking sidewalks, per city ordinances.

On University of Michigan football Saturdays ONLY, cars may be parked on lawns, but must not block sidewalks and may not be parked on the tree line area between the sidewalk and the street. Violators will be ticketed, and in some cases, towed. (Especially on football Saturdays, towing happens fast!).

Parking on the street is restricted to 20 feet away from a designated, painted crosswalk; 15 feet away from an intersection with no designated crosswalk; and 30 feet away from all posted stop signs: anything closer is illegal (unless a sign is posted indicating that parking is legal up to the sign, but not beyond the sign).

Cars must also be parked 4 feet away from both sides of the curb cut of residential driveways. Cars may never be parked on the sidewalk, blocking sidewalk access to pedestrians.

Garbage Collection & Recycling

Curbside garbage and recycling is collected early Monday morning. We have a robust population of skunks and raccoons, and they will break up and scatter your trash if it is not adequately enclosed. Trash should be kept in sealed in plastic bags in the large trash bins provided by the city. All trash carts and recycle bins must be removed from the street line, once they have been emptied, before Tuesday morning.

The city does not pick up any trash that is not in the provided bin. Trash left sitting on the curb will not be picked up. If you have more trash than will fit in your bin, you might ask one of your neighbors if there is room in their bin. If there isn’t, the municipal trash dump is located at 2950 E. Ellsworth Road at Platt Road (734-971-7400).

For recycling information, please see your Ann Arbor City Guide or phone the City at 99GREEN.

Between pickups, garbage and recycling should be stored behind your house or in an enclosed storage shed at the side of the house. Except for pickup day, no trash or containers should ever be visible at the front of your house. If your trash ever does get scattered by animals or weather, it must be cleaned within 12 hours.

Large Trash Items: If you wish to dispose of large objects like furniture or appliances, you must take your refuse to the dump on Ellsworth Road. The city no longer offers scheduled pickups for these larger items. For information on donating items within the community, visit www.ewashtenaw.org for the “Turning Trash into Treasure” program.

Hazardous Materials, such as motor oil, batteries, and fluorescent bulbs should be disposed of properly. Contact the Washtenaw County Home Toxics Reduction Program (222-3950 for 24-hour assistance) for disposal instructions and information.

Violations of these Solid Waste rules will result in ticketing by the Department of Solid Waste and a $500 fine. These rules WILL be strictly enforced by the Association.

Noise

Loud sounds and music must be abated before 10:00 P.M. Sunday through Thursday night and 12:00 AM midnight on Friday and Saturday night. This includes honking of automobile horns, shouting, music, etc. Ann Arbor Police will be called if parties or other loud activities occur after these times.

There is a progressively increasing fine for repeated noise infractions. If residents have repeated offenses, renters can be evicted, and homeowners will be fined.

Construction Noise: Noise from construction work and related activities is permitted Monday to Saturday, between the hours of 7 am – 8 pm. Monday through Saturday, noise which is generated by a person (i.e. not contractors) working at his own residence is permitted to continue until 10 pm.

On Sundays, NO construction-related noise from contractors is permitted, only noise which is generated by homeowners working on their own residence between 9 am and 6 pm.

Traffic

Residents within LBPNA must always be aware of the many children and elderly residents in our neighborhood. The speed limit is 25 mph. Please drive slowly and with caution through our neighborhood.

Lawn Care & House Maintenance

Regardless who is responsible for lawn care and house maintenance, it must be done regularly and appropriately. If your landlord or property management company is responsible for your maintenance and you have not had success urging them to perform that maintenance, contact the Association and we will take action to help you.

Leaf pickup by city street sweepers is scheduled twice each fall. Leaves must be raked into the street curbside on selected days, leaving drains and gutters clear for rainwater flow. Remove your car from the street on those days. See the City’s Wastewatcher Newsletter for the annual schedule.

Our sidewalks are active and lively all year long: children walk and bike to school during the school year, neighbors often walk to work on a daily basis, and young families with baby strollers abound. It is the street life of our neighborhood that makes it a great place to meet and know your neighbors. It is important that our sidewalks are well maintained and kept free of garbage, broken glass, snow and ice, and any other hazardous materials. Dog walking is very common, and it is required that all dog excrement be picked up and properly disposed of by the dog owners/walkers, preferably into a city trash bin or your own, not your neighbor’s, blue trash cart.

It is also a city ordinance that on snowy days you must shovel the sidewalk in front of your home so that people can walk over it without hazard. This is especially important for the safety of the elderly and handicapped pedestrians in our neighborhood. Violators will be fined for failing to shovel snow.

Couches and other upholstered furniture placed on porches and lawns are a severe fire hazard, attract rodents and are unsightly. The Association discourages indoor upholstered furniture on outdoor porches, and the City prohibits them on lawns.

Summary of Enforced Association Rules & City Codes

Watch for kids! Drive carefully through our neighborhood for the safety of our children and elderly residents.
Place garbage and recycling at the curb on Monday by 7:00 AM.
Keep garbage cans and trash out of sight from the street.
Shovel your sidewalk promptly and completely on snow days.
Do not park on lawns or block driveways.
Limit noise after 10pm Sunday-Thursday and after midnight Friday & Saturday night.
No trash on your lawn. Ever.
No upholstered furniture on porch or lawn.

Community Standards Unit

The Community Standards Unit of the A2 Police responds 24/7 to non-emergency problems.

Call 994-1788 to report any problems with:

trash/debris;
lawn/weed problems;
inappropriate signs in the “right of way” areas;
sidewalk problems such as snow & ice, broken pavement, or other obstructions;
peddlers/solicitors;
after hours noise.

They should be your first contact and are guaranteed to respond. They issue warnings, citations, and eventually tickets and fines for repeat offenses.

Our many thanks to our Council Reps Margie Teall and Marcia Higgins as well as Mayor John Hieftje, and to Acting Chief Greg O’Dell, Sergeant Andy Zazula, Officer Jennifer Sartori, and the many officers of the Ann Arbor Police Department who help us maintain our community, for helping our effort to keep our neighborhood a beautiful and safe place to live.

PLEASE JOIN US!!

Neighborhood improvement, block parties, crime watch, renters’ assistance--these are all efforts of the LBPNA. Join our association and our efforts to improve our neighborhood.

For membership in the LBPNA, or if you have any questions or comments, please write to lowerburnsparkassociation - at - gmail - dot - com or contact one of your Council Reps.

Ann Arbor