CITY OF CATHEDRAL CITY
M E M O R A N D U M
TO: Justin J. Gardiner, Code Compliance Manager
FROM: Talen J. Weinman, Code Officer I
DATE: 12/20/2023
SUBJECT: Improper storage of garbage bins across the Panorama area This memorandum is a full report of my findings regarding violations of [CCMC 13.80.090 Garbage Containers] within the Panorama residential area.
INTRODUCTION
I began by gathering information on the service days in the Panorama area. I would limit my observations to the northwestern and southwestern quadrants of the area as those locations both operate on the same garbage service schedule, that schedule being a Wednesday pick-up for trash bins. As currently written, the CCMC states that “It is unlawful […] to maintain such premises or property with garbage or trash containers stored in front yards and visible from the public right-of-way, except when in places of collection on scheduled waste collection days” and when this violation is issued as part of a Notice and Order to Abate, an additional instruction is automatically populated reading “Always store trash containers behind fence out of view of public within 12 hours after service”. I conducted my inspection at 10:00 AM on Monday, December 18th, 2023 (12/18/2023) approximately 37 hours before the scheduled day of waste removal. Below is an image detailing the route that I followed to conduct my inspections:
RESULTS
I patrolled 13 streets, each street containing between 60 and 70 homes accounting for both sides of the street. If each home is expected to have at least 3 garbage bins, one for general waste, one for recycling, and one for plant waste, we can infer that up to 210 bins may be visible on any given street during scheduled waste disposal.
Some streets like Durango had no visible garbage containers stored on the street, or very few containers stored at a location within public view but away from public right-of-way. Other streets, such as Estio, had more than 50+ garbage bins observed primarily in-front-of or on the side of the homes but streetside occasionally as well. I decided to catalogue the severity of the violations based on the amount of garbage containers I could observe when driving down the street. I then used this system to classify the severity of the violation on each street I visited. Both the system and my findings are outlined in the following tables:
Number of garbage bins Classification of severity
6 or fewer Very Low
10 or fewer Low
20 or fewer Medium
30 or fewer High
50 or more Very High
Garbage bin severity by street
Durango None
Tortuga None
Bella Vista None
Risueno Very Low
Concepcion Very Low
Hermosillo Low
Molino Low
Empalmo Low
Encinitas Medium
Peladora Medium
Espada High
Santelmo High
Estio Very High
The data above is entirely focused on garbage containers observed from the street or otherwise stored improperly. It is important to address that it does not account for other conditions that are commonly present across these residential properties including: higher priority violations, structural conditions, or accessibility for the elderly or infirm. Some of these properties feature walls between their adjoining neighbors front yards, and have opted to store their bins along these walls either because it is more accessible or because the home had no easily observable pedestrian entrance to the rear (i.e a gate). Included among the photographs provided is an address that is a multi-unit dwelling, with limited parking for up to five vehicles and garbage containers for as many units. The amount of garbage containers provided to this dwelling exceeds what could be reasonably stored “out of public viewing” without the construction of a trash enclosure.
In the case of standard single-family dwellings garbage bins are sometimes stored on the side of the home, along an adjoining wall, or in front of the garage door. The diagram below shows where these improperly stored bins are commonly found:
Note: not all the observed properties had a gate or easily observable pedestrian entrance to the rear yard.
During my observations I took photographs of the length of the streets showing how many garbage bins could or could not be observed by a citizen driving by, of locations where bins had been improperly stored in abundance, and of bins improperly stored in such a way that still maintained a clean and inoffensive property.
This concludes my findings.
Talen Weinman
Code Compliance Officer
Ph. (760) 202-2490
City of Cathedral City
68700 Avenida Lalo Guerrero
Office Hours: M-Th 7:00am to 6:00pm
CathedralCity.gov