Brad Holland, president of the Midtown Neighborhood Association, met with key city staff last week hoping for help in cleaning up what he sees as problem properties.

"Cleaner, quieter, compliant neighborhoods are safer and more desirable neighborhoods," Holland said in his presentation Aug. 6 to assistant city manager Bruce Messelt and other city officials who met with Holland at his request.

Holland, a lawyer, said Midtown is hurt by the impression messy properties make to those driving by looking for a place to live. He said they send a message that nobody cares and nobody pays attention.

"Everybody looking to select our neighborhood drove by these junkyards," he said.

William Vasko, planning director, admitted at the meeting the city was at fault in some areas. For example, the planning department failed to notify the neighborhood association and possibly one adjoining neighbor of a property owner's plans to build a 7-foot wall earlier this year.

But many of Holland's concerns couldn't be fixed through enforcement of the city code because no violations exist in some of the cases, Tellez said.

For example, the property with the 7-foot wall is cluttered with such objects as field pipes, a camper, a white-tarp tent and a boat. Inspectors have measured the storage on the property, and it does not exceed 25 percent of the total lot space. Nothing is illegally stored in the front yard, nobody is living out of the camper, the vehicles are licensed, and there is no health violation, said Bill Balak, principal planner with the city.

Messelt said the solution might be in adopting a property maintenance or neighborhood beautification code. He said the new code could be possible since the City Council last year asked staffers to look into needed changes to the city code to make it more understandable and effective.

Others, who weren't at Holland's meeting, said they think such an ordinance resembles the codes, covenants and restrictions in effect at newer subdivisions that limit personal preference and character.

"I don't think anyone should say what can or can't be in my yard," said Candace Salisbury, secretary of the Midtown association. She said certain health-related codes are needed, but she does not agree with all of Holland's ideas on how properties should look.

Dan Arnit, owner of the property with the 7-foot wall, said the objects on his property are needed and used.

The field pipes, he said, are an ongoing art project in which the pipes would serve as large wind chimes. He said his family likes to camp, hence the camper, and he takes his boat to Mexico and Lake Powell often.

He said he thinks Holland, as leader of the association, should first try to get to know the people he's complaining about and possibly offer assistance to help clean up the properties.

Arnit, who has lived in the neighborhood for nearly 30 years, said he views Holland's complaining to the city as bullying.

"He wants a world that, in this working-class neighborhood, you can't have," he said.

Holland has been complaining about the condition of Arnit's property for several years now, as well as Arnit's former home at 4418 E. Linden St. He now lives just down the street. City records show seven complaints have been filed about Arnit's properties in the last 12 years, none resulting in a citation.

The city granted Arnit a permit to build a wall higher than 6 feet. Holland, a 20-year resident of Midtown, said he believes the gray, concrete-block wall is inappropriate for a residential area.

Arnit, a backhoe operator who contracts for work mostly at archaeology sites, said he built the wall as high as he did so Holland would leave him alone. Originally, he planned the wall to be 5 feet tall.

"I really don't care to be behind a wall that high," he said.

He said he's concerned about the quality of his neighborhood, especially what he sees as too much drug-dealing, and wishes Holland would concentrate more on that.

Holland accused the city of being slow to respond to complaints about Arnit's property and other properties. The inattention "has a chilling effect on anyone who would otherwise step forward to advocate for compliance," he said.

The problem leads to eroded property values and tax bases, higher crime and less support for neighborhood activists, Holland said.

"Is this the city's vision of Midtown?" he asked.

Also meeting with Holland, at his request, were Walter Tellez, zoning administrator; police Sgt. Bill Webster and Carol Clark, aide to council member Fred Ronstadt.

Messelt said he would suggest to City Manager James Keene that a team of employees from different departments should look into issues in Midtown.

* Contact Megan Rutherford at 434-4073 or at meganr@azstarnet.com.