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 News from Around the Americas | August 2006 
Is it a Cactus or a Rude Gesture?
 Paul Fraughton - The Salt Lake Tribune
| | Utah's Stan Torgersen looks at the back of a home being built by neighbor Darren Wood with a sign on the vent that he and his neighbors find offensive. |
Riverton, Utah — An air vent cover on the side of a house looks like it might be an obscene hand gesture. Then again, it might be an abstract cactus.
It depends if you're the owner or a neighbor.
"This kind of shows the attitude that we've been dealing with all along," said Stan Torgersen, whose back windows have a view of the vent.
The acrimony began last fall, when Darren Wood's lot was excavated for a home construction project.
Torgersen was worried that the excavation might damage his home's foundation, so he and another neighbor asked the city to intervene.
Officials in Riverton, 20 miles south of Salt Lake City, ordered a soil test, something Wood said had been done by the previous owner. A new test, he said, would delay the project by four months and cost $3,000.
More recently, the Torgersens and another neighbor complained to the city that the home exceeded the height allowed by code.
"We used to have a view of the mountains," Janet Torgersen told The Salt Lake Tribune recently. "He didn't have to take everyone's view."
Wood conceded the house might be over the limit by a little more than a foot. But once the house is finished, and the soil and landscaping laid out, he believes it will be within regulations.
Plus, he added, the city approved the house plan.
"I think the bottom line is harassment," Wood said of his neighbors' grievances. "They will find another issue to complain about."
The Togersens have again turned to Riverton's government to deal with the vent covering.
Wood told the Tribune he might be willing to change the vent cover — "if it's offensive to them as they have been to me. I'm not above an apology" from neighbors. |
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