HOUSTON – When Justin Cox moved into the Julia Street Landing subdivision in north Houston in February, he said he was assured the city would pick up his trash and recycling.
“As I was buying the house, I’d asked the question several times, ‘What’s going to happen with the trash service because I did understand there was no HOA,’” Cox said.
Two months later, he said no one has picked up his trash, which is why he believes this is why there are several illegal dumping sites around the neighborhood.
“What ends up happening, it seems is, it starts off with a few trash bags,” Cox explained. “Somebody throws out a bag and then from there someone sees it and they throw out a couch, a mattress, or some furniture.”
For the last two months, he said he has reached out to several people to try and figure out why the city won’t pick up his trash.
He shared a timeline of his correspondents with KPRC 2′s Rilwan Balogun.
The documents Cox shared show that on Feb. 23 he called 311 inquiring about trash service and was told he should expect a trash and recycling bin within 12 days.
Eight days later, March 3, he was notified Solid Waste Management couldn’t service him or his neighbors.
He ultimately got back in touch with the developers MTY Builders that they would investigate the issue.
“When I followed up with [MTY Builders] on yesterday about it, what I was told is that they had submitted the plan several times by the city but they were rejected over and over again without clear understanding as to why,” he said.
KPRC 2 reached out to the mayor’s office and a spokesperson for the Solid Waste Management department shared a copy of the MTY Builders’ solid waste plan showing they failed it.
“The developer submitted a Solid Waste Plan during the platting process, and it did not meet the criteria for City Solid Waste Services. Although the developer acknowledged that this plan failed the criteria, they continued to move forward with the platting process. The residents can contract a private hauler for solid waste services, or they can request a review for non-residential services from the City’s Solid Waste Management department.”
The townhomes are in Council Member Karla Cisneros’ district. Her spokesperson explained the property’s solid waste plan was rejected because there isn’t enough room for a truck to pick up the amount of trash safely and properly and recycle bins the complex would need.
“The introduction of the recycling container deemed an additional 5 feet of space. This means that homes need at least 10 feet total for both containers to be retrieved,” a spokesperson for Council Member Karla Cisneros’ said. “In the past all of these addresses qualify for city service since it was only collected one container (automated) but now that there is an additional container more frontage is needed for the truck drivers to pick up all the containers. Given the number of units per development and the amount of space needed there is not enough space for all the containers. Due to the lack of frontage, these addresses are no longer eligible to receive city service. Containers cannot block driveways, fire hydrants or sidewalks as this goes against the code of ordinance.”
KPRC 2 reached out to MTY Builders multiple times and never received a response from the company.
Ashwin Kewalramani a buyer’s agent with New Age, a real estate company, said he’s heard of developers in similar situations.
“A lot of my builders on these shared driveway developments have had some issues where usually the city would allow you on these streets to put the garbage can on the streets and the city would supply the cans but as of late that’s been getting a lot of push back from the city and these builders have had to start an HOA later in the game,” Kewalramani explained.
City ordinance Sec. 39-63 explains why the property’s solid waste plan was rejected. You can see the ordinance here.
