(Valerie Gonzalez | The Monitor)
SAN JUAN — Tired of late-night parties, music so loud it rattles their windows and pool water that seeps into their properties, a group of San Juan residents is asking the city to take action on problems they’ve encountered with a neighboring event center for the last few years.
Hacienda El Rincon, an events center registered with the state since May 2018, sits in a residential neighborhood of northern San Juan facing Veterans Boulevard. Homes share a fence with the business that rents its patio and pool for parties.
Complaints about the noise at some of those gatherings emerged among neighbors as early as 2019.
“Their and my concern is the loudness of the music played,” Rolando Casas, a nearby resident, wrote to the planning director via email in November 2019.
“This is a working class neighborhood and though we understand we are across the alley from a business/commercial area the other businesses do not generate as much or any noise.”
More than three years later, Casas is still waiting for a solution.
“You don’t sleep,” the 68-year-old said, as he and his wife, Nora, 62, sat in the backyard of his relative’s house who lives directly behind the business.
The retired couple live on the street behind the business, where they’ve resided for 30 years. Family members, including a police officer on the overnight shift and a college student, live at four other homes on the same block.
Rolando didn’t realize he could call police to file a noise complaint until a few months after the problem started, he said. Over the years, he’s developed a routine when the parties grow too loud.
“I go to our living room and I turn the TV on,” Rolando said. “The house is still rattling, and once I get fed up I’ll call PD and they’ll come. They’ll take care of it if it’s past 1 a.m.”
He’s received at least 10 police cards with case numbers on them to document some of his calls. After Rolando realized the department is short staffed on officers, he reduced the number of times he called for noise complaints.
Amelia G. Gonzalez, 80, and her son, Jose Arturo Gonzalez, 52, live next door to the business and have a stack of a dozen police cards and several copies of police reports documenting numerous complaints about the music, intoxicated drivers and people parking on her property.
Amelia even keeps a personal calendar marking the days parties have gone too long or loud.
“Today they started at 1:25 a.m. Call PD 2 times,” said one note scribbled on Thursday, Sept. 15.
(Valerie Gonzalez | The Monitor)
Later that month, Amelia called police again when the music was too loud.
“Gonzalez was then informed that the police can only cite the party goers but cannot remove, alter, or stop the party. Advising Gonzalez to speak to the city and or with her surrounding neighbors so that action can be done,” the copy of the police report read. “Gonzalez thus stated that it wasn’t her job to do so, thus Officer Garza informed her to join the city meetings to discuss it. Gonzalez stated that she in fact does have a meeting with [the] city manager on the matter, hoping something will get done.”
The Gonzalezes and relatives of the Casases own property abutting the business’ fenceline, a proximity that led to a costlier problem.
Jose Arturo said he’s seen people at the business discharging the water and watching it run onto the adjacent properties.
“I’ve talked to him and I’ve told him, ‘Hey, stop. What are you all doing? You all are draining your water over here. Get that thing fixed,’” he recalled.
Jose Arturo said it’s a problem they’ve dealt with for at least two years.
Photos and videos show water seeping over and pooling in their backyards, which are in a lower-lying area than the business.
(Valerie Gonzalez | The Monitor)
Hacienda El Rincon was raised 4 inches higher by the previous property owner in an effort to prevent flooding, according to the current property owner, Hector Espino Jr.
To mitigate the problem from their side, the Gonzalezes installed sheet metal near the fence foundation and filled the gap with dirt, and dug a trench covered with plastic to block and drive water away from their property. He estimates they’ve spent up to $4,000 on materials and labor.
The Gonzalezes and the Casases’ relatives in the back had dirt brought into backyards to help level the soft, sloping ground that’s been impacted by the continuing pool water streaming onto their property.
Espino, the property owner, said he’s been in contact with the business that rents that property and said he’s been made aware of some of the complaints.
The Monitor provided Espino with a phone number to pass on to the business owner for comment, but the newspaper did not receive a response. A phone number for the business wasn’t immediately available.
Espino said the business fixed the problem causing the pool water to drain to the neighbors’ property around “four or five weeks” ago, but some water is used for their landscaping.
“I think what they did [was] they rerouted the pipes and they’re throwing the water to the palm trees that we have to the side and to the grass, our landscaping that we have there,” Espino said.
Based on Espino’s assertion, the problem was fixed sometime between Dec. 2 through the 9.
A video shared with The Monitor dated Dec. 5 shows water seeping through the fence into the Gonzalezes’ backyard.
Another video from Nov. 27 also shows the water breaching the fencing, collecting in large pools of water surrounded by thick mud on the Gonzalez property.
Espino said he received calls from the city, though he did not provide names or titles, which prompted him to limit the business from booking late night events scheduled after 1 a.m.
“We used to rent a lot after hours, like after, from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m., una tornaboda, like an after party. We stopped doing that because of the complaints. That’s something that did affect our business,” Espino said.
That change happened around August, he said, although the business allowed parties booked before that change.
“I am aware they’re done. All those events after 1 a.m. So although the other events that they’re doing, they’re doing them, 12 o’clock is the max and for whatever it takes for the customer to clean up,” Espino explained. “So it’s something that we already shut down. We’re not offering that service.”
Jose Arturo remains concerned with the water that continued to cause a soggy, shifting ground on his mother’s property on Thursday afternoon.
He also expressed frustration at the city’s lagging response.
“We’re just caught in between a rock and a hard place, because who’s supposed to be the one doing something about it?” Jose Arturo said. “We got so many complaints already. Something should have been done already by this time, and it hasn’t.”
Rolando, who emailed the city’s planning director, Daniel Tijerina, received a response in March when the director said he would talk with staff and create a “gameplan to address this matter,” according to the email from March 15, 2022.
On Thursday, the city manager, Benjamin Arjona, said he, too, was aware of the situation, but he wanted to know more about the matter.
“Let’s put some control to this,” Arjona said Thursday. “If they’ve been reaching out to code enforcement, then I want to know how many times they’ve reached out to code enforcement. That’s what I’m asking for. I’m asking for a report from code enforcement and also the dispatch log to see how many times they actually called.”
The city manager said the calls made to police and the code enforcement office, which is under the planning department, serve as factors in determining whether a business is allowed to keep their annual permit — a decision that would be made by the city commission.
“Just remember that any and all businesses all have a CUP, which is a conditional use permit,” Arjona explained. “So at any time, depending on the severity of the issues, we can always revoke the permits. That’s why I have to really look into it and see what’s going on.”
Arjona said he expects the reports from police and the code enforcement office to take a few days.
“Also, I’m getting ready to talk to Mr. (Daniel) Tijerina from planning and zoning, the one that oversees code enforcement, to go over and take a look at the facility to see what’s going on with that splash matter — the backwater that is coming over into the property to the neighbor’s home because it was substantial.”
However, residents, like Nora, say they just want the business to fall in compliance with existing ordinances and to be a good neighbor.
“Just to have a consideration of people who are around here,” she said.
Monitor staff writer Francisco E. Jimenez contributed to this report.
