Beach residents leave trash cans in street to keep out visitors from nearby neighborhood

Virginia Beach, Va. - In Green Run, trash cans line the streets. Except, it's not trash day.

“The reasons there are trash cans throughout the neighborhood is to keep the Twin Canal people from parking in front of our homes,” says  Dennis Cole, a neighbor.

He says the new security fence and new rules for when visitors can park in the nearby Twin Canal complex has flooded his streets with unwanted strangers and their cars.

“Twin Canal don`t want folks in there after 10 o`clock that don`t live there, and they are having their people park in our neighborhoods,” says Cole.

Twin Canal has historically been a bit rough, an epicenter for neighborhood crime. But new owners have pumped in $11 million for renovations and greatly increased security.

Heidi Daniels, the community manager for Green Run Homes, says that increased security has opened a rift in the homeowners' association, of which Twin Canal is a member. For months, both sides have brainstormed with police and city leaders about the parking problems.

In a report to City Council this week, they conceded they're stuck.

“The issues are still unresolved," the report says.

Further, Green Run residents leave their trash cans in the street to prohibit Twin Canal visitors from parking in front of their homes, and have received summons from Code Enforcement.'

“It`s a vexing issue because it is a city street,” says Daniels.

Twin Canal parking is restricted, but across the road, the streets are public, meaning anyone can park there. And because of that, Green Run neighbors have hung signs and security cameras to battle what Cole says is a spike in crimes and nuisance.

Daniels says she hopes, by the end of this year, they'll have a solution that will keep people on both sides of the fence happy.

Twin Canal Village is owned by an out-of-state investment group.