City officials are admonishing property owners to keep their lots maintained free of junk and clutter and to remove any dilapidated and unsafe structures.
During Monday night’s city council meeting, Alderman Danny Washer said there are clear violations of the city’s property maintenance ordinance across town.
“It’s ridiculous. We’ve got to do something about it. I don’t want to look out my front door and see it and I know of lot of others don’t. It’s bringing down property values. On one street there’s a couch, mattress, and TV laying out in the yard and has been for months. That’s just one example. It’s getting out of hand. We have got to start enforcing this ordinance,” said Alderman Washer.
“We (city sanitation department) don’t pick up couches, mattresses or things like that. We have sent them (violators) letters but they are not keeping their property up,” said Mayor Jimmy Poss.
“We have an ordinance it just may need to be updated. I’m just afraid the fines we have in place now are archaic,” added City Administrator Hunter Hendrixson.
“We have building codes we have to go by. How can anyone put up a carport or garage out of tin with a plastic roof over it or different colors of tin,” asked Alderman Washer?. “And there are yards that need to be cut. When the weeds start getting up high enough that you can’t see the trash then that’s bad,” added Washer.
“I’ll send you (aldermen) a copy of our current ordinance and by the time we meet again (June 5) if we need to amend it to put more (enforcement) teeth in it we can,” said City Administrator Hendrixson.
The city’s “Minimum Property Maintenance Requirements” states that “no person owning, leasing, renting, occupying, including vacant lots, shall maintain or allow to be maintained on such property, except as may be permitted by any other city ordinance, any of the following conditions visible from any public street or alley:
Junk, litter and trash;
Outdoor nuisances dangerous to children, including but not limited to abandoned, broken or neglected equipment, machinery, or any appliance with a latching door;
Shopping carts in any front yard, side yard, rear yard or vacant lot of any property;
Dead, decayed, diseased or hazardous trees, or any other vegetation a majority of which (excluding vegetation located in flowerbeds, or trees, or shrubbery or existing hayfields) exceeds twelve (12) inches in height, or which is dangerous to public health, safety, and welfare, located in any front yard, side yard, rear yard, or upon any vacant lot”.
The city’s property maintenance ordinance provides for enforcement stating that “It shall be the duty of the Building Inspector of the City of Smithville to serve notice upon the property owner of record in violation. The property owner shall be notified in writing specifying the nature of the violation, specifying the corrective measures to be taken, and require compliance within not more than 30 days. The notice may be served upon the owners of the premises where the violation is located by:
Posting notice in plain view on the property in violation, or sending notice by mail.
The date the notice is posted or received by the offender shall serve as the beginning of the specified time period allowing for corrective action.”
The ordinance further states that “Failure by the property owner to take corrective action to bring the property within compliance shall constitute a violation and be a civil offense.”
“Any person violating this chapter shall be subject to a civil penalty of $50 for each separate violation of this chapter. Each day the violation of this chapter continues shall be considered a separate violation,” according to the ordinance.
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