By Bill Robinson
Senior News Writer
RICHMOND —
A Richmond property owner in the city recently received a notice from the codes enforcement office about grass allowed to grow unacceptably high, according to City Commissioner Robert Blythe.
The grass was about six inches high, he said. However, the grass was just as high as an adjacent city-owned lot, and elsewhere in the city, property is so overgrown it resembles a forest, the commissioner said.
Three lots on Altamont Street are so overgrown, Blythe said, that a burglar was able to conceal in one of them the loot that had been taken from a nearby construction site.
At the Aug. 24 city commission meeting, Blythe questioned Codes Enforcement Director Joe Lillis about the apparent inconsistency.
The so-called nuisance ordinance that requires property owners to keep grass mowed and maintain an acceptable appearance usually is enforced only after a complaint is received, Lillis said.
Responsibility for enforcing the nuisance ordinance was transferred — about three years ago — from the codes department to the planning department, said City Manager Jimmy Howard.
The property owner who got the notice about keeping grass mowed was the subject of a complaint, according to Renea Banks, ordinance enforcement officer in the planning department.
After Blythe learned enforcement was complaint-driven, he filed a complaint about the Altamont Street properties, he said Monday. Banks then contacted the property owner, who lives in Ohio. The owner has contracted with a mowing service to clean up the property, she said, but the contractor was booked up for two weeks.
Blythe said the commission should consider revising the enforcement policy to make it more proactive rather than primarily complaint-driven.
City employees in all departments could make note of properties in violation of the nuisance ordinance and pass the information along to the enforcement officer, Blythe said. Enforcement personnel also could drive through the city periodically to check on compliance, he said.
Outside the meeting, Lillis said city personnel have been encouraged to keep travel to a minimum to save money.
Mayor Connie Lawson said a number of properties in foreclosure have been allowed to become overgrown. She had met with Banks and City Attorney Garrett Fowles the week before, the mayor said, to discuss the status of foreclosed and abandoned properties in the city.
Lawson said the state could help by allowing cities to tie maintenance of unkempt, foreclosed properties to tax bills.
Also, the city commission should consider raising the $100 fine for violating the nuisance ordinance. In some cities, the fine is $1,000, the mayor said said.
“If we could only legislate pride,” she said, “we wouldn’t have these kind of problems. We can’t legislate pride, so we’ll have to enforce it.”
During a work session prior to last week’s meeting, Commissioner Rita Smart asked if an open door had been boarded on a burned-out building at the corner of S. Killarney Lane and Manna Drive that a citizen had brought to the commission’s attention at the Aug. 10 commission meeting.
Children from the neighborhood had been entering and playing in the structure, Smart said.
On Monday, there was no door to a rear, ground-level apartment in the building. Only a web occupied by a large spider blocked entry. However, windows to the apartment were boarded up.
Contacted on Monday, Fire Chief Gerald Tatum said his personnel had boarded up the building after the fire that occurred a year or more earlier. After that, jurisdiction fell to another city department, he said.
Lillis said he had been in contact with the owner, and the last time a city inspector was on site, the structure’s doors and windows were boarded up. Lillis said the owner had told him the property had not been renovated because of a lawsuit with the insurer.
Howard on Monday said he would follow up on the issue, and Lillis said he would see that opening was boarded up.
Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.
