Minutes - Council - 09/11/2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mayor Gamec commented there are people with 5 to 6 acre parcels who do not cut the whole thing, and often some of it backs up to farm fields. He requested clarification that this falls under the other ordinance. Community Development Director Trudgeon replied staff thinks this should be addressed under Chapter 9. Once this ordinance is adopted they can come back and revisit this issue in Chapter 9. Councilmember Elvig stated he understands where staff is going with this and agrees they need to get something on the books. He does not know of any City ordinance that does not need a bit of tweaking. He suggested striking the language "stockpiles of rocks and dirt" in section f. He stated in his area this will happen; he purposely does this to fill things when he moves trees around, and larger properties will have to do that. He suggested striking the term "all grass" in sectionj, as the problem seems to be the issue of noxious weeds. Councilmember Dehen stated there are properties in his ward where landscaping materials have been sitting there for five to seven years. It is important to note this abatement ordinance is probably for 5% of the City's properties. He would like it to be more restrictive and have common sense used in the enforcement. If it is a situation where someone has a dirt pile and is trying to seed their yard, and it sits there for a year, there is common sense application. But where it has sat there for five to eight years and nothing gets done, that is where they need some teeth in it. There has to be a common sense approach to this, but they need teeth to take care of the truly problematic conditions. Mayor Gamec noted if it is there for a year and the neighbors complain the City has to act according to the ordinance. They could get into some rural areas where there are quite a few mounds of dirt, mostly further to the north, but it is different in the residential areas. Councilmember Look stated there are two properties he is aware of in Ward 4 that neglected their properties. What happens is when you do not mow it allows the weeds to foster and grow up. A sod farmer explained to him that the way to get rid of dandelions is to mow them. He thinks if the weeds are growing up it is an indication that they are not mowing the grass. The main problem is in more of the heavily residential areas, but you would not mow every square inch of your property as they move north. He asked if the grass portion is broken out in Chapter 9. Community Development Director Trudgeon responded in the negative. He advised City Code states in all platted areas the grass must be cut less than 12 inches; that is a good test to make the differentiation. Interim City Administrator Nelson stated it is important to remember much of this has been in place for 20 years, so while they are trying to tweak this and get it in place to work with the abatement process, they should remember the spirit of the law and the discretion of the officer. She does not think it will be on the top of staffs priorities to require someone to mow the ditch City Council / September 11, 2007 Page 11 of 22