MANSFIELD — It may soon become more expensive to violate city laws involving litter, junk and trash.
You may also have to do a better job of keeping your property mowed.
Mansfield City Council on March 5 is scheduled to consider two updates to existing ordinances regarding both those topics, found in Chapter 917 and Chapter 915 of the city’s codified ordinances, respectively.
Both have been hot topics in the city for the last few years.
New Mayor Jodie Perry has said her administration will make an effort to battle the urban blight, even without yet adding staff to the city’s code enforcement office.
“In the summer, these are the number one things we get the most complaints about,” said Adrian Ackerman, the city’s community development and housing director.
“With spring coming, we hope this is a good way to get ahead of it.”
Earlier this month, Perry said code enforcement, attacking issues of blight and dumping, has been a big source of conversation already internally in the administration.
“Ultimately, they don’t have enough capacity. There’s not enough people there. So that I do want to solve, (but) that’s going to have to take a little bit longer,” she said.
“However, I will say that doesn’t mean we’re not going to do anything. We’ve already done a few things related to dumping. But we’re really trying to bring together all the departments that touch those things, because it’s not just codes at the end of the day.
“I think there’s some opportunities for improvement in cooperation among departments. It wasn’t that they weren’t cooperative. I don’t want to make it sound like they were against each other. That is not it. But maybe they weren’t always all talking.
“And so what we talked about this week at our staff meeting actually is — you’re going to see us set some meetings around topics, versus just the ‘what you do.’ Codes enforcement, blight, dumping is definitely high on that list,” Perry said.
Chapter 917 covers “litter, junk or trash removal,” defining it as “all litter, junk or trash that has been thrown, discarded or deposited, regardless of intent, upon any lot, lands or premises within the city constitutes a detriment to the public health, safety or welfare, and is a public nuisance.”
It’s up to the property “owner, lessee, agent, tenant or person having charge of or responsibility for any lot, lands or premises within the city” to prevent litter, junk or trash to accumulate, according to the city ordinance.
So what is the proposed change?
Currently, when it reaches the point that the city has to clean up a property, it charges the person responsible a minimum of $75 for the first hour and $60 for each additional hour, or the actual costs incurred by the city, whichever is greater.
Under the change, disposal fees will be based on the truckload, a minimum of $150. For the first time, the city will add on an administrative and supervision fee of $200 per incident.
Chapter 915 covers “weeds and trees” and the only change is the height at which weeds become illegal in height.
Currently, the law states, “No owner, lessee, agent or tenant having charge or responsibility for, the maintenance of the following described lots or lands within the City shall permit noxious weeds, grasses or other types of vegetation as described in subsection (a) hereof to grow or be upon such lots or lands at a height exceeding 10 inches above the ground.
That height will change to six inches, if approved by council.
Ackerman said the time it takes to for the city to act on a weed complaint helps to make the change necessary.
Letters must be sent to property owners to give them 10 days to get the weeds cut down.
“Those weeds can then be two feet high by the time we get a (private) crew on the site,” she said. “If we catch it sooner, we can take action sooner.”
