[RP TownTalk] Lawn regulations

[Alan K. Thompson]

Well, it took me longer than I had hoped to finish the write-up, but here it
is.

It's a PowerPoint (tm) style briefing on the proposed lawn height
legislation.  To summarize the *current* code and enforcement procedure:

* Code enforcement notices grass in excess of ten inches
* Code enforcement contacts the owner / resident (usually by certified mail,
2-3 days to have confirmed receipt)
* Owner/resident has seven days after receipt of notice to fix situation
* After seven day waiting period, if situation not fixed, Town can (1) write
a $100 ticket and (2) cut grass/weeds to bring into compliance.

On to the proposed legislation:

*Motivation: Having a safe, clean, and beautiful town.  *

* *Example 1*: some residents are in continual violation -- their grass gets
to ten inches, they receive notice of violation, they mow six days after
receipt, and they never pay any penalty even though their lawns are in
violation for half (or more) of the summer.

* *Example 2*: By the time Public Works can go onto a property to cut the
grass, it is usually too tall to cut with the mechanical mowers, and must be
first cut by hand.  Often there is trash (bottles, cans, etc.) in the tall
grass, and staff has been concerned at times that animals may have started
nesting in it, exposing them to hazards.  Besides hazards to staff, these
"regularly mowed by Public Works" properties have the same problem as the
properties in Example 1: they look overgrown most of the time.

* Changes in the code:*

* *Old*: Grass/weed height less than ten inches
* *New*: Grass/weed height less than six inches, excluding seed heads,
unless there are fifty (50) or more seed heads over six inches (the "six"
may be amended to "eight")

* *Old*: Enforcement (ticket/town staff clean up) seven days after receipt
of notice of violation if not fixed by owner
* *New*: First offense: same as old
        *Repeat offenses*: immediate ticket, town staff clean up still seven
days after notification of violation

* Other solutions considered:*

* Allowing cleanup to start immediately, or at least much faster, on repeat
violations.  This idea was rejected by the Town Attorney, who told us it
would not stand up in court.  The only way to have town staff to start
cleanup when the grass is  shorter is to start the clock when the grass is
shorter.

* Requiring a minimum amount of overgrown lawn ("at least 10% of the area of
the property must have grass over the limit.." or "the grass must generally
be over the height specified").  We have not come up with a reasonable and
enforceable way to do this.

We on the council welcome any and all input from residents, though, given
that the meeting to vote on this is tomorrow (Monday) night, attending the
meeting is probably the best way to have your opinion heard.

Thanks,

Alan Thompson
Ward 2 Town Council Representative

On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 6:48 AM, Alan K. Thompson <
akthompson at riverdaleparkmd.gov> wrote:

> I wrote up a too-long note last night discussing the legislation as
> proposed, which I hope to clean up and post tonight.  For people who want to
> read what is currently being discussed by the council, I've put a scanned
> image of it as introduced (including my scribbled notes) on my web site at
>
> http://thompsonward2.org/TallGrassLeg.pdf
>
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