Well, it took me longer than I had hoped to finish the write-up, but here it is.<br><br>It's a PowerPoint (tm) style briefing on the proposed lawn height legislation. To summarize the
<b><i>current</i></b> code and enforcement procedure: <br>
<br>
* Code enforcement notices grass in excess of ten inches<br>
* Code enforcement contacts the owner / resident (usually by certified mail, 2-3 days to have confirmed receipt)<br>
* Owner/resident has seven days after receipt of notice to fix situation<br>
* 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.<br>
<br>
On to the proposed legislation:<br>
<br>
<i><b>Motivation: Having a safe, clean, and beautiful town. </b></i><br>
<br>
* <b>Example 1</b>: some residents are in continual violation -- their <span class="il">grass</span>
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.<br>
<br>
* <b>Example 2</b>: By the time Public Works can go onto a property to cut the
<span class="il">grass</span>, 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 <span class="il">grass</span>, 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.<br>
<br>
<i><b>
Changes in the code:</b></i><br>
<br>
* <b>Old</b>: <span class="il">Grass</span>/weed height less than ten inches<br>
* <b>New</b>: <span class="il">Grass</span>/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")<br>
<br>
* <b>Old</b>: Enforcement (ticket/town staff clean up) seven days after receipt of notice of violation if not fixed by owner<br>
* <b>New</b>: First offense: same as old<br>
<u>Repeat offenses</u>: immediate ticket, town staff clean up still seven days after notification of violation<br>
<br>
<i><b>
Other solutions considered:</b></i><br>
<br>
* 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 <span class="il">grass</span> is shorter is to start the clock
when the <span class="il">grass</span> is shorter.<br>
<br>
* 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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>Thanks,<br><br>Alan Thompson<br>Ward 2 Town Council Representative<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 6:48 AM, Alan K. Thompson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:akthompson@riverdaleparkmd.gov">akthompson@riverdaleparkmd.gov</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">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 <br>
<br><a href="http://thompsonward2.org/TallGrassLeg.pdf" target="_blank">http://thompsonward2.org/TallGrassLeg.pdf</a><br></blockquote></div>