South Euclid will return to charging residents who neglect their yard work more for providing that maintenance.
South Euclid City Council, at its meeting Monday, decided on an increasing scale of fees that will be charged to property owners who, after warnings, don't keep up with property maintenance. The city also was the recipient of a housing award.
SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- City Council voted Monday to go back in time, prior to 2022, as it charges for city-provided maintenance property owners who don’t keep their yards up to standards. The ctiy contracts with a landscaping company to cut lawns that are too high, and has been charging $60 per cut. That same $60 per visit charge was in place when city service department workers had to go to an unkempt property to clear brush, cut shrubs, or do other necessary yard maintenance. Under the ordinance passed Monday, the city will return under its nuisance abatement law to charging $60 per visit on the first two cuts or clean-ups, but increasing the cost of a third visit to $250. After that, a forth visit will come with a charge of $500, a fifth will be $750, and any others after that, $1,000 per job.Bills that are not paid can be added to property tax bills. Such nuisance abatement infractions are categorized as criminal nuisances, which has caused some friction and legal discussions in communities with similar laws. Of this categorization, Planning and Development Director Michael Love said, “Because of issues that were found in other cities’ criminal nuisance ordinances, the city was being proactive in separating the police nuisance process from the building and housing nuisance process.Love said that violations at residents’ property can result in the owner, technically speaking, being charged with a misdemeanor, a criminal violation. “So, it is technically a misdemeanor violation,” he said, “and we went back and forth in a continuous loop of people not understanding -- it is a criminal violation because you can be charged with a misdemeanor.” Prior to council’s vote, which was 5-2 in favor of returning to the higher charges for repeat offenders, Mayor Georgine Welo asked council for the amendment’s passage. “Currently, we have 15 service men and two mechanics, which only gives us 17 men in our service deartment, which means that when the frequent flyers who choose not to take care of their yards when others do, and spend our residents’ tax dollars on being private landscapers, this isn’t OK. “We have holes in our streets, we’ve got potholes -- it’s something that only those egregious violators would be affected.” Ward 4 Councilman John Fahsbender said of the amended ordinance, “Essentially what we’re trying to do is give our building and housing department some tools to help them prevent homeowners landlords from taking advantae of the low fees that we charge in doing lawn work and other things.” Love said that when residents are informed of a violation, they are given 72 hours to correct the problem, during which they can call the city and state any hardship they may have.Of the increased fee schedule, Love said, “This is only for the repeat offenders.” Sometimes those repeat offenders are landlords who live in other states. In all, he said, there are less than 100 such repeat offenders. Council is hoping that the increased fees will greatly reduce that number. Voting against the increase were Ward 1 Councilman Mark McMillian and Councilwoman at-large Susan Hardy. “At least 69 percent were not rentals,” Hardy said of her opposition. She said that a focus of the amendment to some council members is to make out-of-town, absentee landlords pay their fair share. “That’s not what the data is showing,” she said. In addition, Hardy stated, “Basically, I think $250 is excessively high I don’t like it placed under ‘criminal nusiance abatement.’ I don’t think it belongs there.”It was announced at Monday’s council meeting that the city of South Euclid was awarded the “Home for All Award” by theACAR Vice President of Advocacy Jamie McMillan told those at the council meeting that previous winners of the award have been specific elected leaders or Realtors, making South Euclid the first city to win the award. “In this case,” McMillan said, “we really recognized the work the entire city has done together. This isn’t a one-person mission or accomplishment. “South Euclid is blessed to have a strong mayor and leader, Mayor Welo, and her team, especially Michael Love, who has put a ton into projects like, and zoning, mixed-use transit, and all the tax abatement, and all the things that make South Euclid wonderful.” McMillian praised all city officials for making housing a priority in South Euclid, and a home for all. Welo said that, when she became mayor in 2004, “We weren’t the place for everyone to live. In fact, there were real estate people who didn’t really want to show homes in our community. “We really worked hard on , and I was shocked when I got the email ,” she said. “I just stared at that email because all I could think about was people calling me because their home was being foreclosed, developers calling because they couldn’t build a house on a vacant lot because we had the wrong codes, the fact that we just didn’t have enough equity in our homes so that you could build a house that was maybe more than the homes on the street.” Welo also mentioned as a factor anti-discrimination ordinances council has passed. She said residents are “the greatest asset we have.” Like most communities, South Euclid was hit hard by the Great Recession or 2007-09, and saw a great many home foreclosures.such as townhomes now being built at St. John Woods, St. John Meadows and Francis Court, and homes at Lowden Place and Queen Ann Court. In all, the city has, or recently had, more than 120 new homes under construction.If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.
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