City to consider new code enforcement plans

• By NICOLE BRADFORD nbradford@dailysentinel.com

City Council last Tuesday heard an update on activities within the code enforcement department, which in October transformed from one employee to two full-time and two part-time staff.

“We’ve also re-organized and combined planning and zoning, code enforcement and animal control to create more of a neighborhood services department,” City Planner Alaina Helton said, adding that coordination and cross training among these specialties has been beneficial by providing “more eyes on the street.”

During the past two years, the department handled an average of just over 300 cases per year. For the current fiscal year that began Oct. 1, code enforcement has worked with 279 cases.

“We’re only halfway through the fiscal year,” Helton said.

Code enforcement has more resources, but this doesn’t necessarily mean bad news for property owners, especially those without means to meet city requirements. Fines, she said, are considered a last resort.

“Not everyone has access to the same resources,” Helton told the council. “Not everyone has the same physical abilities to improve a property. We do try to connect them with other resources whether nonprofit organizations or other groups to help clean up the property or mow their yard.”

Junked cars, litter and tall weeds are the main culprits communitywide, according to results of a field survey done in the fall of 2021, while older parts of the city are plagued by substandard buildings.

Among ideas to be explored in a future workshop are a tool-lending program similar to those used in cities such as Plano, lending items such as mowers, weed-eaters and household tools to owners with properties in violation.

Community clean-up days would include a temporary dumpster to dispose of large items such as mattresses, old furniture or broken appliances for those who don’t have a way to dispose of them.

Also proposed is a tax foreclosure program for abandoned properties. These programs do require properties be abandoned for more than a year, and that sale proceeds be less than the combined value of taxes, liens and foreclosure costs.

“Essentially the city can’t make any money on that foreclosure,” Helton said. “There are a number of properties in the city that would qualify for that type of program.”

Members of the council were receptive, and agreed to discuss all three proposals in a future workshop.

“I think we want to look at the good and the bad and decide, but I do think we’re interested in all those things,” Mayor Jimmy Mize said.