City of Lubbock Codes Department educating residents on common causes of fines

KCBD
By Sydney Lowther
Published: Dec. 12, 2023 at 4:52 PM GMT-7

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Lubbock codes enforcement officers were sent downtown today in a special deployment. Those inspectors were not only looking for city ordinance violations but also to educate people about what could be cause for a ticket.

City codes inspector Coy Humphries said, “we want to give the citizens a chance to comply before we take any action against them.”

And as part of its prevention efforts, Humphries said the codes department visits a specific Lubbock neighborhood once a month to look for any possible violations and address them.

“Generally, our big things are weeds and rubbish, junk vehicles, property maintenance issues and zoning violations,” Humphries said.

Homeowners may not even be aware they are in violation, that is why code inspectors do these special deployments.

“Generally, we try to give people an opportunity before we fine them to get these things taken care of themselves,” Humphries said.

Humphries said fines vary by the violation, which is why the neighborhood deployment offers you the opportunity to drop off the clunky or bulky items that are causing violations, like mattresses and couches, but outside the deployment any resident can visit the city’s drop-off locations.

“On any given day if someone’s having an issue they can reach out to us and we will do the best we can,” Humphries said.

But it is not just once a month inspectors drive around. They are addressing violations all over the city at all times but downtown might be seeing them more often.

“As revitalization goes on we might be seeing more of the violations that we tend to address, so it could lead to more of a presence down here,” Humphries said.

Humphries said all of these efforts are to keep Lubbock clean, safe and beautiful but that is up to Lubbock residents.

“Keeping up with their yard, keeping trash cleaned up and just keeping up with city ordinances,” Humphries said.

And remember to be patient with inspectors, they are working to help. You can find city drop-off locations or report a violation here.