Moses Lake to discuss vehicle, junk ordinances
Guidelines are first of its kind for city
MOSES LAKE — Two new ordinances will be debated by city council members this Tuesday evening.
Guidelines regulating abandoned vehicles and the storage of residential vehicles will have their first reading at the upcoming city council meeting.
City Manager Joe Gavinski said that city council had been seeking to get these ordinances in place in order to have something to work with.
Junked vehicles in neighborhoods such as Longview Tracts had triggered the council's requirement that these ordinances be drafted, Gavinski said.
"These (ordinances) are necessary tools to improve the quality of neighborhoods," he said.
The ordinances are meant to control or restrict parking in front yards of residential neighborhoods, as well as restrict the repair and maintenance of vehicles out in the open, among other things.
Under the ordinance dictating residential vehicle storage, cars, pick up trucks and motorcycles may be parked in a front yard only on an approved designated driveway or on a city-approved surface parallel to a designated driveway. A city-approved surface means asphalt, concrete, bricks, pavers or other similar surface.
A trailer attached to a car or truck may be temporarily parked for eight hours in a front yard as long as it remains attached to the car or pickup truck. All other vehicles or trailers must be parked in a side or rear yard.
Under the ordinance dictating abandoned vehicles and junk, an abandoned motor vehicle is any motor vehicle which has been abandoned and unclaimed by its owner or any other person having lawful possession.
A disabled motor vehicle is any motor vehicle which is incapable of being operated or which has been permitted to remain without being operated for more than 30 days.
Junk means all abandoned and disabled motor vehicles, all discarded appliances or parts thereof, all old iron or other metal, glass, paper, cardboard, old lumber, old wood, old mattresses, discarded furniture and all other waste or discarded material. The ordinance makes it illegal to accumulate, keep or store any junk on any privately owned property within the city or to store it in a building that is not wholly enclosed, except for doors to go in and out.
"They may not be perfect, but it's a start," Gavinski said, adding that the ordinances as they stand now, are a watered-down version of what was considered at first. Now, code compliance officers have something to work with.
Despite their basic nature, the ordinances are not toothless, but well thought-out, Gavinski said, and come after a couple of years of drafting and redrafting.
"We might have a better idea of how they work or don't work after they are placed in operation," he said.
The first reading of the ordinance is Tuesday at 7 p.m., during the city council meeting. A second reading will take place at the next city council meeting.