Discussion surrounding property nuisances continues

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake City Council is continuing its ongoing discussion regarding property maintenance and nuisances in the city.

The discussion of nuisances in Moses Lake is one that has been ongoing for several months now, with councilmembers discussing possible ways to solve issues in and around the city. On Sept. 1, the council and city staff toured developed and undeveloped areas around the city that have given the city problems in the past about weeds. On Sept. 13, the council had a study session to discuss the issue, at which the council directed city staff to provide promotional flyers on nuisances by either mail, inserts with water bills or social media.

The council’s discussion about nuisances started to turn in the direction of focusing on property maintenance, rather than only weeds. The council did not direct staff to change the city’s ordinance, according to city documents, and they were at a stand still of either wanting to focus on specifically just weed abatement/nuisances, or property maintenance as a bigger issue.

During Tuesday night’s council meeting Community Development Director Gilbert Alvarado explained to the council there are optional codes the council can choose to adopt from the International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC) that would deal with the problems the council has highlighted.

“This (optional code) specifically addresses some of the concerns you have had. The flaking paint. Some of the faulty portions of a building. Things like that where the staff actually can go onsite and actually can mandate some changes be made,” Alvarado explained.

Councilmember Ryann Leonard said she believes property maintenance issues around the city boil down to two causes: lack of concern and lack of ability to maintain. Leonard was hesitant about regulating people who may have experienced hard times and cannot solve problems at their properties. She suggested instituting some sort of penalty for multiple violators and move to issuing infractions for people with multiple violations in a given year.

Councilmember Bill Ecret reiterated several suggestions he previously made about property maintenance and weeds. Ecret’s suggestions included: keeping vacant lots near residential/developed areas mowed and have the grass not exceed 12 inches in height, trim lots in undeveloped areas 20 feet back from areas already maintained by the city, have property and homeowners take care of weeds in alleyways, institute a $150 administration fee to be administered for second offenses, require building owners to complete painting projects, and require abandoned buildings to not look vacant.

Councilmember Mike Norman voiced concern about handing down more regulations. He suggested the city take more of a public education stance on the matter and educate residents on the problems.

“I think philosophically is where I’m not comfortable with any significant expansion of the current ordinance,” Norman stated.

Ecret disagreed with several councilmembers who were opposed to adding more regulations.

“I don’t know why you should hold your residential homeowner to any higher standard of property maintenance than the developer or the person that has a 2-acre (or) 10-acre lot. I think it’s unfair. I think it’s unreasonable,” he remarked. “I think that we need to tighten our ordinances up. What you are doing now is not working. I think you need to have somewhere (written) into your ordinance that you need to respect the character of your building and respect the character of your town. And if you have some type of a sentence in there like that, this city might just attract more of everything.”

There was no action taken during Tuesday night’s meeting. The council agreed to hold a study session in the future to further discuss the topic.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.