Council to study parking in yards

BY CINDY TOOPES COURIER STAFF WRITER

April 08, 2008 10:28 pm

— OTTUMWA — Will parking in your front yard join the city’s list of nuisances?
Possibly. The Ottumwa City Council is studying a draft copy of the city’s nuisance code. Health Director Jody Gates presented the draft and its changes at this week’s council meeting.
“Parking in yards is a regular complaint,” Gates said. “I didn’t include it in the proposed ordinance. The city council needs to tell me if they want it.”
Gates noted a number of residences don’t have driveways or the driveways aren’t big enough for more than one vehicle. Other places have hilly terrain or “maybe there’s no rock,” she added.
“We’re seeing this more and more,” Councilman Bob Meyers said.
Mayor Dale Uehling said he has received complaints about parking on the lawn.
“I’m concerned, too, and we have debated this,” Gates said. “In some cases there’s a financial investment to create parking.”
Councilman Keith Caviness wondered if the police could enforce no parking in yards.
Police Chief Jim Clark said “one part only.”
“Parking across sidewalks is illegal but there’s no ordinance for anything else,” he said. “If you would include [parking in yards] as a parking violation, it’s easier to enforce and Jody wouldn’t have to do the abatement process.”
Clark also said there are houses with no parking or restricted parking. If the council decides to require driveways or other specified parking spots, will they require gravel or asphalt?
“We need to work on this,” Councilman Gordon Aistrope said.
Meyers said the council should consider enforcing something “if people don’t like” seeing parked cars on lawns.
Aistrope said the council’s goal-setting session included cleaning up the city and making corrections in housing.
“We don’t want to be punitive, we want to get what the city needs,” Gates said.
Uehling said the council would read the proposed ordinance carefully and “get back to” Gates with their suggestions and preferences.
Councilwoman Shannon Addison commended Gates for her previous and current efforts to clean up the city.
Caviness asked for a summary of the top 10 nuisances that should be abated.
Titled “Nuisances Generally,” Chapter 24 of the city code sets forth ways to regulate nuisances in the city. It’s the primary code the health department uses to regulate nuisances in the city, Gates said.
For the most part, Chapter 24 “hasn’t been updated since 1961,” according to Gates. The proposed update would put weed nuisances — now found in Chapter 34, Sections 26-31 — into Chapter 24.
“This ordinance enumerates more individual types of nuisances which inspectors deal with regularly,” Gates said. “With more specific nuisances listed, an inspector doesn’t have as much need to interpret the meaning of the code.”
She also said she distributed the proposed ordinance to health department staff last fall and she incorporated their comments into this draft.
After incorporating council changes, the city will conduct a public comment session. Gates also said the Make Ottumwa Shine committee will review the revised ordinance; and, the ordinance will also be put on the city’s Web site where the public can access it and send along comments.
This is part of the proposed ordinance. “24-2. Nuisance defined. Whatever is injurious to the senses or an obstruction to the free use of property so as essentially to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by the public or community shall be deemed a nuisance.”
Listed next are 32 items considered to be nuisances.
Gates pointed out the health department added “attractive nuisance,” which is anything “dangerous to children in the form of abandoned vehicles, abandoned or broken equipment, including abandoned refrigerators, hazardous pools, ponds, excavations, materials, including building material, debris or neglected machinery.”
Another “attractive” example would be a site where workers are demolishing or constructing a structure.
“Frequently people stop the work and leave the site or hole open,” Gates said.
Cindy Toopes can be reached at (641) 683-5376 or via e-mail at cindy@ottumwacourier.com