City bullying blight

Six months ago, the occupants of a Yuba City home on Carolina Avenue home vanished, taking everything with them but the basketball hoop in the driveway .

Today, the walkway has been swallowed by dead grass, shrubs are growing out like unruly garden-beasts and fences hang falling from their posts.

"It's very sad. It's actually kind of creepy," said neighbor Nancy Jimenez. "We all like to somewhat keep our yards nice and tidy."

All attempts to locate its missing owners have been unsuccessful, but Yuba City Code Enforcement Officer James Carr stops by about once a week to see if anything new might lead him to them.

Neighbors reported the house months ago for its disrepair, which are municipal code violations.

"Other than that it's a cute little house," Carr said. "But it's bringing down the neighborhood."

Jimenez said she hopes the problem will eventually be resolved, whether by the city's hand or someone else's.

Yuba City hopes to remove unsightly blight like that through changes to its code enforcement ordinances and resolutions. The amendments would allow the city to cite property owners for violations, take restorative actions itself if necessary and levy fines and penalties against noncomplying owners.

"We are trying to catch up with the times," said Aaron Busch, community development director. "Our existing ordinances are 20 years old."

The outdated ordinances lack details and make violations difficult to identify, he said. Clear definitions will make it easier to enforce removal or repair nuisances.

The amendments are specific enough to include rodent infestations, cast-away furniture and missing doors or windows. Abandoned vehicles, uninhabitable houses and overgrown vegetation are all identified as nuisances.

"If you meet it, it is black and white," Busch said. "We won't spend as much time belaboring the point of if it is or is not a violation."

The amendments will allow Carr and his staff to take a more proactive approach to clean the city of the innumerable violations he sees daily. Right now, he can only investigate nuisances as they are reported.

The update would also address foreclosures, which have become an ever-growing problem. Property owners abandon homes, leaving yards and houses to fate and leaving the city with the challenge of trying to track owners down to mandate cleaning and repairs.

The amendments will go before the City Council on March 17, after being tabled March 3 to allow community members to discuss the changes with city officials.

Some details of the city's proposal concern members of the Sutter Yuba Association of Realtors, said Secretary-Treasurer Tony Ruiz. Stiff fines that could be levied against property owners who take title of vacant residential properties would slow the sale process.

"Our job once we get these properties is to clean them up as fast as we can and sell them," he said.

Realtors sympathize with neighbors and do not want properties to be in disrepair, but cleanups are not easy, Ruiz said.

"Our hands are tied until the banks get these properties through the foreclosure process," he said.

The association is working with Yuba City in hopes of reaching a fair solution, he said.

The other amendments all seem beneficial, Ruiz said.

"More people will want to live here, houses will sell faster, hopefully it will bring our home values up," Ruiz said.

Most often, residents take care of their violations within weeks of being notified, Carr said.

"I really have a lot of people that want to do right," he said.

But not all residents are so agreeable.

"I had one guy ask me, 'Doesn't the city have something better to do than come harass me for a basketball hoop blocking the sidewalk?'" Carr said.

Enforcement is not intended to penalize residents, he said. The city prefers voluntary compliance and abating violations is done to protect everyone's health, safety and quality of life.

Fixing up the yard at the Carolina Avenue home would deter vandals and rodent infestations and keep neighborhood home values from falling more than necessary, Carr said.

Yuba City's goal is to work with residents, but not everyone will agree with the amendments, Busch said.

"Anytime you are applying rules and regulations, not everybody is going to feel the same way," he said.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ashley Gebb at 749-4724 or agebb@appealdemocrat.com.