After lengthy discussion and a flurry of amendments, Bowling Green City Council on Monday approved a series of ordinances focused on property issues.
Council’s Community Improvement Committee held a public hearing on the ordinances on Nov. 30.
Receiving the most attention Monday was an ordinance creating an exterior property maintenance code.
That ordinance created and adopted Chapter 159 of the city’s codified ordinances. The seven-page code, which includes 12 sections, states that its purposes “are to protect the public health, safety and welfare of the citizens and inhabitants of the city by preventing property deterioration and by establishing minimum standards governing maintenance, appearance and conditions of all residential and non-residential premises; to fix certain responsibilities and duties for owners and occupants; to authorize and establish procedures for the inspection of residential and non-residential premises and to fix penalties for violations of this code.”
During the lobby visitation portion of the meeting, resident Rose Drain, representing the Bowling Green Save Our Neighborhoods Group, said in a statement that the organization “urges council members to vote in favor of the ordinance as it will improve our neighborhoods and benefit all who live and work here.
“A wide range of studies shows that sustainable housing, well maintained infrastructure, and beautification support community resiliency, health, and well being,” Drain said later. “Besides making BG a healthier and more appealing place to live, with its passage the Exterior Maintenance Code will be a testament to an open democratic process with input from elected officials, city administrators and concerned citizens of Bowling Green.”
In discussing the ordinance, Councilman Joel O’Dorisio offered three amendments, two of which sought to limit subjective language. In one portion, discussing landscaping, he offered an amendment to change the language regarding landscaping at residential structures from “lawns, hedges and bushes shall be kept from becoming overgrown and unsightly where exposed to public view, and where the same constitute a blighting factor which depreciates and adjoining property” to “lawns, hedges and bushes shall be kept from becoming overgrown to the extent that they obstruct sidewalks or right of way.”
“This law is a police power,” said O’Dorisio. “I’m hesitant to grant the city policing power over the appearance of somebody’s bushes.”
City Attorney Hunter Brown noted that, even without the change, purported offenders would still have all of the protections of due process to rely on. Councilman Jeff Dennis said he felt O’Dorisio’s language provided a more objective standard.
“I think this is a good amendment,” he said. “I think it strikes a good balance.”
That amendment, and a similarly-worded one governing to non-residential properties, passed 5-1, with Council President Mark Hollenbaugh voting against. Two additional amendments focused on clarification and editing from O’Dorisio and Councilman Bill Herald also passed.
However, Councilman Greg Robinette said that even with the amendments that have been introduced and voted on, he still have some concerns with ambiguities in the ordinance’s language. He said he felt subjectivity “is spread throughout here to a level that I’m uncomfortable with.” He pointed to one section of the ordinance, which used, among other terms, “tumbledown,” “ramshackle” and “disintegrating,” which were not defined in the ordinance.
“It’s terms like that and subjectivity that’s spread through the rest of the document that concerns me,” he said.
Herald said he had concerns about striking a balance between guarding property rights and also providing a tool for the administration to use, urging that council wait and “take what we’ve learned and take another stab at it, just to achieve what we might call a better balance” between property rights and enforcement.
Hollenbaugh agreed that such balance is difficult, “but I feel this legislation is a step in the right direction and I’m willing to err on the side of let’s give this a try and see what works and what doesn’t work as opposed to hesitating to the point of just not doing it.”
“I do not think it’s perfect,” said Dennis. “I think we’ve got a lot more work to do,” he added, saying he hoped it can be a tool for incremental improvement in the coming years.
The ordinance passed 4-2, with Robinette and Herald voting against. Councilman Nick Rubando was absent.
Council also passed an ordinance creating Section 99.21 of the codified ordinances regarding managed natural landscape. According to the legislative package document, “this ordinance recognizes the environmental and storm water management benefits of natural landscape areas and then outlines” requirements for managed natural landscapes. Among the requirements, such landscapes “may include plants and grasses in excess of eight… inches in height and which have gone to seed but may not include any noxious weeds and must be maintained as to not include unintended vegetation or turf grass” and “may not include any planting, which due to location and manner of growth constitute a hazard to the public or may cause injury or damage to person or property when such growth is in violation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic.”
Councilwoman Rachel Phipps offered a series of seven amendments to the ordinance – all of which were approved – including that the city create a managed natural landscape manual and webpage to provide resources to the public.
She also offered an amendment, which ultimately passed, stating that managed inaugural landscapes between the sidewalk and street must be kept at a height of less than eight inches, with the exception of trees. Significant discussion centered on whether flowers planted around mailboxes or trees might run afoul of that regulation.
“I don’t think perennials planted around a mailbox would be swept into this definition,” Phipps said. The ordinance passed unanimously as amended.
A third ordinance passed which amended and adopted a portion of Section 99.20 of the codified ordinances regarding the duty to cut noxious weeds, specifically the notification procedure when a property is determined to have such weeds. According to the legislative package document, “the process involves providing a written notice posted on the property and allows five days for compliance. As the code is currently written, the city has to post this notice for every occurrence. In looking at the process, the city is often posting notices at the same properties throughout the growing season. This ordinance makes the change that notice shall be given on the first offense within a calendar year and adds: ‘Further offenses at the same address require no further notice or posting by the municipal administrator in the same calendar year.’”
The matter was amended so that there would be a notice sent on the first and second offenses in a calendar year, with Phipps voting against the amendment. The ordinance passed unanimously.
Additionally approved was an ordinance amending portions of Section 70.40 of the codified ordinances regarding inoperable vehicles. According to the legislative package document prepared for council, “the section outlines the sequences and actions to notify the property owner when a violation is identified,” and a part of that sequence is the requirement that “’the notice to be published in a newspaper of general circulation once each week for two consecutive weeks.’ This legislation will remove this requirement. Additionally, later in the sequence, an option is given that the property owner can request a hearing with the city attorney. The administration cannot recall using that process and it is not consistent with how similar issues are handled; therefore, it is recommended that it be removed.”
The ordinance passed with one amendment offered by Phipps to fix some errant language.
In other business, council:
• Introduced, gave three readings to, and passed the city’s 2024 budget. The matter passed without discussion.
• Heard from resident Joe DeMare, who offered a series of ideas for council’s consideration, including acquiring the former South Main School building, using the grounds as a dog park, and also offering the office spaces there rent-free to non-profit organizations; the installation of bike lanes; and the creation of a water reservoir, covered with solar panels, to assist the city in periods of drought that might be brought on by climate change.
• Voted to excuse the absence of Rubando from the meeting.
