The lawn has been cut, debris picked up, a security system installed and plywood removed from the front of a house on Southwood Road that drew the attention of a code enforcement officer for the city of Jackson.
Jon Ellis of Los Angeles County, said he has been helping his mother-in-law make improvements to the house and work has been done on the property. “We’ve been in contact with the city,” he said.
Plans are to cut back the bamboo on the property, he said, when the weather permits.
The city of Jackson hired Resurrection Lawn Care Service to cut the grass and weeds, remove trash and debris and remedy conditions that constitute a menace to public health, safety and welfare at the Southwood Road house.
The Jackson City Council approved an order on Aug. 2 that authorized Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba to execute the contract with the lawn service. The council approved the order for the cleanup based on the city’s code enforcement procedures.
Chloe Dotson, deputy director of planning, development and code services for the city of Jackson, said one of the good things about the city’s new code enforcement process is that the city works directly with the owners to bring their property into compliance before pursuing environmental court or administrative court.
“This year we were able to get over 450 owners to bring their property back into compliance without using city funds,” she said. “A prime example is the Shoney’s building near High Street.”
The property on Southwood Road is a perfect example of an owner-mitigated property, Dotson said.
“According to my staff member Samantha Graves, the owner began mitigation but was informed that the work was unsatisfactory,” she said. “We have been told by the owner that the remaining violations will be mitigated by the owner by the 29th of this month. We have an inspection scheduled for this day as well.
“We will also follow up with the owner concerning general conditions of the property and any other code violations concerning the adopted 2018 international property maintenance codes.”
The city relies upon four stages of code enforcement that a property may proceed through while a code officer is working to resolve an identified issue, according to Dotson.
The first level of compliance is voluntary and it has a timeline of 15 to 90 days; second level, court-ordered compliance with a timeline of 30-60 days; third level, referral, which has an undetermined timeline while a code enforcement officer works to match an owner with financial or physical hardships with partner resources; and fourth level, city-performed cleanup, which has a timeline of 60-90 days after cleanup is funded.
Not all cases will proceed through each stage, Dotson said. A code enforcement officer determines the path based on the circumstances of the property.
Code enforcement begins when someone reports a complaint or a staff member identifies issue, she said. A case is assigned to an officer who makes an initial inspection within seven days.
“A case must be started, and notices sent out,” Dotson said. “If we cannot get the owner to mitigate or show up for court, depending upon the prioritization of the case, we will proceed with administrative court and then the city council. Then we must bid out or enter into an agreement via contract with a service provider to bring the property back into compliance,” she said.
Cases with abandoned ownerships or complicated titles end up at the fourth level, which requires city-performed cleanup after being funded. Cases meeting blight elimination are prioritized, she said.
Anyone interested in the status of a property can visit jacksonms.viewpointcloud.com
and use the search function to check the progress by using a case number, address, or parcel number. The information is made available in real time.
All vacant property in the city limits is required to be registered with the city of Jackson.
