Nuisance Abatement

Author Cheryl Mendelson tells of a chair in her home that sits next to the front door. Ordinarily, the chair sits empty. But one hurried morning, the story goes, she threw her bathrobe on the chair as she headed out the door. Returning home that evening, she found on the chair not only her bathrobe, but also the morning newspaper, a toothbrush, a back pack, two dog-eared books, and three Hot Rod cars.

Once you allow a piece of junk on a surface in your home, she says, it's only a matter of time before that piece of junk attracts more junk.

The same principle applies to home exteriors. Police call this the "broken window theory." A broken window left unfixed sends a message to vandals. It says, "Nobody cares." Soon other rocks are thrown through other windows and graffiti are painted on the siding. If one house on the block is left in this state, others are sure to follow. Left in this condition, homes and neighborhoods soon become breeding grounds for crime.

One definition of a nuisance would be a property left in an advanced state of disrepair. Any effort to fight crime in American Fork has to include effective nuisance control.

A nuisance can also be something which poses a hazard to children. This is the doctrine of attractive nuisances. As explained at wikipedia.org,

a landowner may be held liable for injuries to children trespassing on the land if the injury is caused by a hazardous object or condition on the land that is likely to attract children, who are unable to appreciate the risk posed by the object or condition. The doctrine has been applied to hold landowners liable for injuries caused by abandoned cars, piles of lumber or sand, trampolines, and swimming pools. However, it can be applied to virtually anything on the property of the landowner.

If a nuisance renders others insecure in life or in the use of property, or affects the rights of an entire community or neighborhood, then municipal governments have compelling grounds to intervene.

Concerned with the number of nuisance properties impacting our neighborhood, my husband and many of my neighbors began to advocate the City government for more effective nuisance control. This led to the formation of a nuisance abatement committee in 2003. Under the tenacious leadership of Doug Bethers and supported by Council Member Rick Storrs, this committee has made significant inroads. It has arranged for the donation of numerous abandoned vehicles to the National Kidney Foundation. It has successfully advocated for the removal of nuisance enforcement from the City administrator's desk to the police chief's, with the result that many extreme cases have been prosecuted and cleaned up.

The work that remains is for the City Council to enact legislation addressing some of the more difficult problems. Some weeks ago, we began this effort by approving a yard sale ordinance. This ordinance is intended to prevent the perpetual yard sales run by those who would circumvent the City's business licensing and zoning requirements. (It still allows for the typical household yard sale.) Other ordinances, in accordance with my stated goals for 2008, will be coming down the pipeline later this year.

Some cities, with the full blessing of the United States Constitution, go so far as to legislate the c0lor you can paint your house or the kind of table linens restaurants may use for outdoor dining. Our intent in American Fork is nothing so extreme. True to our western sensibilities, our purposes will be limited to the protection of children and property values, and to the restriction of criminal habitat.

I campaigned on the slogan, "What Kind of City Do You Want to Live In?" A cleaner, safer city, with secure and appealing neighborhoods -- this is one of my top answers to that question.