Unkempt Properties Are Closer to Clean Up

Supervisors Back Several Proposals

By Sandhya Somashekhar (Contact)

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday moved toward cracking down on unkempt lawns and other signs of neglect that residents say have diminished living conditions in neighborhoods in the eastern part of the county.

Supervisors expressed support for a variety of measures they will consider adopting this year, such as allowing volunteers to mow overgrown lawns and prohibiting residents from parking their cars on their front yards. They indicated support for a policy that would permit residents to file zoning complaints online rather than having to mail them in or file them in person.

The board also agreed to consider regulations that would allow the county to recoup from property owners the costs it incurs when it has to trim grass or clear garbage from lawns because the owners refuse to do so.

"These issues impact residents' quality of life," said Supervisor Susan Klimek Buckley (D-Sugarland Run), who sponsored two of the measures. "They are in need of help, and we are continuing to help them."

The problem of overgrown lawns has increased in recent months, county officials said, driven in part by a spate of foreclosures that has left dozens of houses shuttered and neglected. The problem is especially acute in the Sterling area, which has an aging housing stock and has a high concentration of foreclosures.

Photo: Rich Lipski

Tall grass and weeds overcome several unoccupied homes in a state of disrepair in Sterling Park.

Typically, county officials contact homeowners whose grass has grown too high and ask them to trim it, saying it poses a health threat. Over the years, the county has occasionally had to mow the grass of neglectful homeowners.

This year, the county has struggled to keep up with such complaints, County Administrator Kirby M. Bowers said. Buckley noted that her district has experienced an increase in rat infestations and other problems related to untended yards.

"The number of tall grass complaints filed this year has far exceeded any previous year by a vast amount," Bowers wrote in a letter last week to Supervisor Eugene A. Delgaudio (R-Sterling). "While in previous years the County took on no more than 2 or 3 projects each year to mow a property due to an overgrown yard, the County is now facing over 20 properties currently needing to be mowed, with undoubtedly more to come."

The board might need to allocate more money to handle the uptick in complaints, Bowers said in the letter.

Delgaudio has suggested that the problem could be handled by neighborhood volunteers willing to mow lawns at abandoned houses. Several supervisors were warm to the idea but said there could be a liability issue if the volunteers were injured during the task or encountered angry — perhaps even violent — homeowners. They asked county staff members to investigate and come back with some policy recommendations next month.

They also directed staff members to draft an ordinance that would ban the parking of cars on most front lawns, which some residents and officials have said is a likely byproduct of residential crowding.

Delgaudio on Tuesday distributed photographs that showed more than a dozen examples of cars, vans and trucks parked on front lawns. In one photo, two pickup trucks sat on the grass facing the road. In another, a car with a trailer hitched to the back was parked in a weedy side yard.

"This is, today, something that is overdue because of the safety issue," he said. "An ambulance can't get to the house. A fire engine can't get onto the lawn to put the fire out on the house."

Also Tuesday, county officials delivered their recommendations on a policy that would encourage county workers to buy foreclosed homes.

The proposal — which would provide funding through a combination of government grants and low-interest loans from commercial and nonprofit organizations — now goes to a board committee. Supervisors are expected to explore how to expand the program so that it would cover workers in the private sector as well as county employees.

Tagged: Board of Supervisors, foreclosure, Sterling

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