- Property
maintenance law is up for a vote Monday night at
Council
-
- P R E S S R
E L E A S E by Chad Werkhoven
-
- SUNNYSIDE (Monday
4-25-99)--- The Sunnyside City Council is scheduled to
vote on the Property Maintenance Facilitation
Ordinance at Monday Evening's Council
Meeting.
-
- The impetus of the
program is the protection of people's rights
and
- property values through
the improvement of Sunnyside's
appearance.
- This will be accomplished
by our Property Maintenance
Facilitator
- (PMF) in the following
ways:
-
- Proactively encouraging
the continued beautification of the
city;
- Educating and informing
people what our codes and expectations
are;
- Facilitating the
abatement of messes that detract from the value and
appearance of our city.
-
- The ordinance is a
compilation of several things. Ninety percent of
it is
- a consolidation of things
that have been included in the
Sunnyside
- Municipal Code for
decades. The format is modeled after ordinances
that
- are in place in cities
throughout Washington that have withstood
legal
- challenges.
However, our ordinance has a unique characteristic in
that it
- takes a proactive step in
facilitating the clean up of eyesores.
-
- Citizen participation and
input is important to the City Council and
it
- has resulted in several
modifications to the ordinance. Listed below is
a
- brief overview of some of
the improvements that have been made
since
- the ordinance's
introduction:
-
- The maximum fines have
been reduced from $500 per day to $50 per day.
Other cities have experienced a 95% voluntary
compliance rate, so we do not anticipate having to
rely on fining very often. Our goal here is to
clean up messes, not to add a source of revenue.
It has been suggested by citizens that any revenue
generated by this program be directed right back at
beautification efforts in Sunnyside.
-
- Citizens who feel that
they have been unjustly cited can appeal directly to
the City Manager in addition to their court
appearance. The City Manager is directly
responsible to the City Council.
-
- Instead of saying that
people can not park their vehicles on their front
yards at all, a phrase has been added that reads
"vehicles shall not be parked on any front yard unless
on a designated and approved driveway." This
means that people who have RV's or vehicles that are
being restored properly and neatly parked on their
yards can continue doing so.
-
- Garbage cans no longer
have to be "sight screened" from public view.
They simply need to be hauled away from the curb after
collection.
-
- This Property Maintenance
Facilitation Program is one of the
many
- positive things happening
that is making Sunnyside a great place
to
- live, work and raise a
family.
-
- Our Property Maintenance
Facilitator, Bill Eickenbarry, has
already
- taken one of the
proactive steps we've talked about. In
cooperation with
- Lower Valley Towing, Bill
has scheduled a "free tow day" on April
29
- for people who have junk
vehicles to get rid of but can't afford to
have
- them towed
away.
-
- If you have any questions
please call me at 837-4080 or e-mail me
at
- mailto:chad@truckbeds.com.
-
- --Chad
Werkhoven
-
-
-
-
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