Most responsible homeowners  take pride in mowing their lawns and maintaining their property, but some  don’t.  That’s why  cities have  regulations about lawn mowing.  Currently,  any grass over 12 inches high is in violation of city code.  At that  point, they may  receive  a complaint in their mailbox. If the notice is ignored, the city mows the offenders  lawn and charges them $60. Which  happens to be less than what it would cost to have it mowed by a lawn service.  2^nd, 3d and 4^th offenses are charged at the same flat fee of $60.  Our city code enforcement lacks teeth. 

What happens to a nice neighborhood when one homeowner lets his yard get overgrown with knee high grass and mountains of weeds?  Property values decrease, and everyone feels frustrated.

In our subdivision, there is a homeowner  who thumbs his nose at society by refusing to mow his lawn more than once or twice a year.  Is he poor or disabled?  No, he’s an executive at a good company, who has the luxury of working from home.  He’s healthy enough to play golf.  Also, he owns an upscale lawn mower in good working condition.

This situation has gone on for several years.  When I asked the woman at code enforcement why there hasn’t been some kind of fine for 2^nd 3d and 4^th offenses, she responded that the city has over 700 un mowed lawns, and ‘you can’t make someone mow their lawn.” Wow,  if you’re going to apply that logic, you could say, “you can’t make a person stop running red lights.”  No, you can’t, but you can bet your sweet bippy it’s going to cost you more each additional time you run a red light.

Last spring, the Okemah. Oklahoma city council decided to  crack down on offenders by hitting them in the pocket book.  .  By a unanimous vote, they set a fee schedule for certain violations of the city code.  Under the resolution, failure to keep your lawn mowed could result in a $100 fine for the first offense, $150 for the second and $200 for the third offense. A warning will be issued before any fines are assessed.

The city of Ferndale, Michigan issued the following statement regarding code enforcement: ”  The lawn grass cannot be longer than 7″.  As a courtesy, we will send a notice once per season to the homeowner letting them know they have 7 days to cut their grass.  If the grass does not get cut, the City’s contractor mows it for them.  This service will cost the property owner $275.00.  Given the alternatives, the property owner normally realizes that it is much less expensive to maintain their lawn themselves or hire someone than having the City do it.”

You have to wonder why our  city council  is so lax about code enforcement.  What are they afraid of?  A person who won’t mow his lawn probably isn’t going to vote in the next election. But his neighbors will.