The Jefferson City Public Works and Planning Committee approved language Thursday that would add more teeth to the city’s repeat nuisance violators section of the city code.
Currently, under city code, a habitual offender is someone who has been ordered to abate a code violation after an administrative hearing or has been convicted in municipal court of certain code violations at least three times in the last 365 days or five times in a 730-day period.
The committee approved adding the language “or has had a code violation abated” under Chapter 21 of the city code to that definition.
Under Chapter 21 of the city code, a nuisance is an unlawful act or an omitted duty that:
• Injures or endangers the comfort, health or safety of people;
• Offends decency;
• Is offensive to the senses;
• Renders people insecure when using property or in life;
• Depreciates the other people’s property values or interferes with a person’s comfortable enjoyment of life and property;
• Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs or renders dangerous for passage of any public or private street, sidewalk, highway, stream, ditch or drainage; or
• Violates Jefferson City’s Property Maintenance Code.
Nuisances include tall weeds, trash accumulation, junked motor vehicles and indoor-use-only furniture being used outside, among several other items.
There are individuals who would be considered habitual offenders under the new proposed definition, Jefferson City Neighborhood Services Manager Jayme Abbott said.
“We often hear within our office, ‘Well, this person is constantly having a nuisance,’ over and over again,” she said. “This gives our staff an additional tool to enforce out in the community as an effort to clean up the nuisances out in the community.”
After a property owner receives a nuisance violation, he or she has 10 days to correct the violation. If a property maintenance issue is not an immediate nuisance or would take more time to reasonably fix — such as fixing a roof — the property owner has 30 days to comply.
If the violations are corrected during the set period, the case is closed. Property owners who voluntarily correct nuisance violations would not be considered habitual offenders.
If the violations are not corrected, the city can proceed with the abatement process, issue summons or hold administrative hearings.
A person found guilty of violating the habitual offenders section can be punished by a fine of no less than $350 and no less than 30 days in jail, according to the city code.