Councilman Seeks to Outlaw Simi Eyesores

Pack rats, take note: Junk cars on blocks, scattered trash and even an overgrown lawn could soon merit a fine under a proposed city ordinance.

Striving to spruce up Simi Valley, city leaders will consider making such eyesores illegal at a City Council meeting sometime next month.

The idea of outlawing dilapidated properties in this appearance-conscious city came to Councilman Bill Davis about a year ago when he rode along on early morning gang sweeps.

Besides seeing probation violations and overcrowded conditions in the city’s poorer areas, Davis spied something he had never before seen in his city: lawns full of weed-choked cars with engines that would never again turn over.

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“You’d look at some of those homes and you’d think you’re in a Third World country, not Simi Valley,” he said. “And across the street, or two houses down, it’s gorgeous. . . . So what I wanted to know, is ‘What can we do to force these people to clean up their property?’ ”

Within a few weeks, he should have that answer from City Atty. John Torrance.

Many of the eyesore problems in the city are addressed elsewhere, Torrance said. Commercial developments, for example, are held to high landscaping and property-care standards. Some weed abatement issues fall under fire control regulations.

But, he added, nowhere are all the general standards of appearance for residential properties spelled out and given the full force of law in the city’s municipal code.

By adopting a so-called “property-maintenance ordinance,” city officials could make violations either an infraction--punishable by a $100 fine on the first offense--or a misdemeanor--punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and six months in county jail.

Banning eyesores is “a necessary evil,” Councilwoman Barbara Williamson said.

“I don’t like having government in everyone’s face,” she said. “By the same token, I don’t like everyone getting in government’s face and saying: ‘Why don’t you do something about my neighbor? He’s a slob.’ ”

Such messiness can bring down property values, she added.

“Your home is your castle and if you want to live slovenly that’s your right,” she said. “Except when it infringes on your neighbors.”

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If such an ordinance is passed, don’t worry about the birth of a grass-cutting Gestapo, city leaders say.

“I don’t think the City Council is looking to aggressively enforce the marginal cases, but rather they’re looking to aggressively enforce the egregious cases,” Torrance said. “I don’t think community members with 3-inch grass in their yard rather than 2-inch will have the full force of city law pounce on them. If it’s 2 1/2-feet tall and dying--that’s another matter.”

A similar enforcement stance is taken in Thousand Oaks, where a 24-year-old public nuisance ordinance regulates fetid swimming pools, rubbish, inoperable vehicles, animal kennels, unpainted buildings, unkempt lawns, abandoned refrigerators, garbage cans, animal feces and more.

“If something is dangerous to health and safety, we act on our own,” Thousand Oaks Deputy City Atty. Jim Friedl said. “If it’s something more of an aesthetic nature--property maintenance--we act on a complaint basis. We don’t go out looking for problems; we wait for someone to complain.”

In Thousand Oaks, citations for violating the public nuisance ordinance, which are treated both as infractions or misdemeanors depending on the severity of the problem, usually number six or fewer a month, he said.