I could write an entire column on my thoughts on personal rights when it comes to masks, guns, reproduction, free speech, race/gender/sexual orientation or 100 other topics that would make me feel better for having expressed my opinion, but I think I’ll stick to something a little less controversial – landowner rights.
I know when you hear the phrase “landowner” you might get a picture in your mind of someone owning a farm or ranch; perhaps you think about the issue of corporate hog farms or the debate over wind turbines, but the landowners I’m talking about today are those who live in town, with neighbors next door or across the street. Those landowners have rights, too and never have I been more aware of that than at meetings of the Trenton Building and Nuisance Board.
I have only been covering the meetings of that board since January, but I’ve covered the Trenton Municipal Court for almost three decades. I know nuisances have always been a problem and will most likely always be a problem. I can tell you that this board is frustrated that it seems like their hands are tied when it comes to pressuring someone to clean up their property. I’m not talking about high grass and weeds. I’m talking about property that has appliances, furniture, mattresses, etc., sitting all over the yard. If you can’t picture it, just look at the front page of the Friday, May 28 Republican-Times. You don’t need to imagine what some of these properties look like – we showed you. I’ve been looking at that property now and then since November and I feel really sorry for the people who have had to see it every time they stepped out of their front door. The good news is that after receiving a summons for the first time on Nov. 3, 2020 the property was (mostly) cleaned up in time for a court appearance on Tuesday. Yes, this past Tuesday, June 1, 2021. At that point, a guilty plea was entered and the defendant was ordered to pay a fine of $150 and $41.50 costs. It only took seven months for that property owner to do what I’m pretty sure I could have done in a long weekend – which is what they did over the Memorial Day weekend.
The board is frustrated because tickets get issued and cases remain in court for months. Actually, one case involving a building code violation has been in court since Dec. 7, 2017. The house, which sits very close to the property line of a house that is on the National Register of Historic Places, is falling down. I’m certain it’s condition affected the selling price of that historic property when it went on the market last year. So, does the owner of the delapidated house have the right to infringe on the rights of the homeowner who has kept their property in good repair and their yard cleaned up?
I was recently told that a house that has been vacant and in disrepair in my neighborhood for years (and has a family of groundhogs living high on the hog in it) won’t get torn down this year even though it’s on the demolition list because the property owner won’t pay their share of the demo cost. Talk about disappointment. The question is how do you make it less advantageous for the owner to just let the property sit there than to chip in part of the demolition cost and have it gone?
There has been talk of possibly following what the city ordinance says can happen – that the city can send someone onto the property to remove the offending items and clean up the property and then put the cost of the cleanup on the property owner’s tax bill. But that’s more complicated than it sounds: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And, more importantly, is it worth someone possibly getting hurt trying to remove the junk from an angry property owner who sees the value in the scrap metal sitting all over their yard?
Members of the Building and Nuisance Board have been told that the municipal court has its hands tied due to changes in state statute. The question has been asked many times “so why do we even have this board if we can’t do anything?”
That’s a good question.