A Uvalde City Council discussion which began as part of the March 22nd council meeting has continued into the April 12th meeting. The question city council members, the mayor and other city department heads seem to be grappling with is this:
“What actions can the city take to bring problem residential property owners and tenants into compliance with city codes and ordinances?
At the March 22nd meeting several residents came to the Uvalde City Council meeting and addressed the council over a neighboring property on the 500 block of Park Street where garbage would pile up on the property. At this property, Anderson stated the house on the property was not receiving city services such as water or sanitation services and did not have any electricity.
According to the minutes from March 22nd, Anderson said,” Staff has been in contact with the Code Enforcement Association of Texas and provided a list of cities that use the same ordinance as the City of Uvalde.”
“So what can be done about property owners not having services or about garbage and sanitation issues regarding fire? The State of Texas says we can place liens on properties however that cannot be done on a homestead. Since we are requiring people to show us a lease agreement, then that says it’s a rental. For residential properties, there is not much that can be done.” Anderson said.
“Sergio Porras who lives near the property on Park Street stated he knows the property in question has not had utilities in over 15 years. The current resident of the property has a lot of issues both medical and mental. He mentioned that on several occasions the individual residing on Park Street started fires and harassed neighbors.” (from the minutes of the March 22nd meeting)
What does a city do when code violations are ignored and municipal court dates are not attended?
Near the end of the April 12th, City Council meeting, the discussion over scofflaw code violators continued.
“It’s a tale of two trailer parks.” Susan Anderson, City of Uvalde Director of Planning and Development said to the City Council when discussing the ongoing discussion of code enforcement issues.
According to Anderson the two trailer parks are both located within the city limits, both located near pretty nice neighborhoods and both were developed in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s.
Yet, according to Anderson, the two trailer parks, Behland Trailer Park and Chaparral Trailer Park are different in terms of maintenance and code compliance. According to City Manager Vince DiPiazza, “ One of the trailer parks is a constant case of code enforcement cases.” he said. He was referring to Behland Trailer Park.
According to Anderson, two issues that come up with the Behland Trailer Park are the broken fencing around the perimeter of the park and the brush and stuff piled outside of the dumpsters and loose trash.
“I drove through.” Three trailers are in really bad shape.
Additionally some trailers don’t have house numbers posted outside
City Mayor Don McLaughlin suggested putting pictures of the offending properties in the newspaper or on a website.
“Let’s do something.” Councilman Chip King said.
“The (city) staff can come back with an escalation policy,” he said.
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