Overgrown lots keeping inspectors busy

As the seasons pass and the starkness of winter gives way to the verdancy of spring and now summer, it's not only allergy sufferers who are unhappy.

On some suburban properties, nature is left unchecked. Code enforcement workers in some suburbs are overwhelmed with cases aimed at keeping properties safe and neat, which in turn makes neighborhood living more bearable for those who regularly tend to their lawns.

“Code enforcement inspectors refer to this time of year as growing season,” said Marc Mylott, Elgin's director of community development, which includes the code enforcement department.

The number of new cases initiated by Elgin inspectors in May was 50 percent higher than in the early months of 2011. Much of that can be accounted for by calls to properties with weeds growing taller than 8 inches, Mylott said.

Robert Surratt, a code enforcement officer in St. Charles, said St. Charles has steadily issued more citations for overgrowth as the number of foreclosures has increased.

It's the same story in Mundelein.

In Arlington Heights, such cases have remained constant over the last two years, but there is a drastic difference between now and when the housing market imploded, according to Sean Freres, an environmental health officer.

But then there are communities like Glen Ellyn with one of the lowest foreclosure rates in the Western suburbs where overgrown weeds are no more of a problem this year than in the past, officials said. Carolyn Soderholm is a seasonal inspector for Elgin, hired specifically to keep an eye on the city's overgrown lots.

She treks across Elgin daily, measuring weed growth with her ruler, documenting it with her camera. She will make up to 30 stops each day starting in May and continuing until the snow flies.

Soderholm said the combination of a particularly rainy spring and more vacant homes has driven up the number of properties that have run afoul of Elgin's property maintenance standards.

“We have more, a lot more,” Soderholm said.

Communities like Elgin point to increasing foreclosures as part of the problem as well as developer-owned lots upon which houses were never built.

In Elgin, this growing season will be a very busy one for Soderholm, but it's also a summer when city council and staff members are ready for change.

Council members have begun to discuss new initiatives for code enforcement. A local adjudication court already has started to hear some code enforcement cases and likely will hear almost all of them in the next six months, increasing the speed at which code violators will be held responsible.

And Mylott, who came to Elgin nine months ago from a job in Columbia, S.C., has a host of ideas for code enforcement that worked well in his old stamping grounds.

One such idea is an online list of identified code violations, sorted by address, so residents can see the open and closed cases. The list would include the violation, when it was noticed and what the next step is, giving residents concrete examples of what code enforcement has done in their neighborhoods.

“It's easy to think that the city isn't doing anything or isn't doing as much as they should in terms of code enforcement,” Mylott said.

Initiatives like the online list would open the channels of communication between the city and its residents and quickly show the progress made by inspectors.

A constant struggle in code enforcement is the changing expectations of the community. Elgin City Manager Sean Stegall said the fine line makes code enforcement one of the most difficult areas for municipal government to tackle.

“Generally speaking, you can never reach that point where a community is satisfied with the services provided in code enforcement like they are with the fire department or police,” Stegall said.

But that's why Stegall hired Mylott, who has been assigned with “fixing” the system and bringing it to the next level.

One initiative will provide a baseline of conditions. Mylott supervised a survey in South Carolina that outlined the code status of 28,000 homes.

A similar survey in Elgin would give council members and city staff members a quantifiable measure and a benchmark for future objectives.

Stegall said he hopes to start the massive undertaking in the next year.

Elgin Councilman John Prigge, who campaigned on changing the city's reputation in the 2009 council race, advocates stricter code enforcement for properties on arterial roads like routes 20 and 25.

“I think we need to raise the bar,” Prigge said.

Though he acknowledges a down economy makes it harder for people to keep their properties in shape, Prigge wants to see action.

Mayor David Kaptain, amid an increasing push within the city for resident involvement, said the council will engage members of the community on a task force to make recommendations to the council on code issues. “A lot of things are complaint driven,” Kaptain said. “People need to complain. If we don't know about it, we can't do anything.”

It's growing season

Elgin's code enforcement department is at its busiest when the heat and rain of spring provide perfect conditions for weed growth. The number of new cases code enforcement officers started in May was much higher than the first months of 2011.

Month Cases

January 640

February 434

March 691

April 606

May 912

Source: City of Elgin

No notice violations

Elgin officials compiled a list of seven “no notice” code violations. That means instead of a warning and a certain length of time to fix a problem, residents are given citations on the spot. These offenses made the list effective July 1, 2006:

Ÿ Junk and debris in the tree banks

Ÿ Residential outdoor storage of household items

Ÿ Unpaved parking (in the yard or on grass)

Ÿ Excessive grass/weeds

Ÿ Temporary signs

Ÿ Major auto repair in residential districts

Ÿ Construction without a permit

Source: City of Elgin