Des Plaines moves to curb overgrown lawns

The Des Plaines city council has approved new regulations on the height of grass and “noxious” weeds to help maintain the appearance of neighborhoods and prevent an adverse impact on property values, officials said.

Overgrown lawns are becoming an all too common eyesore due to the high number of foreclosed homes throughout the Northwest suburbs.

“It’s something that everybody sees right away,” Des Plaines Director of Community and Economic Development Michael Bartholomew said at Monday night’s city council meeting.

The new city ordinance shortens the time — from 10 days to five days — that inspectors allow property owners or banks, responsible for property within the city, to correct overgrown vegetation before the city begins enforcement, including mowing unkempt lawns and promptly billing property owners.

Properties where grass and weeds have been allowed to grow more than 6 inches will be tagged and owners will be notified by means of a door hanger ordering maintenance of their yards within five days. If the property owner does not take care of the problem within five days, the city will mow the lawn and bill the homeowner.

The city may also place a lien against the property or use other means to recover the costs incurred to bring the property into compliance with the provisions. The city will charge property owners a 25 percent administrative fee in addition to the actual cost.

“We feel that this ordinance change is warranted to help maintain the health of our community, as well as to stabilize property values in these economically challenging times,” Bartholomew said.

Des Plaines is not alone in dealing with negligent landlords.

For example, in summer 2009, Barrington and Schaumburg adopted new policies to address the increasing number of foreclosures and abandoned properties.

Barrington authorized its public works department to perform emergency landscape maintenance to homes, without the owners’ permission, under certain conditions. The policy allowed such action as the cutting of grass more than 10 inches tall and removal of sickly or diseased trees. The policy does not require prior notice to homeowners, yet public works officials said they still intend to give one unless there is no question that a property is abandoned.

Schaumburg took a different approach to the same problem requiring the owners of abandoned buildings — usually banks or other financial institutions — to provide a means of reaching them about maintenance issues.

Property owners in Palatine are in violation of village ordinance if grass exceeds 12 inches in height. Once a violation notice is posted, homeowners have 72 hours to resolve the matter. Owners of unoccupied foreclosed properties also receive a letter. If nothing changes, the village hires a contractor to mow the lawn. Property owners then get a hearing, where they face possible reimbursement or additional fines, depending on the circumstances.

Rolling Meadows officials last month discussed the growing volume of problem lawns in the city, but didn’t alter its policies, saying the situation, while challenging, was not out of control.

In Des Plaines, Bartholomew said financial institutions are notorious for neglecting properties that are foreclosed and usually don’t pay attention to notices.

“We shouldn’t have to wait for their process,” he said. “We should be able to keep our neighborhoods the way that we want them.”

Bartholomew said the city will not penalize homeowners who may be on vacation or away during a long weekend and did not intentionally neglect their lawns.

If that is the case, homeowners would be able to call the city’s code enforcement officer whose name is on the tag and negotiate with the city to remove the fines.

“We’ll certainly work with them,” Bartholomew said. “Our intent is not to punish the homeowner that just couldn’t mow their grass that week because of all the rain. We’ll certainly use discretion in those cases. This is really aimed at the absentee landlord, the financial institutions that aren’t maintaining the property and their asset managers aren’t doing a good job. Eventually, they will start doing a good job because we are not in the business of mowing lawns and I’m guessing it will be quite costly for them to have us do it.”

The city would charge $150 per cutting plus the 25 percent administrative fee.

Officials urged residents to call the community development department or the city manager’s office to report unkempt lawns. That’s because after years of staffing cuts, the city has fewer workers and they don’t have time to cruise neighborhoods looking for violations, Bartholomew said.

“The overwhelming majority of the complaints do come from the residents and the aldermen,” Bartholomew said. “I have eight aldermen and a mayor who are fine code enforcement officers. They call in grass complaints all the time. We do rely on the community now more than ever to help us identify those complaints. But we are going to be much more proactive with the grass complaints.”

Bartholomew said at the beginning of every growing period residents will be reminded to mow their lawns through legal notices in the newspaper. The information will also be posted on the city’s website and cable channel.

For more information about Des Plaines’ ordinance, call (847) 391-5380.

Ÿ Daily Herald staff writers Eric Peterson and Kimberly Pohl contributed to this report.