Meridian officials are looking at their options after a resident requested help addressing an overgrown property near her house.
At a work session Tuesday, Patricia Hall told City Council members an empty lot and ditch next to her home on 46th Avenue are overgrown with vegetation and are causing her problems with wildlife. Raccoons, opossums and snakes have taken up residence in the overgrown lot and are finding their way inside her house.
Public Works Director David Hodge said his office is aware of the issue and has addressed what it can. The problem, he said, is that the city isn’t allowed to work on private property and cannot go in and clear the lot and ditch like Hall requests.
Hodge said crews had cleared the area inside the city’s right of way, but the remainder of the lot is private property and can’t be touched by his department.
Municipalities do have a process of addressing overgrown or dilapidated properties through public nuisance laws, but that process is extremely slow. The city can declare a property a public nuisance and clean it but must first give the property owner notice and a chance to address the problem, hold a public hearing with the City Council and have council members formally vote on the matter.
After clearing the property, the city can assess the cost of cleaning as a lien on the property’s tax bill. In many cases, however, owners who abandon such properties are also inconsistent at paying property tax.
Community Development Director Craig Hitt said code enforcement, which falls under his department, is working through that process, but it will take a while. The lot in question, he said, has grown past the point of simple mowing and will need more aggressive measures to clean up.
“It’s gotten to the point you’d need a dozer to clean it off,” he said. “You can’t mow it.”
Council members Tuesday also heard from Meridian resident Jennifer Gentry about the need for surveillance cameras in her neighborhood. For approximately the past four months, she said, she and her neighbors have been dealing with an influx of drug users and other unsavory characters, which she and her neighbors have dubbed “zombies.”
These people, she said, cause disturbances and fights and make residents feel unsafe. Meridian Police Department does respond, she said, but it’s a temporary solution.
The neighborhood would like a surveillance camera to be put up and to form a neighborhood watch group, Gentry said.
Meridian is in the process of building a new surveillance camera network that will have the capability to add privately owned cameras for neighborhoods and residents. Meridian Police Department is in the process of constructing a real time crime center from which the video feeds will be monitored around the clock.
Council members encouraged Gentry to reach out the MPD and get in touch with the department’s neighborhood watch coordinator. They also urged her to continue reporting disturbances to police.