St. Martinville – The St. Martinville City Council clarified the city’s grass cutting ordinance at its July 7 meeting to include all properties in the city and will no longer allow landowners to grow hay in the city.
The city had two conflicting ordinances, a general ordinance that allowed for the use of land for unspecified agricultural purposes, which had given those who wished to let their grass grow high in order to cut it later in the year for use as hay.
The more specific ordinance limits the height of grass allowed to grow in the city limits to 12 inches before it must be cut or ruled a nuisance.
The council considered continuing to allow grass to be grown for use as hay, with city planning and zoning director Otis Chatman suggesting that the city require a 10- to 12-foot break around those properties to lower fire hazards and keep the high grass from encroaching on neighboring properties.
City attorney Allan Durand also said the city council could require property owners who grow hay to prove to the council that the hay is being sold to farmers or ranchers, if the city was going to allow hay to be grown.
Mayor Jason Willis suggested that if the council were to allow hay to be grown in the city that it be restricted to properties 500 feet from the nearest residence.
But council members opposed the practice of growing hay in city limits, with Mike Fuselier mentioning one property adjacent to a daycare center where grass has grown higher than a man’s height.
Those kinds of properties attract rats, snakes, raccoons and other vermin that nobody wants near their residence, he said, or near young children as in the daycare center.
And many of the properties that are being used to grow hay are owned by people who don’t live in the city, council members said.
Durand said that in general if a city has conflicting ordinances, one of them a general ordinance and the other a more specific one, the more specific one overrules the general one.
He suggested the council vote to interpret the conflicting ordinances to have the stricter, 12-inch-high ordinance be the one that the city enforces.
After the council voted 5-0 to state that no grass be allowed to grow higher than 12 inches in the city limits, Chatman was directed to send out letters to property owners who were growing hay stating that the grass must be cut and kept no higher than 12 inches in the future.
The council also appointed Jared Normand to its Planning & Zoning Commission. The commission had not been meeting recently, Chatman said, because it does not have enough members to meet a quorum.
Fuselier asked Normand if he preferred strictly interpreting city zoning ordinances or if he would make allowances for variances to those ordinances.
Normand said that in his experience, variances should be allowed in some cases, after which Fuselier made a motion to appoint Normand to the commission.
The council also voted to give the owners of property at 2085 Terrace Highway 30 days to come back to the council with a plan to clear up the high grass, culverts and railroad ties that caused neighbors to file nuisance complaints about the property.
It was suggested the owners could put a privacy fence in front of the property to screen the view while it is cleaned up, but also told they need to continue clearing the grass and the items on the property.
The owner of a property at 604 Ledoux Street asked for two weeks to come up with a decision whether she wanted the property removed from the city’s planned demolition. The property, which has a house that was damaged by a fire, is among the 10 the city had scheduled to be cleared as a nuisance after receiving grant money to clean up many of the homes on its nuisance property list.
Ordinance
The council approved the delay, though it cautioned that the cost of saving the home far outvalued its worth.
The council also discussed a property on Church Street that was on its Clearance Grant list of properties to be cleared by a contractor. The property will remain on the list of those to be cleared.
Durand also clarified the city’s notification process for dealing with letters about nuisance properties or high grass.
The city ordinance states that 10 days after sending out a notice, the city has the right to cut grass on the property without the owner’s permission, and to send a bill to the owner for that work, or add it to the tax lien on the property if it is unpaid.
Chatman had been told that city workers couldn’t cut those properties until 10 days after those certified letters are either received or returned. That led to many delays as postal service sometimes didn’t return letters for months after being sent, Chatman said.
Adjudicated properties
Councilwoman Flo Chatman asked the council to consider using money from its Opera House savings fund to clear adjudicated nuisance properties that the city effectively owns.
The city cannot use the clearance grant funds to clear properties it owns, the mayor told the council, but agreed the city could use some of the $170,000 it has from the sale of the Opera House to clear those properties.
The council agreed to have council members draw up lists of adjudicated properties in their districts that they would like to see cleared first, and the city plans to clear those up to $70,000 total. The average cost of clearing properties is about $6,900.
The city would replenish the Opera House savings fund after selling those cleared properties, Willis said. But the city also would have to grant variances for some smaller properties to allow new owners to replace the demolished structures with structures of the same size.
The council voted to approve the plan.
Fireworks, Trash Pickup
Anthony reported a large fireworks display put on by residents near Honore and Theater streets on July 1 that led to complaints from nearby residents, and caused the city swimming pool and splash pad to be closed for the next three days as debris was cleared from the pool and splash pad.
City police did not immediately shut down the fireworks, which the mayor said were comparable to a city-sponsored fireworks show, because they did not realize that city ordinances forbid fireworks except on a few specific days such as New Year’s and July 4.
Fuselier also brought up trash pickup concerns after the city’s trash service had said it would have a double pickup on Thursday but did not pick trash up in some areas such as on Resweber Highway. Those residents were told the trash would be picked up again on Monday, and it still wasn’t.
Willis asked council members to submit which areas did not have trash picked up so that the service would be sure to fulfill its trash pickup as soon as reported.
Injunction granted
Durand updated the council on a judicial injunction against the owners of property at 950 Seiber Road who had stretched out council desires to clear the nuisance items off the property for months.
The judge’s injunction allows the city to enforce a call to remove all items from the property within 75 days or be ruled in contempt of court, Durand said.
