Town of Saugerties officials who say they’re just trying to find alternatives to the courts to deal with problem properties got another mouthful of opposition to a proposed property-maintenance law. Discussion before the town board of a revised draft of the law during a public hearing stretched on for nearly two hours prior to last Wednesday’s regular meeting.
The draft law did little to alleviate the concerns of more than a dozen speakers who found provisions of the law too subjective, targeting low-income homeowners and seniors or hose who preferred more meadow-like landscapes to mowed suburban-style lawn.
While they were not against property-maintenance laws, several speakers said, they felt the proposed law was just not right for Saugerties. Some demanded convening of a committee composed of members of the public to draft a law addressing serious property-maintenance issues.
The board did not vote on the proposed law. Deputy town supervisor Leanne Thornton said town officials were listening to all comments as they moved forward in the process.
Town building inspector Alvah Weeks felt the intent of the proposed law had been misunderstood. Saugerties can’t pass laws that are less restrictive or more restrictive than state property-maintenance codes that he said have been in effect for decades. He noted a 1973 state right-of-entry law for code enforcement officers.
Weeks said his department was already overburdened with complaints. Officials are trying to avoid costly trips to court or misdemeanor charges that could result in $1000 fines and /or a year in jail for offenders who dodn’t resolve issues. He agreed with the speakers that when someone is in jail their lawn mowing doesn’t get done.
Supervisor Fred Costello said the new law would give the building department a toolbox to address concerns and mitigate situations before getting them in front of a judge, which was a time-consuming and costly proposition for all parties involved.
“Imagine being in Mr. Weeks’ shoes,” Costello said. “The days he’s going to court, he’s not doing construction inspections, he’s doing nothing but preparing for court.” And oftentimes, due to relationships with propertyowners, a case gets moved to a different venus. sometimes a distanr one, adding to the time and expense incurred.
No grass-measuring patrols
One speaker expressed that a portion of the law felt like a personal attack on thoxe who had spoken up at a previous public hearing.
“There was no effort by this board to take any personal action,” Costello responded.
Several speakers about how a complaint could be acted upon by officials. The supervisor said that could only come after a neighbor made a complaint. There would be no patrol driving around to see how long everyone’s grass was.
Another speaker who owns a farm asked if the provisions would override the Town’s previously right-to-farm law. Costello said the right-to-farm law stands on its own, and this law will not dispute people’s right to farm.
After several questions from the public, Costello said the severability clause of the law only serves to keep the entire law from being thrown out if one portion of it is deemed illegal in a court proceeding.
When things smell terrible
Costello reiterated that the law will not result in there being a patrol going around checking how long people’s grass is, instead it will go after some of the most egregious offenders when it comes to property maintenance issues.
In one neighborhood in the town he did not name conposed of nearly entirely single-family homes, save for one multi-family home, a long-simmering tenant-landlord dispute turned ugly for neighbors. When the tenants didn’t pay their rent, the landlord ended garbage-carting service/ The smell of garbage blew into the neighbors’ yards.
“It’s a fairly regular occurrence,” Costello said.
Under the current process, there can be no redress until the building inspector deems it a real complaint. A letter is sent to the landlord demanding restoration of garbage service. Then the building department can ask the town board to restore carting service and add it to the landlord’s tax bill. That can take 60 to 90 days. hardly a timely process when the dumpster is overflowing and things smell terrible, the supervisor said.
Weeks recalled a case where a resident in a home under foreclosure refused to leave until forced to do so. Garbage carting service was cut off. Trash piled up along the boundaries of the property, attracting rats. The only redress was court, he said.
“We share sensitivity to private rights/ We’re not here to challenge that, we’re here to support that,” Costello said. “We’re looking at egregious situations that destroy people’s ability to sit outside.”
Helping gentrification?
A boom in short-term rentals has created a problem. There have been situations of people converting all kinds of things into spaces they could rent out, some of which are unsafe. “It’s not okay to convert a tool shed into a short-term rental house,” Costello said.
In other cases, people have converted structures into accommodations not readily reachable by first responders. “It’s not fair that members of an emergency response risk their life to make a rescue,” Costello argued. “It’s not a motivation to say you can only have pink flowers because we like them.”
Another speaker, a retired nurse, called the language offensive, she said / The law had more to do with gentrification than public health. She questioned what would happen to people who didn’t have the funds to fix properties to the specifications within the proposed law. She also noted that one man’s weeds could be a beautiful landscape to others and present a habitat for endangered pollinators.
Another member of the public termed a provision that called for an offender to appear in a public hearing in front of the town board within 30 days a form of public humiliation.
Costello saw it differently. The public hearing is not supposed to be a means of public humiliation. It was a chance for the propertyowner to make their case. The board could end up saying something like “they are Easter flowers and not weeds and they look great,” he said.
Thornton said this law allowed the building department to take care of a problem that for whatever reason had not been addressed. She hoped most things can be resolved on a verbal basis, but the law contained provisions for when that was not the case.
“I know of a gentleman who passed away who never got to enjoy his property because of a disaster next door,” town board member Mike Ivino said.
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