Q. Why is it that some city employees can tell property owners what they have to do for landscaping? Where do they get the authority to interfere with my property when they weren’t even elected?
A. There is some misunderstanding about how we have arrived where we are in our approach to landscaping requirements.
The authority comes from city ordinances, a big package containing zoning and landscaping and also building and vegetation and traffic, and nuisance rules and all the laws necessary for operating a city. Every city has something similar.
In fact, the city employees you encounter are unable to insert their personal opinion because they are required to enforce minimum and maximum specifications defined by the ordinances affecting their department. These ordinances were passed by city council votes and have the force of law.
Current landscaping ordinances are the end result of a long process which rewrote the city Comprehensive Plan a half-dozen years ago. After many months and many meetings, a large group of citizen volunteers on a special committee produced the plan.
One of the points of emphasis in that plan stressed a goal of implementing rules for new development and redevelopment projects which would enhance the appearance of the community. The landscaping rules now in place are a consequence of some of the recommendations of that committee.
It can’t be overemphasized how strong the sentiment of the committee was in pushing for more ways the city could look better.
The original landscaping minimums proposed by the consulting firm – which acted on the committee’s recommendations – were much, much more demanding than what we have now. The actual ordinances that were passed toned down that consultant’s ideas but may still be more stringent than some in other cities. If you are looking for it, you can tell the difference as you travel. I don’t think, though, that there is a drastic disparity from city to city and as each city updates things as we did, they’ll likely catch up.
So, when anyone from the city tells you that you have to do something you don’t want to do with your own property, don’t blame them. Part of their job is to ensure compliance with rules that come not from them, but from the council, and they can’t just look the other way.
There are good ways to go about it and city workers are encouraged to offer suggestions to achieve compliance in ways that cause the least amount of resistance. There is some flexibility, but only within the ordinance language.
As government people we need to understand there is a powerful and perfectly understandable sense of entitlement among those who own property. Our objective should be to interfere with that entitlement as little as possible while still meeting the common needs and desires of the community. Those common community ideas live in the big book of city ordinances.
Common ideas, yes, but not unanimous.
Here’s another question that came in:
Q. Why is Aberdeen trying to beautify? I’ve lived here for 40 years and there’s nothing you can do to improve the looks of this city. These laws are stupid.
A. I don’t think he wanted an answer.
Aberdeen Mayor Mike Levsen’s views are his own and don’t necessarily represent those of other city officials. Send your questions to askthemayor@aberdeennews.com.
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