Saluda looks to shorten time to comply with nuisance ordinance 

 

SALUDA—The City of Saluda is looking to shorten the time given for residents to comply with the nuisance ordinance.  

Saluda City Council met Monday and discussed issues employees have run into with the current ordinance.  

Saluda Zoning Officer Jeff Moore said the state requires that the city tell someone to go and clean their nuisance and does not give a timeframe. Saluda’s ordinance gives 30 days for clean up. Saluda also has a clause where city manager Jonathan Cannon can deem a violation a public nuisance so the city can take care of that nuisance if need be.  

“What we want to do is shrink down the timeframes we have,” Moore said.  

Moore said from the time employees address an issue to the time they bring it to the board, it could be as much as 89 days.  

“There’s nothing in state statutes that says we have to have to have a deadline,” Moore said.  

Cannon said there was a recent issue where a property owner had a rented dumpster on their property that was full of trash. Moore said the resident did not pay their dumpster fee, so the contractor dumped the trash in the yard and took the dumpster.  

Cannon said the city gave the resident 30 days to clean it up, then the 30 days passed and it was still not cleaned up. He said the city could have cleaned up the mess and billed the property owner, but the resident came into compliance on Monday.  

Commissioner Stan Walker said when the city prepares its budget, they should look at budgeting a certain amount of money so Saluda does not have to spend 40 or 60 days waiting on nuisance abatement.  

“Because we have people in Saluda that don’t live here, 10 days would be a little tight,” Walker said. “20 days, maybe.”  

Moore added that the city could just go clean it up and charge them for cleaning it up. One there is a person who is a repeat offender, the city is not required to tell them they are cleaning it up.  

Commissioner Mark Oxtoby asked if Saluda needs to put the dumpster company on notice that the city would not appreciate them dumping trash again.  

City Attorney Jana Berg said the dumpster company violated Saluda’s solid waste ordinance by dumping refuse on private property.  

She used an example of a mobile home that was used for storage that caught on fire and there is now stuff in the yard along with the burnt mobile home, which is a nuisance that needs to be abated.  

“Giving someone 10 days to do that is not feasible,” Berg said.  

She suggested giving discretion in the ordinance, including language that states giving someone a reasonable time and let the code enforcement officer determine what is reasonable.  

Council instructed staff to call other towns and come up with a recommendation for changes. Saluda Mayor Fred Baisden said Saluda does not have to be like others, but Saluda can use other ordinances as a guideline.