Code Enforcement

Just what is being done by city legislators when it comes to fixing the boulevard ordinance?

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That is a very good question. The current ordinance states:

96.010  RIGHT-OF-WAY LANDSCAPING.

   (a)   The portion of a dedicated public right-of-way between the street and the property line excepting the sidewalk shall be landscaped and maintained by the abutting property owner. Landscaping shall be limited to sod, seed or other living ground cover approved by the city. Nonliving ground cover, including, but not limited to, rock, stone, brick concrete, asphalt or other like materials, shall not be used as landscape material except as provided herein.
   (b)   The city may authorize the use of nonliving ground cover for landscaping a public right-of-way when it is determined that a location will not allow for adequate maintenance of sod or other living ground cover. This exception shall not include the use of loose rock or asphalt as landscaping material.
(1992 Code, § 38-12)  (Ord. 37-03, passed 5-5-2003)
As you can see, as it currently states, your boulevard can ONLY be green cover. When is our council going to fix this? I do know that some councilors agree, this needs to be revised so thousands of residents can be in compliance. The mayor and some of the council say just leave it as is.
The problem with that is that there is NOTHING stopping code enforcement from giving out violations. Nothing. As the ordinance is written right now, they can give out a violation to anyone who is not in compliance. And they can pick and choose who those violators are.
So how is ‘doing nothing’ fixing the problem? I encourage our council works on revising the ordinance.

Reward the troublemakers, punish the property owners

Yesterday one of my South DaCola foot soldiers had a voicemail left in the afternoon. It was a message from a reporter at one of the local TV stations. She said she wanted to do a story about flowers in the boulevard. The soldier called them back about 30 minutes later, and the reporter told her that they no longer were going to do the story.

So what happened in that 30 minutes? I wonder if a call was also placed to city hall?

As for people who are beautifying city property (boulevards). I find it ironic that the city wants to punish people who are using their own resources to improve city property through code violations and fines.

But when other citizens of our community drink all day in one of our public parks, pass out, get into fights, etc. the city administration decides to reward them with bathrooms, picnic tables and a fence to contain their rowdiness.

To hell with a Bad Neighbor, more like a Bad Mayor.

UPDATED: Sioux Falls ‘Flower Police’ strike hard and fast

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UPDATED: This is the photo of where the flowers had to be torn out, you can see they were cut out. I think it actually looks worse, because now it is just a bunch of rocks. I guess how this came about was code enforcement tried to fine a lady with rocks in her boulevard, and she got mad and took around 40 photos of other properties violating the same thing she was, so code enforcement chased them down also. Ridiculous. I sometimes wonder if city employees or managers THINK before they act on stupid stuff like this.

Recently a resident of Sioux Falls was asked to remove her flowers from the boulevard (Day Lillies) by city code enforcement. This is in the wake of the city council recently stating they want to review the administration’s recommendation to limit flower planting and other landscaping in the boulevard.

According to current city ordinance, your entire boulevard should be grass only. But after the city council heard about the proposed changes they asked for the city code enforcement to not enforce the current ordinance until they come up with proposed changes, and they agreed they would not pursue issuing fines (because there are thousands of violators city wide). Apparently the code enforcement officers don’t give a rat’s behind what the city council thinks. The resident was asked to tear out the flowers within a week or face a $100 fine.

Code enforcement is supposedly based on neighbor complaints, but I guess all the neighbors of this resident were so upset the city did this, they sent the lady sympathy cards.

This has renewed an interest in a petition drive that may start very soon regarding what residents can plant in their boulevards and having the city public works trim THEIR trees in the boulevard instead of fining and charging residents to trim them.

Once again, if citizens want PUBLIC SERVICE and CONSTITUTIONAL Property RIGHTS they have to pursue it on their own at the ballot box, because our elected officials are asleep at the wheel. Just look at how long it is taking them to ban alcohol at Van Eps Park?