Mowing Season
It’s that time of year again when I get questions about notice to offenders who don’t cut their grass. Some of the inspectors complain that owners of property rely on the notice the local jurisdiction sends them as a signal that it’s time to mow their lawn or property lot. The most frequent question I get is whether one notice is sufficient or whether a notice needs to be sent every time the property needs to be mowed again. It all depends on what your code says. If the code requires a notice before you can write a ticket, then that’s what you have to do. Owners take advantage of this because they cut the grass after they get the notice and before you can write a ticket. Then they wait until the next notice, cut the grass and wait until the next one. This really wastes the inspectors’ time. My suggestion is to amend the code’s notice provision (if you can do that depending on state and local law) so that one notice per season is sufficient. There’s no good reason any inspector should play babysitter to a landowner. The owner needs to supervise the property or pay the consequences.
Why not give them notice, mow it, and then send them a bill for mowing along with an administrative fee?
We are working on our grass ordinance, anyone know of municipalities in Illinois that currently use a “once a season notice” wording in their ordinances. We’d like to compare notes.