Nuisance lawns may be flagged by the city

Changes may be coming to Creston’s mowing ordinance in order to back city nuisance claims.

During Tuesday’s city council meeting, code compliance officer Bobby Wintermute and parks and rec director Rusty Zimmerman joined the council in discussing nuisance lawns in Creston.

Chapter 56 of the city code requires all properties within Creston to have their lawns mowed to a height below 8 inches by the first and 15th of every month April through October. The council changed the height from 12 inches to 8 inches in 2024 at Wintermute’s request.

“It’s very obvious when a yard is too tall, and the whole point that I lowered it to 8 inches a couple of winters ago was that I could easily enforce the yards that are 10 or 12 inches,” Wintermute said. “When it’s way too tall, it’s blatantly obvious, and it keeps the process from getting days-long to create the list, getting out, measuring photos, all that stuff is just not conducive to achieve anything in a timely manner.”

Wintermute said the bimonthly process takes him about four hours, during which he drives past every property in Creston city limits. When he drives past a property with grass that is too long, he writes the address down on a clipboard. He explained each offending address receives its own submission form, which is then brought to the city clerk, usually by noon the same day.

Councilmember Jocelyn Blazek said while she understands not getting exact measurements, she think a photo should be taken of each offending property.

“Photos should be taken regardless. Anytime you’re doing a nuisance notice, you can do that from the vehicle. A couple quick pics, you’re done,” Blazek said. “I think that needs to be a requirement, not only so that we can say, yes, this was too tall, but also because we had complaints about the timing ... and if you have a picture, that’s got a date and timestamp.”

Along with timing, councilmember Jason Cook said the city has received complaints that the city’s properties don’t comply with the ordinance either.

“I’m getting a lot of complaints right now that the public is saying, well, we’ve got time to go out and look at people’s lawns, but we can’t keep our own stuff within the ordinance,” Cook said.

Both city and nuisance mowing is done by the parks and rec department, which Zimmerman said is very low on staff.

“[April 29 was] the first time I’ve had any help, first time somebody’s been hired on just because lack of applicants,” Zimmerman said. Nuisance properties haven’t received much attention yet because he’s trying to focus on city property first. “My personal thing is, if we have all the city stuff done, then we turn around and hit the nuisance properties. Maybe that’s not the correct thing, but public property is more important than coming back and putting us on private property.”

Cook proposed Wintermute mow the nuisance properties until more summer help arrives.

It was also suggested he start placing flags in nuisance yards when marking them down in order to give the property owner notice. Blazek said this may take some yards off the list as property owners may take care of the nuisance when they see the flag.

“The other complaint is that we don’t have time to go to these properties,” Blazek said. “Well, this is a solution that might cut down on the number of properties you do have to develop.”

While this might make the property owner aware their lawn is against code, councilmember Kiki Scarberry said it would only be a courtesy and the city would not be liable if a flag was removed before the owner noticed.

“We made the effort. We’re trying to do it. It’s kind of like the law with the police. Your ignorance of not knowing what it is doesn’t mean that it’s not a rule,” Scarberry said. “We’re trying to work better with the community; that’s all we’re trying to do.”

It was suggested to use hot pink flags so not to confuse residents with standard utility flags. Repeat offenders would not receive flags.

“So really, for the most part, it would be the very first part of the year that you’d probably be doing flags,” Blazek said.

No action was taken, though the council hopes to add flags and photos to the ordinance at the May 19 council meeting.