SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio — City Council voted Monday (Oct. 27) to increase fees for city-provided maintenance when property owners don’t keep their yards up to standards.
The city contracts with a landscaping company to cut lawns that are too high. Since 2022, it has been charging those residents $60 per cut.
That same $60-per-visit charge has been in place when city Service Department workers have to go to an unkempt property to clear brush, cut shrubs or do other necessary yard maintenance.
Under the ordinance passed Monday, the city will return to a previous nuisance abatement law –charging $60 per visit on the first two cuts or cleanups, but increasing the cost of a third visit to $250.
A fourth visit will come with a charge of $500, a fifth will be $750 and any others after that $1,000 per job.
The number of complaints for maintenance accumulate within a 12-month period.
Fees that are not paid can be added to property tax bills.
Such nuisance abatement infractions are categorized as criminal nuisances, which has caused some friction and legal discussions in communities with similar laws.
Of this categorization, South Euclid Planning and Development Director Michael Love said, “Because of issues that were found in other cities’ criminal nuisance ordinances, the city (South Euclid) was being proactive in separating the police nuisance process from the building and housing (code) nuisance process.
“So this (just-passed ordinance) only covers building and housing violations, and we’ve separated the two processes.”
Love said violations at residents’ property can result in the owner, technically speaking, being charged with a misdemeanor — a criminal violation.
“So, it is technically a misdemeanor violation,” he said. “And we went back and forth (City Council discussions) in a continuous loop of people not understanding — it is a criminal violation because you can be charged with a misdemeanor.”
Prior to council’s vote — which was 5-2 in favor of returning to the higher charges for repeat offenders — Mayor Georgine Welo asked council for the amendment’s passage.
“Currently, we have 15 service men and two mechanics, which only gives us 17 men in our Service Department, which means that when the frequent flyers who choose not to take care of their yards when others do, and spend our residents’ tax dollars on being private landscapers, this isn’t OK.
“We have holes in our streets, we’ve got potholes (to repair) — it’s (increased lawn maintenance fees) something that only those egregious violators would be affected.”
Ward 4 Councilman John Fahsbender said of the amended ordinance, “Essentially, what we’re trying to do is give our Building and Housing Department some tools to help them prevent homeowners (and) landlords from taking advantage of the low fees ($60) that we charge in doing lawn work and other things.”
Love said that when residents are informed of a violation, they are given 72 hours to correct the problem, during which they can call the city and state any hardship they may have.
“The Building and Housing Department does work with residents,” Love said.
Of the increased fee schedule, Love said, “This is only for the repeat offenders.”
Sometimes those repeat offenders are landlords who live in other states.
In all, he said, there are less than 100 such repeat offenders. Council is hoping that the increased fees will greatly reduce that number.
Voting against the increase were Ward 1 Councilman Mark McMillian and Councilwoman-at-Large Susan Hardy.
“At least 69 percent (of those cited) were not rentals,” Hardy said of her opposition.
She said that for some council members, a focus of the amendment is to make out-of-town, absentee landlords pay their fair share.
“That’s not what the data is showing,” she said.
In addition, Hardy said, “Basically, I think $250 is excessively high (and) I don’t like it placed under ‘criminal nuisance abatement.’
“I don’t think it (the category of criminal) belongs there.”
South Euclid receives ACAR Home for All Award
It also was announced at Monday’s council meeting that the city has been awarded the “Home for All Award” by the Akron Cleveland Realtors Association (ACAR).
ACAR Vice President of Advocacy Jamie McMillan told those at the council meeting that previous award winners have been specific elected leaders or Realtors.
South Euclid is the first city to win the award.
“In this case,” McMillan said, “we really recognized the work the entire city has done together. This isn’t a one-person mission or accomplishment.
“South Euclid is blessed to have a strong mayor and leader, Mayor Welo, and her team, especially Michael Love, who has put a ton into projects like infill housing and zoning, mixed-use transit and all the tax abatement, and all the things that make South Euclid wonderful.”
McMillian praised all city officials for making housing a priority in South Euclid.
Welo said that, when she became mayor in 2004, “we weren’t the place for everyone to live. In fact, there were real estate people who didn’t really want to show homes in our community.”
“We really worked hard on (housing), and I was shocked when I got the email (informing her of the award),” she said.
“I just stared at that email, because all I could think about was people calling me (in past years) because their home was being foreclosed, developers calling because they couldn’t build a house on a vacant lot because we had the wrong codes (or) the fact that we just didn’t have enough equity in our homes so that you could build a house that was maybe more than the homes on the street.”
Welo also mentioned anti-discrimination ordinances that council has passed. She said residents are “the greatest asset we have.”
Like most communities, South Euclid was hit hard by the Great Recession of 2007-09 and saw a great many home foreclosures.
Since that time, work has been done on building infill homes on vacant lots and developing housing projects, such as townhomes now being built at St. John Woods, St. John Meadows and Francis Court, and homes at Lowden Place and Queen Ann Court.
In all, the city has, or recently has had, more than 120 new homes under construction.
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