Efforts to clean up Columbus are expected to pick up after action taken Tuesday night by the city council gives additional power to the city’s code enforcement officer and police. Mary Ferdon, the city’s director of administration, says that many months of work has gone into amending the city code dealing with unlicensed, inoperable and abandoned vehicles.
Ferdon says that junk vehicles have been a problem in Columbus for years.
Ferdon talks about the changes to the ordinance, as well as potential penalties.
Those fines would go to the owners of the property that the vehicles are parked on, not the owners of the vehicles.
A standing-room only crowd were in attendance for Tuesday night’s meeting. Those who spoke during the public comment portion where largely divided. Landlords expressed concerns that they would be held financially accountable for their tenants vehicles with little say in getting offending vehicles removed. However, Fred Barnett, the city’s code enforcement officer, explained that the intent isn’t to fine people, but rather address eyesores throughout the community. Ferdon agreed, noting that plans are being discussed to unveil a new program aimed at helping owners of non-compliant vehicles to have them removed at no cost to them. It’s called the Inoperable Vehicle Abatement Program.
The proposal to more aggressively target inoperable, unlicensed and junk vehicles passed on a vote of 6 to 1, with Frank Jerome being the lone “no” vote. He expressed reservations about how the change would affect private property rights.