Commissioners to review county decay law

The Flathead County commissioners got a refresher course on the county’s community decay ordinance Monday as county Planning Director BJ Grieve talked about the difficulties of administering a law that can be downright volatile.

“There are white hot angry people on both sides of this issue,” Grieve said.

The nature of community decay complaints is often subjective, where the old saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” holds true.

Add in a healthy dose of “It’s none of your business” attitude from property owners and ongoing complaints from the neighbors of those property owners and it’s challenging to resolve such cases, Grieve said.

Since 2005 the county has taken 88 complaints over alleged community decay violations. It averages about 11 complaints per year, Grieve said. Currently the Planning Office has one pending decay violation; four others have been forwarded to the County Attorney’s Office for resolution.

Property owners cited for community decay can appeal the decision to the commissioners, Grieve pointed out. Understanding the context of the law can be useful in any future appeals, he advised the commissioners.

Grieve used a slide show to explain the ordinance, with photographs ranging from instances of no decay (although neighbors had complained) to full-blown violations of the law.

“To avoid being the visual police, we work hard to stick closely to Section 3 of the law,” Grieve said.

Section 3 describes what constitutes a public nuisance. It includes conditions such as dumping, piling or stacking bricks, concrete blocks, waste wood and similar materials on open lots, unless the material is stacked in neat piles and waste items such as mortar, wood splinters or broken bricks are removed.

Grieve showed a photo of a roughly 10-foot-tall fence built with thousands of wood pallets. Because the pallets were neatly stacked it was not a violation of the community decay law, but the neighbors were “infuriated” with the unusual fence, Grieve said.

Accumulations of metal, machine parts, junk vehicles, household appliances, barrels and other salvaged items also are forbidden, unless such material is in a licensed and shielded auto wrecking yard.

It can be very difficult to determine whether a vehicle constitutes junk or not, Grieve said.

“Junk vehicles are tough to deal with,” he added. “If it runs and has a tag” (valid license plates) it may not be considered junk, even though the vehicle may be in dilapidated condition.

Shielding of decay is allowed, and the law specifies what constitutes proper fencing.

There are some common misinterpretations of the community decay ordinance, too. Tall, unmowed grass and weeds aren’t violations, nor are the interior contents of homes or odors coming from homes.

Grieve told about the call his office received about bags of garbage piled up in a neighbor’s pickup truck. That wasn’t deemed decay because it seemed apparent the property owner intended to haul the garbage away.

The ordinance was adopted in 1989, and Commissioner Dale Lauman wondered if it’s time for a review and update.

Lauman said the decay definition that mentions conditions that are “injurious to health” may need to be more detailed to address rodent control.

“I know sooner or later someone will appeal [a community decay decision] to the commissioners,” he said.

The law applies to both zoned and unzoned property throughout Flathead County, and the two-mile planning “doughnuts” around Whitefish and Columbia Falls.

Instead of taking a “coming at you with a hammer” approach to enforcement, the Planning Office is compiling a list of resources available to property owners with decay issues, Grieve said. That list will include contact information for nonprofit groups such as Flathead Industries and United Way, as well as for-profit businesses such as JUNKIT, which will remove debris for a fee.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.