If there’s job security anywhere, it’s in the Denver’s Neighborhood Inspections group.
With one of the wettest summers on record, gardens have grown out of control, with blossoms and branches drooping into neighbors’ yards or over sidewalks, causing a number of complaints to be filed with the city. Unmowed lawns, taller than 6 inches as the law allows, also have caused a number of complaints.
To add to the gardening woes, the large number of foreclosures and abandoned properties has caused a number of neighbors to dial 311 for some relief.
“We have about 20 full-time inspectors doing nothing but working out in the field,” said Julius Zsako, spokesman for the city’s Community Planning and Development Office.
Vegetation complaints always spike during the summer, he said.
The second-largest group of complaints involves improper storage — of cars, tires and parts, upholstered furniture on the porch, which attracts rodents, and general stuff from around the house piled outside.
In July, neighborhood inspectors wrote up 3,562 violations, of which 1,207, or roughly one-third, were for uncut lawns and other overgrowth.
Zsako said the number of complaints to the city is beginning to drop, not because of neighborhood civility but because of some efficiencies the city implemented several years ago.
The biggest is the city’s 311 telephone system, which takes all complaints now. Inspectors who used to work phone rotations are all out in the field, Zsako said. Many of them are writing proactive notices, violations spotted before someone complains.
Another big change came two years ago when the city implemented a new enforcement procedure in which homeowners who receive a second notice must pay a $150 administrative penalty. Before, homeowners could fight their summons in court, collecting three or four complaints before taking them to court.
“Some people could delay their summons for up to four months before seeing a judge,” he said. “Our average compliance rate today is 10 to 12 days. Eight years ago, it was 35 days average.”
Some citizens, such as Lana Matthews, 55, who lives in the Baker neighborhood, suffer the brunt of squabbles with neighbors. Matthews received a notice from the city Aug. 5 that her 6-foot-tall licorice flowers were “growing over the sidewalk,” a charge she denies.
She blames a neighbor for having “a vendetta against harmless white and purple flowers.”
But Zsako says the law is the law, so an inspector visited the property and gave her a notice to clear the sidewalk by Friday, which she’s done.
But it gripes her that other neighbors have branches lower than 8 feet and similar overgrown gardens. Zsako immediately got in his car and cruised the neighborhood, looking for violations and finding that many of the offenders also have been cited.
“Our first visits are always educational,” he said. “Many homeowners don’t know the code and quickly comply. I have to admit, with all the rain this year, we have some spectacular gardens and flowers.”
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
