Code enforcement officers scour town for violations
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

STAFF PHOTOS BY PHIL REYNOLDS Too-tall grass Some grass in city lots is nearly up to Caitlin Hibbard's waist - beyond city codes. It's part of Hibbard's job to identify such lots and get the owner to clean them up, as well as finding junked vehicles and dealing with them.

I climbed into the city building department's truck and drove around Port Aransas last week with Joe Lamb and Caitlin Hibbard, and saw a Port Aransas I hadn't noticed before.

It was an eye-opener.

Some buildings were barely standing up. Others appeared, from the street, uninhabitable. Vehicles with state inspection stickers that had expired years ago were parked at the curb. Grass, in places, was waist high.

Lamb's and Hibbard's job is to locate those places and either get the owner to comply with local and state laws and codes, to get the grass cut, or to fix the vehicles or get rid of them.

It's a job that sometimes doesn't make them popular people.

Lamb, speaking to the city council on Thursday, May 15, estimated that 48 or 49 buildings had been torn down in his six years as building official. Since Hibbard came aboard as code enforcement officer in January, "We've had 18 junked vehicles removed and eight substandard houses torn down," Lamb said. "She's sent out about 65 'weedy lot' letters and we've had 42 responses, some of whom have gotten their lots mowed. Right now we're concentrating on the old town area, trying to get pepper trees cut down."

Pepper trees?

Yes, pepper trees are part of the problem also. They sometimes provide impromptu housing in areas not intended for homes.

Lamb turned off South Station Street and pointed to a line of Brazilian pepper trees parallel to the street.

"Those used to be so thick you couldn't see through them," he said. "We found that people were getting into the middle of the trees, stomping out the vegetation, and using the clearing as a campground. They had sofas and everything."

The city bulldozed that copse of Brazilian pepper trees to the point where it's no longer a hiding place. In another location off Station Street, a similar growth of Brazilian pepper trees was slashed, clearing an alleyway and revealing two small buildings in the middle of the brush that Lamb hadn't known about.

By city ordinance, the building department can enforce building and landscape codes. That means if a building doesn't meet the code, Lamb can require the owner either to bring it up to standard or demolish it.

Junked cars - vehicles that aren't roadworthy - must be removed from public sight.

Lawns must be neatly trimmed.

"Most of the people we get in touch with comply," Hibbard said, pointing to a yard on 12th Street that had been recently mowed. "Sometimes, they're out-of-town property owners who don't realize the yard is getting that bad."

"That one," she said, referring to the home we'd just passed, "had the lawn mowed by the time I got the return receipt on the letter."

Letters are a big part of life in the building office.

When a property isn't in compliance with city codes, the first thing Lamb or Hibbard do is to send a certified letter. They allow 10 days for the property owner to get in touch with their office.

After 10 days, another letter goes out. The property owner has 30 days from the receipt of that letter to take out a permit (in the case of a substandard building) and start work. He has 90 days to finish the job.

"We have to send the letter," Hibbard said, "but I'd much rather deal with people over the phone. For one thing, it saves the $6 certified letter fee. And it's easier to work with people that way."

One stumbling block the office faces is properties whose owners can't be found - and there's a surprising number of those. If no owner can be found, or if the owner doesn't respond, the city can get a contractor to mow the yard or tear the building down; the cost is recovered in a lien against the property which must be satisfied before the property can be sold.

Owners of substandard buildings who don't answer the letters or who can't be found will wind up before the city's Board of Adjustments and Appeals. That's a fivemember panel of property owners appointed by the city council to make rulings about such things or to hear homeowner appeals of building official rulings.

Lamb turned over the names of three people who had been sent letters about code violations; we wanted to ask how they felt they had been treated. As of deadline, none of the three had returned phone calls.