 |
| Supervisors view a photo of one of the road easements that were agendized for Tuesday's meeting. |
| Photo by: Bethany A. Monk |
Warren was part of the first of several public hearings concerning property and road easements and other issues. County code enforcement officer Linda Van Vleck requested the board approve charges to be placed on the 2008-09 tax roll and record notice of abatement liens with the recorders office "... for abatement of a public nuisance," according to an agenda form regarding the item.
Instead, supervisors agreed to let Warren place a lien on her property, Van Vleck told the Ledger Dispatch Wednesday. "They wanted to give her a budget, to start a payment program."
The problem began in December 2004, when neighbors in the area began complaining to the county about the debris in Warren's yard. "There was an accumulation of junk, debris and household garbage" outside the house in the 14000 block of Emigrant Trail in River Pines. The Amador County Planning Department issued the first warning letter to Warren in 2004, Van Vleck said. "Then I followed up with additional inspections," she said, noting that it had been an ongoing issue since 2004.
On Nov. 15, 2007, the county finally cleaned Warren's property, a task that cost about $12,700.
Supervisors wanted her to be able to place a lien on the property, meaning that anyone purchasing it would have to pay back the money owed to the county, Van Vleck said.
There are other code enforcement issues in the county similar to this one, Van Vleck said, where neighbors call complaining of public nuisance. Most of the time, property owners will clean it up on their own. "They don't want the county there," Van Vleck said. "It's more expensive."
It took the county some time to proceed with the clean-up, something Van Vleck said resulted from a delicate balancing act. "it was one of those things. If you do it, she's going to lose her home," she said. "We want everyone to keep their homes."
Van Vleck said Warren continued making promises to clean her property, but never did.
"It's clean now," Warren told the board. "I can keep it up."
"We have to be responsible for our property," Van Vleck said, when asked if she was happy with the board's decision Tuesday. "We can't have the general public paying for it."
In other code enforcement news, board members approved a series of five abandonments of road easements located southeast of Curran Road, about two miles from the Camanche Road intersection.
| Bethany A. Monk |