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Vehicles that are not street legal or are broken down must be kept in garages.
By Kevin Haas
RRSTAR.COM
MACHESNEY PARK — If your car doesn’t belong on the street, then it can’t stay in your driveway either.
The Machesney Park Village Board voted unanimously Monday in favor of a new law that requires broken-down vehicles or ones that aren’t street legal to be stored inside a garage. Violators face fines.
The goal for village officials is to improve the look of neighborhoods and increase property values by keeping potentially unsightly vehicles out of sight.
Some residents approve
Residents Karen and Don Schmoll said they were pleased to see the law pass because inoperable cars can be a neighborhood eyesore.
“I didn’t build a $160,000 home and move into a decent neighborhood so that I can have junk parked next door to me in the driveway,” Don Schmoll said.
They said broken down vehicles that are allowed to be kept outside of a garage can also lower property values.
Others have complained the law is burdensome for those who can’t afford to make repairs immediately.
“We live in a developing subdivision that’s still not filled in,” Don Schmoll said. “It should affect the people that are out there looking to buy a new home, too, because they don’t want to see that either.”
It’s a tougher version of the village’s previous law, which allowed inoperable vehicles to be stored within an enclosure.
Tougher law helps police
The previous law allowed broken down cars, stock cars and all-terrain vehicles to sit in driveways, so long as they were surrounded by a fence or covered with a tarp. Those vehicles must all be stored within a garage now.
The new law helps sheriff’s police and the village enforce complaints from residents, said Deputy Chief Rocco Wagner, who leads the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department’s Machesney Division.
Staff writer Kevin Haas can be reached at khaas@rrstar.com or 815-987-1354.
What you need to know
The new law: All inoperable motor vehicles, whether on public or private property, must be stored in a garage. Any not stored in a garage will be declared a public nuisance.
What it applies to: Vehicles that are unable to move under their own power for at least 10 days. It also applies to vehicles that are not “street operable,” which means they lack necessary equipment to operate legally on public roads. That includes stock cars and all-terrain vehicles.
Penalties: The village may tow the vehicle after 10 days’ notice. The owner will be charged a $200 administrative fee and additional fees to cover towing and storage costs.
The village also could issue a $100 fine for a first offense. A second offense could result in a $200 fine, with a third offense costing $500. Each day the vehicle is not moved can be considered a separate offense.
NEWS SOURCE
Thursday 24 December 2009
Washoe County proceeds with junk car ordinance
RENO, Nev. Nev.—Washoe County officials are working out the details of a new ordinance they say will help control suburban blight by requiring junk vehicles be hidden from view.
Once in place, officials said the county will be in a stronger position to rid blight from the unincorporated communities surrounding Reno and Sparks.
After a last-minute rally by Hot August Nights car buffs in late October, the county commission backed down on an ordinance change proposed by its planning staff that had set a limit of no more than two junk cars per lot.
The commission agreed it would set no limit on vehicles as long as they can't be seen by the public.
With such a significant change, the draft ordinance had to be rewritten. It will be introduced Dec. 8 and a final vote is scheduled for Jan. 12.
A companion ordinance approved in September will allow the county to hire administrative hearing officers to hear these nuisance cases, uphold fines and eventually order abatement of a property and put on a lien to recover the cost when the land is sold.
Currently, the county puts no limit on the number of junk cars you can have, as long as they are screened from view from the front of the property or a nearby street.
But some critics like Susan Severt question how the new ordinance and added restrictions will help.
She points to property at the north end of Sun Valley Boulevard with backyard full of junk trailers, cars and trucks and more trailers lined up in a gully.
"This has been here for years and years," Severt, who has led a fight against blight in Sun Valley for a decade, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "This is probably one of our biggest offenders. But he can have as many as he wants as long as you can't see them."
In defining nuisances, a citizens committee including Severt worked 22 months on a draft ordinance that set an upper limit of one junk car per acre for a maximum of 50 vehicles.
"There should be a quantifiable measure," she said.
Severt said she's not offended by someone hauling in a car to take off parts to fix a vehicle or having several piles of construction materials while renovating their home.
But when the junk takes over, it encourages others to pile up their yards with clutter.
"You know it, when you see it," she said of a property that has become a junkyard. "It's not the norm."
NEWS SOURCE
Once in place, officials said the county will be in a stronger position to rid blight from the unincorporated communities surrounding Reno and Sparks.
After a last-minute rally by Hot August Nights car buffs in late October, the county commission backed down on an ordinance change proposed by its planning staff that had set a limit of no more than two junk cars per lot.
The commission agreed it would set no limit on vehicles as long as they can't be seen by the public.
With such a significant change, the draft ordinance had to be rewritten. It will be introduced Dec. 8 and a final vote is scheduled for Jan. 12.
A companion ordinance approved in September will allow the county to hire administrative hearing officers to hear these nuisance cases, uphold fines and eventually order abatement of a property and put on a lien to recover the cost when the land is sold.
Currently, the county puts no limit on the number of junk cars you can have, as long as they are screened from view from the front of the property or a nearby street.
But some critics like Susan Severt question how the new ordinance and added restrictions will help.
She points to property at the north end of Sun Valley Boulevard with backyard full of junk trailers, cars and trucks and more trailers lined up in a gully.
"This has been here for years and years," Severt, who has led a fight against blight in Sun Valley for a decade, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "This is probably one of our biggest offenders. But he can have as many as he wants as long as you can't see them."
In defining nuisances, a citizens committee including Severt worked 22 months on a draft ordinance that set an upper limit of one junk car per acre for a maximum of 50 vehicles.
"There should be a quantifiable measure," she said.
Severt said she's not offended by someone hauling in a car to take off parts to fix a vehicle or having several piles of construction materials while renovating their home.
But when the junk takes over, it encourages others to pile up their yards with clutter.
"You know it, when you see it," she said of a property that has become a junkyard. "It's not the norm."
NEWS SOURCE
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