WHAT IT MEANSA Tennessee law allows cities and towns to get around a constitutional limit of $50 fines for violation of city codes. Here’s how it works:• Cities pass ordinances setting up administrative hearing officers or allowing administrative law judges to oversee code violation cases.• Hearing officers or judges could levy fines up to $500 per violation.• The fines would have to be for building and property maintenance violations such as overgrown lawns and abandoned cars in front lawns.Source: Tennessee General Assembly
Just behind Ruby Green’s home is a yard with knee-high grass. Up and down her street, she said, she sees lawns overgrown and not kept up.
Green, the president of the Cedar Hills Neighborhood Association, said she wants her neighborhood to be better. But it’s hard when the most the city can fine for code violations is $50, she said.
“That’s too little,” Green said. “They laugh at $50. They don’t care.”
That could change. A state law enacted last year allows cities to establish administrative hearing officers who can levy fines up to $500 per violation for residences and $500 a day for nonresidential properties.