It is unfortunately true that in many neighborhoods, there is at least one yard that often is overgrown with weeds and grass. Or the homeowner may fail to maintain the home, or may have abandoned vehicles in the yard. That is obviously frustrating to nearby homeowners who work to maintain their properties.
At present in Chattanooga, violators can be fined $50 in City Court. But the Chattanooga City Council is considering creating an ordinance that would set up an administrative hearing officer who could levy fines of up to $500 per violation for residential properties and $500 per day for nonresidential properties.
Supporters of the proposal say the existing $50 fine just isn’t enough to get violators to clean up their act.
In some cases, that may well be true. But we wonder whether it’s wise to raise the fine from $50 to $500 – a tenfold increase!
Technically, the Tennessee Constitution sets a $50 limit on the fines, and City Judge Russell Bean pointed out that voters rejected a change to the state Constitution a few years ago that would have increased the fine. But a state law enacted in 2010 lets cities set up administrative hearing officers or permit administrative law judges to handle code violations – and assess fines up to $500.