Code enforcement officers will start ticketing North Little Rock residents after Jan. 1 for having unsightly items outside their homes, a result of recent City Council legislation meant to clean up neighborhoods.
The new regulations, North Little Rock City Ordinance 8668, approved Aug. 25, prohibit storing furniture and other items manufactured for indoor use outside a home. An appliance in use, such as a freezer under a covered carport, is an exception.
However, explaining what can and can’t be outside and where it’s located, how much of it creates a nuisance and going through all of the “what if” questions that code enforcement officers say they expect is the basis for a marketing campaign to start next month to inform residents about the changes. The City Council set the Jan. 1 effective date to allow time for public awareness of the changes.
Several city officials met last week to go over questions and specifics about the new rules to ensure everyone is “on the same page” on the long-running issue.
A task force spent about 18 months to develop recommendations. It took eight meetings for the North Little Rock City Council before reaching agreement for a vote of approval. The time it took was partly because aldermen said they weren’t receiving input from the public and partly because aldermen themselves had trouble with the do’s and don’ts of the legislation.
City Code Enforcement Director Tom Wadley said the ambiguity he sees in Ordinance 8668 could prevent code officers from showing offenders what is and isn’t in compliance and why.
Having the ordinance spell out the rules as clearly as possible would help take any judgmental aspect by code officers out of the equation, he said.
“It’s just making sure we can write it to where it is easily understood by the general public, so there’s no question as to what is expected of them by the city,” Wadley said after last week’s strategy meeting.
“Of all the ordinances we have now, if someone says, ‘Why can’t I do that?’ my officers can give them a copy of the relative ordinance to show them,” Wadley said.
For example, he said, “when we tell them their grass is too tall,” officers can point to a city ordinance that “says it can’t be over 8 inches tall. So with that, everybody understands.”
“If you had 100 boxes outside with stuff coming out of them, that’s easy,” he added. “The problem we get is what if it’s five or 10 boxes and the neighbor complains? What does it take for that resident to come into compliance? How do you answer that question?”
City Alderman Debi Ross, a co-sponsor of the outdoor storage legislation with Alderman Steve Baxter, said that she’s willing to come back to the City Council with amendments to the ordinance to help spell out the new rules.
“The whole intent of the task force was to make it as plain as possible,” Ross said. “If it takes going back with additional wording, I’m fine with that. Adding an amendment to the amendment to the amendment.”
A few specific examples were added to the legislation during the initial process, Deputy City Attorney Matt Fleming said, “in an attempt to pinpoint those items that are the most egregious.”
“But it doesn’t try to target specific items,” Fleming added.
“There’s no way you can enumerate everything that may come up. There are so many obvious things, and the ordinance targets two areas: household furniture manufactured for indoor use and appliances. Can it be amended to include other things? Yes, if that’s what the council wants.”
To remove the unsightly appearances within some city neighborhoods, Baxter said, what the city needed was a point to start, instead of trying for an instant cure-all.
“This is a better starting place than we had,” Baxter said of the ordinance.
Ross said that the issue that was repeated during task force discussions was “if it’s not made for being outdoors, it shouldn’t be outdoors.”
“That’s the simplest way to explain it,” she said.
“If we have to add wording to make that as clear as possible, that’s what we need to do.”