HomeMy WebLinkAboutIR 10180 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 10180
To the Mayor and Members of the City Council August 21, 2018
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SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO HIGH GRASS AND WEEDS
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The City Council has requested information about the high grass and weed abatement programs for private
and public property conducted by the Code Compliance and Park and Recreation Departments.
Private Property—Code Compliance Department
By city ordinance, grass and weeds may not exceed a height of twelve (12) inches. When grass and weeds
on private property exceed a height of twelve(12)inches,a notice of violation is issued to the property owner.
Only one violation notice per owner per property is issued each calendar year. Four (4) days is given for
delivery of the certified mail and the property owner has an additional ten (10) days to abate the violation.
After fourteen (14) days, a mowing ticket is issued to the city contractor for abatement. The city contractor
has ten (10) days to mow the property and submit before and after photographs with the cost for the mow. A
Code Compliance Officer verifies the correct property was mowed, that the photographs clearly show the
property was in violation at the time of the mow, and that the appropriate cost was charged according to the
size of the property.
If a property is vacant (vacant lot or vacant structure), the property goes into a recurring mow status. This
means a mowing ticket is generated every twenty eight (28) days for the city contractor to mow as long as
the grass and weeds exceed twelve (12)inches at the time of the mow. If the property does not exceed twelve
(12) inches, the mowing ticket is closed as "mowed by owner" and the recurring mow cycle stops until a
Code Compliance Officer identifies it as being in violation again.
With limited resources, proactive efforts to identify high grass and weeds are focused on inner-city
neighborhoods (inside Loop 820), but all Code Compliance Officers proactively identify violations while in
route to other cases on their daily agenda. Code Officers also investigate citizen-initiated complaints.
Owners with property exceeding two acres are required to maintain the grass and weeds within 100 feet of
any adjacent street or any structure or other improvement on any adjacent property under twelve(12) inches.
Outlying large acreage is addressed on a complaint basis only due to an average contractor cost of several
hundred dollars per mow. A typical city lot within a neighborhood averages $66 per mow.
So far this fiscal year, Code Compliance has issued 6,548 mowing tickets:
• Mowed by contractor— 1,742
• Mowed by owner—4,580
• Pending mow tickets—226
With the recent rains and the warmer temperatures forecasted, we should see a second growing season for
grass and weeds. This will require the Code Officers to identify new violations since many of the recurring
mow tickets were closed due to drought conditions and slow growth. Properties found in violation that have
already received notification during this calendar year will go straight to the city contractor for abatement.
ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS
INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 10180
To the Mayor and Members of the City Council August 21, 2018
fir Page 2 of 2
SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO HIGH GRASS AND WEEDS
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Public Property—Park and Recreation Department
The Park and Recreation Department is responsible for the maintenance of parks,traffic dividers, select right-
of-ways and other city facility grounds. This year, as the result of some contractors' nonperformance and
non-renewal of contracts,there have been delays in mowing until city resouces could be re-deployed to bridge
the gap. For the most part inspection of contractor work continues to rely on contractors self-reporting.
Below is a chart detailing the Park and Recreation Department's grass abatement program.
Maintenance Service Delivery CyclesNea?h - — Start Date
Medians Maintained (mow, edge & All on contract, 18 cycles/year, February/March
trim) every 14 days depending on when cycles
begin
Right-of-Ways Maintained (mow, edge & All on contract, 9 cycles/year March 1
trim) every 30 days
Traffic Maintain intersection traffic All on contract, 9 cycles/year March 1
Intersections, sightlines (mow & trim) every
Corner Clips 30 days
Parks Maintained in accordance Maintained on contract and by February/March
with specific park service city staff. Number of cycles
level category (7,14,21,28 & vary depending on frequency.
42 day cycle), majority are Majority are 7 cycles/14 days
maintained 14 days during and 7 cycles/21 days;
growing season and then depending on when cycles
switches to 21 days during begin
the summer (pending rainfall)
Tax Foreclosed Maintained (mow, edge & All by city staff, 8 cycles/year February/March
City Properties trim) every 35 days
For questions regarding this information,please contact Brandon Bennett, Director of the Code Compliance
Department, at 817-391-6322 or Richard Zavala, Director of the Park and Recreation Department, at 817-
392-5704.
David Cooke
City Manager
ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS