City's abandoned property complaints surge

Spring is a depressing time for Vanessa Lackey, who frets over warm and sunny weather bringing an annual menace to western Louisville.

"The grass gets so tall, and nobody will cut the yards," said Lackey, president of the Westover Neighborhood Association, a subdivision in far western Louisville.

The city saw a 23 percent increase in complaints about vacant and abandoned properties last year compared to 2014 as people asked that properties be either boarded up, cleaned or mowed, according to Metro Codes and Regulations. An analysis of its data shows that Metro Council District 5, which covers much of Lackey's neighborhood, had the largest number of complaints, which rose 28 percent to 2,763 cases.

Lackey's group raises about $800 each year to pay a private lawn service to mow grass at dozens of vacant and abandoned properties from March through November, mostly in the Chickasaw neighborhood. It costs Westover association members $25 a yard.

"We started doing this 10 years ago because the city was not cutting any of the vacant houses," Lackey said. "We started taking our neighborhood dues because of the rodents and blight, and elderly residents' complaints. We were tired of looking at that."

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This year might not be any better because city crews face a heavier workload. According to codes and regulations, the number of vacant and abandoned properties in which the city has cleaned up at least three times – and not received a response from the owner – has risen 46 percent this year. Such properties are added to workers' monthly mowing schedules.

Last September, Metro Council members were so fed up with high grass at public parks, vacant and abandoned properties, and along major state-owned thoroughfares that they put in an additional $126,000 toward mowing. Democratic and Republican members ripped Mayor Greg Fischer's office and metro departments that oversee mowing, saying the city is unresponsive to constituent complaints.

Fischer officials blamed heavy rainfall and an infestation of Johnson grass – a tall, coarse, perennial weed that grows at a quicker pace – for the reason city crews were behind schedule.

Robert Kirchdorfer, director of the codes and regulations department, also said at the time that his department lacked the manpower to overcome the problem.

"We're trying to treat grass a little bit like snow," Kirchdorfer told the council's Public Works, Bridges and Transportation Committee on Tuesday afternoon.

Kirchdorfer said his department will partner with Public Works to deploy extra crews to assist in mowing in order to keep the referral backlog down. He said receiving assistance from another agency that has similar equipment will mean additional overtime hours.

The department will begin treatment to kill Johnson grass in April and it also plans to have four corrections crews, up from three crews last year; two will be responsible for monthly cases and two for cutting the city's land bank properties.

"I'm optimistic this year for the first time in many years because we're getting ahead of the problem instead of waiting on the referrals," said Councilwoman Cheri Bryant Hamilton, D-5th District.

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The codes and regulations department report highlights some successes, pointing out there was a 2 percent decrease in the boarding and cleaning backlog last year. It also resolved about 9,800 of those cases in 2015.

"The Fischer administration has committed significant resources across multiple city departments in working both to reduce the number of vacant and abandoned properties and to step in where property owners are either unwilling or unable to keep lots clean, boarded and mowed," Harold Adams, Public Works spokesman, said. "In the meantime, we realize that keeping the grass cut is really only a short-term response to immediate problems. We are actively pursuing long-term solutions that move beyond basic site maintenance and into aggressive owner-changes that lead to long-term, sustained redevelopment."

The department's vacant lots division consists of 29 members who maintain more than 400 parcels, and jail inmate crews also help take care of properties on the monthly cleaning cycle. Those crews cleaned about 6,300 properties last year, according to Kirchdorfer's report.

Kirchdorfer said he isn't in a position to advise residents to trespass on private property to mow overgrown grass but that he understands their frustration. He said residents like Lackey "who take matters in their own hands" should be thanked for helping combat eyesore properties.

Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached at (502) 582-4475 or pbailey@courier-journal.com.