LAURINBURG — Code enforcement has been a topic brought to the Laurinburg City Council several times over the past few months, mainly referring to numerous amounts of cars in resident’s yards. But there isn’t anything in the code against the number of cars that can be in a homeowner’s yard.
The City Council heard from Community Development Director Michael Mandeville during last week’s meeting about how the codes are being enforced.
“When it comes to excess debris and nuisance at a property, once the complaint is received it’s usually looked at that day or the next day,” Mandeville said. “If found valid, a letter is sent to the homeowner giving them 10 days to resolve the issue.”
Mandeville added usually that the letter is enough to get the home cleaned up and, of his knowledge that Code Enforcement Officer Mac McInnis has never had to write a citation and the issue is resolved within the 10 days.
For junk vehicles that are on properties, there is a certain amount of criteria that are followed. The criteria includes being partially dismantled or wrecked, cannot be self-propelled or moved in the manner it was originally intended to move, is more than five-years-old and appears to be less than $500 in value and doesn’t display a current license plate — the cars must meet all of those.
There is nothing in the ordinance about how many vehicles can be parked on the residence or where they are parked, which is what many of the complaints end up being.
Councilwoman Mary Evans questioned the code, citing a home near her that has between eight and 10 cars on the lot with many that are just sitting there.
“I don’t mind them being there if someone is using them,” Evans said. “But to just have cars just sitting in your yard for no reason at all that they aren’t driving them.”
City Manager Charles Nichols told the council that whatever they wanted to do the code could be changed, but asked how would the council be able to limit the number of vehicles someone has on their property.
“If you want it strengthened, if you want to say you can only have three vehicles in your yard,” Nichols said. “Our thought is just, if you start doing that, you’re going to have 50 percent of everybody’s property that doesn’t have a vehicle they’re working on … or they have three or four children in the house driving, so how do you limit it?”
Mayor Matthew Block was for limiting the number of cars that are allowed to be on a property as well as getting rid of part of the code that pertains to the car being five-years-old.
“I can’t support any of that, I own multiple vehicles,” added Councilman James Garby. “I can’t sit here and say we’re going to regulate that and I’m here doing the same thing.”
City Attorney William Floyd added that there could be other ways to go about it rather than changing the code, such as it being a health or safety concern that wouldn’t involve limiting the number of vehicles.
The issue could return during the next city meeting in June.
Reach Katelin Gandee at 910-506-3171 or at kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com
