-- The city of Tigard can now go after stubborn property owners who violate city code, from cracked sidewalks to unruly lawns or garbage piled high in plain sight and smell.

The municipal code was amended at Tuesday night's City Council meeting to give the city more power to clean up property nuisances and recoup money spent pursuing the violation.

Previously, the city would have to take a property owner to court, leveraging a judicial ruling in exchange for code compliance. The direct cost of a lawsuit, staff resource drain for the city and time lapsed in addressing the violation are reasons why the city has been seeking a different process.

With the newly approved amendment, the city can now bill repeatedly unresponsive property owners for a violation, including the actual service -- the cost of mowing an unruly lawn, for example -- and any extensive administrative costs.

In 2011, there were 184 reported property nuisances. City officials said more than 70 percent of all these problems were quickly resolved with just one or two notices to the property owner.

The other 30 percent of cases are typically "life circumstances," where the owner is not physically or financially able to take care of the property, or abandoned homes in foreclosure. Occasionally, there is also the simply uncooperative owner.

Susan Hartnett, the city's assistant community development director who lead the proposal, said the new city code will allow the city to fix the violation for a fee, recouping public money for a private problem. In the cases of foreclosed homes, it also allows the city to legally gain access to fix the problem anyway for the greater good of the whole community, namely property values.

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