Citizen Complaints on Nuisance Properties Falling, Roseville Officials Say

Citizen complaints about public nuisance properties have fallen 35 percent over the last four years, Roseville administrative officials told the City Council this week.

At the Council's Monday night meeting, Roseville Codes Coordinator Don Munson said the number of citizen complaints about public nuisance properties was 487 in 2012, down from 736 complaints in 2009. 

Of last year's 487 citizen complaints, slightly more than 50 percent of them were over miscellaneous residential issues while 22 percent involved beefs over grass taller than eight inches, 7 percent were about junk debris , 7 percent over junk vehicles and 9 percent about miscellaneous commercial infractions, according to Munson's report.

But the good news: 83 percent of nuisance cases were resolved within 20 days and another 4 percent of complaints were resolved within 40 days, according to Roseville city data. 

City officials said the goal of the Land Use Code Enforcement program and the related Neighborhood Enhancement program (NEP) is to maintain the liveability of residential housing and to help maintain real estate values. The Land Use code enforcement program responds to citizen complaints while the Neighborhood Enhancement program is pro-active with city inspectors canvassing neighborhoods in search of code violations.  

In 2012, the city inspected about 5,000 properties undr the Neighborhood Enhancement program. Of the 176 property violations found in 2012, 161 or 91 percent of the cases were resolved within 20 days, according to city data. 

"Property maintenance through City abatement activities is a key tool to preserving high-quality residential neighborhoods," Munson said in his staff report. 

In general, Munson said the city is seeing:

• The "percentage rate of public nusiances observed” trending down significantly.  
• Fewer violations in the same neighborhoods, in following years.
• Smaller violations and few instances of multiple violations. 
• Smaller and easier violations for the property owners to address. 

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