Keep the weeds at 6 inches

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Include the Journal Star editorial board among those who like City Hall’s requirement that weeds be mowed whenever they exceed the height of 6 inches.

Under current policy, if a property owner doesn’t keep the weeds mowed, the city will do the mowing and send the property owner the bill.

City officials proposed raising the requirement to 12 inches in the interest of reducing expenses and freeing city employees for other work.

The change would be felt immediately and most noticeably in older neighborhoods with vacant homes and absentee landlords.

Michael Snodgrass, executive director of NeighborWorks Lincoln, concisely expressed the major argument against the height change.

“The heart of Lincoln neighborhoods are under tremendous stress with high rental vacancy rates, low home ownership, code enforcement issues, foreclosures and many other factors,” Snodgrass wrote to the Lincoln City Council. “If you were looking to buy or rent, would you want to do so next to an overgrown lot, or in an area where this is tolerated?”

Lawns that are overgrown with tall weeds typically attract trash dumping. Curtis Wood of the Witherbee Neighborhood Association made another pertinent point. “The reality is if you let it go to 12 (inches), it will be 18 before they actually get to cutting it.”

Admittedly the policy does create a considerable workload. The city contracts with the Lancaster County Weed Authority, which has a $266,000 budget split by the county and the city. During the summer, Weed Superintendent Russ Shultz hires three seasonal workers, usually college students, to make inspections. The city usually receives about 1,600 complaints a year and conducts about 5,000 inspections, which translates to 80 inspections per day, or one inspection every 15 minutes.

Rather than relaxing its standards, however, the city should explore ways to make the program more cost effective. Perhaps fees could be raised to recover funds from scofflaws who let their properties become overgrown. Perhaps measures could be taken to reduce the approximately 350 complaints a year that turn out to be unfounded. Or perhaps the city could explore the suggestion from Shawn Ryba of NeighborWorks Lincoln to hang leaflets on violators’ doorknobs in hopes of getting a quick response.

While it may be true that Lincoln’s 6-inch requirement is relatively strict in comparison with other cities, the requirement is part of keeping Lincoln a well-groomed, attractive community.

Easing the standard would be a step backward and contribute to deterioration in Lincoln’s older neighborhoods. The City Council should leave the maximum height for weeds at 6 inches.