CITY: CLEAN UP YOUR FRONT LAWN.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer PALMDALE - Palmdale sent out more than 260 letters to homeowners with hardscrabble hard·scrab·ble adj. Earning a bare subsistence, as on the land; marginal: the sharecropper's hardscrabble life. n. Barren or marginal farmland. Adj. 1. yards, ordering them to install front yard landscaping and sprinkler systems in early 2003 or face possible citations. The homes that got letters were ones that neighbors had filed complaints against since fall, after the city council passed an ordinance A law, statute, or regulation enacted by a Municipal Corporation. An ordinance is a law passed by a municipal government. A municipality, such as a city, town, village, or borough, is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been giving homeowners 18 months to fix up barren bar·ren adj. 1. Not producing offspring. 2. Incapable of producing offspring. barren see infertility. barren adjective Gynecology Infertile, sterile, fruitless, inconceivable or weed-choked front yards. ``We will begin checking in January for compliance,'' said Mike Morrisey, Palmdale's senior code enforcement Code Enforcement is the act of enforcing a set of s, principles, or laws (especially written ones) and insuring observance of a system of norms or customs. An authority usually enforces a civil code, a set of rules, or a body of laws and compel those subject to their authority to officer. ``We try first for voluntary compliance.'' The council enacted the ordinance, in a split vote and after much debate, in response to concerns by residents about the impact of neighbors' homes without landscaping on their property values. Homeowners refusing to comply with the ordinance could face maximum penalties of a $500 fine, six months in jail and a lien placed on the home to cover the cost of the city coming in to install landscaping. The ordinance orders homeowners to maintain yards in good condition, establishes an 8-inch height limit for grass and mandates proper watering, weeding and pruning pruning, the horticultural practice of cutting away an unwanted, unnecessary, or undesirable plant part, used most often on trees, shrubs, hedges, and woody vines. . During the debate on the ordinance, a proposal for a requirement of having at least one tree for every front yard was dropped as was a proposal for keeping vegetation away from windows. Opponents of the ordinance, including Mayor Pro Tem [Latin, For the time being.] An abbreviation used for pro tempore, Latin for "temporary or provisional." A person who acts as a temporary substitute serves pro tem. Mike Dispenza, said it is an example of ``Big Brother'' government. ``I agree with what is being attempted (improving the look of neighborhoods), but I think we could have done it in a far less intrusive way,'' Dispenza said. The city is not searching for unsightly un·sight·ly adj. un·sight·li·er, un·sight·li·est Unpleasant or offensive to look at; unattractive. See Synonyms at ugly. un lawns, officials said, but will enforce the ordinance if a complaint is lodged. At the time the ordinance was passed, city officials estimated that 3,000 Palmdale homes would be in violation if the ordinance were passed. Of that total, about 80 percent are occupied by their owners. City officials said once the ordinance was passed, many homeowners began working on their yards. |
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