LAWN PRIDE OR POLICE ACTION? FACTIONS FACE OFF OVER ORDINANCE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - One councilman praises a proposed ordinance requiring residents to install and maintain front lawns as the ``Palmdale Pride Ordinance.''

Another, who says the proposal goes too far, calls it the ``Lawn Police Ordinance.''

The ordinance, which will come to the City Council for consideration March 21, would require residents to install front yard landscaping within 18 months and would require all homeowners to properly maintain their landscaping. The ordinance is aimed at keeping home values up and reducing blight, its supporters say.

Councilman Jim Root calls it the ``Palmdale Pride Ordinance.'' The ordinance will give the city a mechanism to enforce covenants, conditions and restrictions, or CCRs, that are already included in home sale agreements, he said.

``We're not trying to add new laws, we're trying to enforce the existing laws,'' Root said.

Councilman Rick Norris said the intent of the ordinance is good, but that it is not the right way to go.

``People don't want to sue their neighbors; they want the city to sue their neighbors,'' Norris said. ``The CCRs are already in place. They (homeowners) have a remedy.''

Norris, appearing with Root on the Adelphia cable television show ``The Final Word,'' said existing ordinances allow the city to pursue actions against a home that is considered a nuisance or a blight.

Root said the existing ordinances do not allow the city to step in until well after the condition of a home has deteriorated.

``Each neighbor has a right to expect the city will enforce the CCRs that are in place when they buy their homes,'' Root said.

In addition to requiring the installation of the yard, the ordinance requires ``proper pruning, mowing of lawns, weeding, removal of litter, fertilizing, and regular watering of plants.''

Each yard would have to have an irrigation system.

Lawn heights would be limited to less than 8 inches.

Root said enforcement of the law will be based on complaints from residents, not from city inspectors sent out to find barren yards.

``This is going to be complaint-driven,'' Root said. ``You're not going to see lawn police out there looking for bad lawns.''

Norris said he has a problem with requiring the installation of irrigation systems at a time when the state might be heading into drought conditions. Norris said he also has a problem with imposing a city mandate on homeowners, particularly senior citizens.

If the ordinance were approved, the city would hire a code enforcement officer at an estimated cost of $65,000 per year. The city would also likely have to start some type of homeowner assistance program to help those with low incomes install the required landscaping, officials say.

The amount of money to be allocated for that program has not been determined.