City discusses several options in cleaning up junk vehicle ordinance

Onaway city officials continue to discuss revisions to the junk vehicle ordinance, which will make it more enforceable and improve the appearance of the community.

City manager Joe Hefele believes the junk vehicle ordinance needs to be amended because the present language, as written, ?is not set up to accomplish what at least I would like to see accomplished, which is the elimination of the continuous yard storage of vehicles.?

Hefele would like to restrict vehicles to driveways and garages, with parking outside of those areas by permit only.

City attorney Mike Vogler, after researching what other communities are doing to eliminate the problem of yard parking, presented a couple of options that included: limiting the number of vehicles parked at a residence, or restricting the area a resident may park a vehicle to only a percentage of the lot.

The issues were debated for several minutes during Monday?s meeting, but ultimately the consensus of the commission was to have Vogler check into the legalities of the issues and have Hefele bring back a recommendation at a future meeting.

HEFELE SAID for most people in the community this is not a problem, but there are some residents who have every square inch of their yard filled.

A couple of times during the meeting, a parcel with six or seven vehicles on a lot were mentioned. If the vehicle has a registered plate, along with insurance, the vehicle is not in violation of the junk vehicle ordinance. It also has to be an operable vehicle, but enforcing that portion of the ordinance has been time consuming.

Hefele believes it would be easier to just eliminate yard parking. ?I do not want to get into a situation where we have to come in with a checklist,? said Hefele. ?We are wasting time (and) we are not solving the problem. I would rather not go in with a measuring tape and start measuring the dimensions of a yard, and see if three cars, because it is a bigger backyard, are not taking up the space.?

Mayor Gary Wreggleworth asked what would be done if a resident has a 140-foot wide driveway, or if a person spreads crushed limestone across their entire yard. Vogler said that would be a reason to implement the percentage restriction.

Commissioner Mel Perkins does not believe all residents should be penalized for what a few are doing. ?Right now we are looking at one little incident, maybe one or two, and you are ma

king this great big issue that everyone in town is going to have to pay for the fact that there are six vehicles sitting down at someone?s house,? said Perkins.

Hefele countered: ?It is not just little to all the people who live there. If you go and talk to the people who are living there, they have been on me to try and get this taken care of.?,p> Commissioner Bernie Schmeltzer agrees with city staff that the current ordinance is not enforceable.

?People skirt the issue,? said Schmeltzer. ?They license a car that sits in the yard and grass grows up. It is like they are thumbing their nose.

?I would be willing to bet that if you went to check their insurance, it is probably not insured. They get the binder and then cancel the insurance right after they get their copy.?

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