Nuisance ordinance

Belle Plaine Police Warn City Residents About Maintaining Public Nuisances

The Belle Plaine Police Department has begun inspecting local properties for nuisance conditions, and have started issuing nuisance abatement orders to property owners to abate nuisances existing on their properties. Property owners failing to abate public nuisances face court action and a fine.

While nuisance abatement is an ongoing task for the Police Department, efforts are increased in the spring to remove nuisances that have developed over the winter months.

“The Police Department takes nuisance abatement very seriously. It is a quality of life issue as far as we are concerned. Our nuisance abatement efforts keep our city clean and presentable. Not to mention that no one wants to live next to an unsightly property and have to look at it every day. Public nuisances degrade the value to our properties and I would assume everyone wants their property and their city to be worth more.” Kris Hudson, Belle Plaine Police Chief told the South Benton County Area News today.

A public nuisance can consist of many things, but typically the Police Department deals with vehicles that are unlicensed, inoperable, or both. They also deal with properties with accumulations of junk, such as old tires, remodeling waste, appliances, garbage, and other materials.

Property inspections performed by the officers are done by driving by the property and visually determining if nuisances exist. Photographs are taken if nuisances exist to document the condition of the property. The property owner is then served a nuisance abatement order.

Chief Hudson stated, “If there are no plates on a vehicle or if the plates are expired, that will automatically result in an abatement order being sent. In many cases, people maintain their license plates on cars that haven’t run in years, thinking they are avoiding the nuisance ordinances by keeping their registration current. This is not the case. Vehicles not only have to be currently licensed, but they must also be able to operate legally on the public roadways to be in compliance with Belle Plaine’s nuisance ordinance.”

“If there is any question about whether a vehicle runs or not, we simply ask the owner to get the key and start the car, and demonstrate to us that vehicles run in both forward and reverse. Sometimes people will tell us that the vehicle runs, but when put to the test, the vehicle won’t turn over or doesn’t even have a battery, engine, or transmission in it.”