Property owners get time to clean up

Owners of unkempt Copperopolis property which has been under county watch for more than a decade due to code violations avoided a $5,000 fine Tuesday and earned a few more weeks to clean up.

Not so lucky was the owner of a Wilseyville-area property, which first came to county attention in 2005, when more than 30 broken-down vehicles were found on the property.
 

If the junk cars, unsafe structure, electrical hazards and other violations on the property are not removed within 120 days, owner Roger Gibbings faces a $10,000 fine, the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday.

Each case has dragged on through the years due to a county emphasis on working with property owners to clean up violations rather than punitive measures, said supervisors and code compliance officers.

“We can’t really be that draconian,” said Supervisor Russ Thomas, whose district includes the Copperopolis property.

Case in point: Code Compliance Officer Todd Barr told the board that Gibbings will avoid the fine even if a couple violations remain after the 120 days.

“We’re very lenient,” observed Supervisor Merita Callaway.

Another factor in the cases’ slow progress is the county’s understaffed Code Compliance Unit: two officers handle more than 500 active cases, Barr said.

The Copperopolis property, owned by Munroe and Lorraine Maguire, still faces the possibility of fines.

Barr opened the discussion Tuesday by saying the piles of yard waste and weeds that concerned his unit had been removed. But Thomas said he’d seen a number of problems when recently driving by, so the board voted to get an update on the property’s state before levying a fine.   

The whole episode could well be just another stage in each property’s long history.

"What’s the guarantee we won’t be back here in another year or few years?” asked Callaway, referring to the Copperopolis project.

“I don’t know what that guarantee would be,” Barr answered.