Council Hopes to Recover Costs of Graffiti Removal

By Christi Anne Corpus
Signal Staff Writer

Saturday October 21, 2006

The City Council is expected to amend provisions of the municipal code on Tuesday to reorganize the process for graffiti abatement and allow the city to recover costs from property owners for its work to remove graffiti from privately owned property.

The proposed amendments would allow the city to enter private property with a warrant and clean up graffiti at the expense of the owner after an initial seven-calendar day enforcement period, according to agenda reports.

Additionally, the appeal deadline would change to the first three business days of the seven-day written notice. The appeal must be made to the city manager, whose determination would be final.

The amendments would also provide a special notice format for abatement of graffiti and reduce the maximum time graffiti will remain on private property from 31 to 16 calendar days during the appeal process.

If costs of city abatement are not paid within 30 days from the date of demand, an assessment would be imposed on the private property.

The city adopted a neighborhood preservation provision of the code in 2004. Since then, graffiti violations of private property have been enforced by the Community Preservation Division codes.

Through the current abatement process, the city can spend up to 31 calendar days to notify and cite property owners for graffiti violations.

The city hopes the code amendments would provide a more rapid enforcement process to abate graffiti and preserve the aesthetic appearance of Santa Clarita communities, according to city reports.

The new ordinance would be in full effect 30 days from its passage and adoption on Tuesday.

In other business, the council will likely authorize the construction of temporary Fire Station 132 at the northeast corner of Sand Canyon Road and Thompson Ranch Drive, to be completed by April 2007.

Additionally, the council will likely approve the purchase of a modular structure that will serve as a temporary office, staff residence and fire communication headquarters until the construction of a permanent facility.

This action comes as a response to findings of a recent study of fire services in the Santa Clarita Valley, presented at a council study session in September.

There are not enough fire stations in the city and existing response coverage areas are too large for current stations to accommodate, according to the study.

Four future station sites will be graded within the next year, with a total of six additional stations in the city by 2010, assistant city manager Ken Striplin told The Signal in a recent interview.

The City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 23920 Valencia Blvd.