Española’s Planning and Zoning department will be combing the city for code violations starting in the first week of April.
The City has been without a code enforcement officer since the end of December. Despite that, citations have been issued as violations are reported. Planning and Zoning Director Russell Naranjo called the new effort a “code enforcement blitz.”
“Street by street, we are going to find out what the violations are,” Naranjo said.
The Department will start on the west side “because that’s where many of our initial complaints have come from,” Naranjo said.
They’ll return to each area 10 to 14 days later to see whether violations have been fixed. If not, Naranjo said an order to appear in court will be issued.
Naranjo said the Department is in the process of hiring a code enforcement officer, “but in the meantime, code enforcement can’t stop.”
He hopes to have the position filled by the beginning of May, he said.
This isn’t the first time the City has done such a sweep. It partnered with North Central Solid Waste Authority to do neighborhood cleanups. The Waste Authority would set up trash bins around the city while code enforcement officers would inform residents with violations that they had a free chance to get rid of their yard clutter.
‘We haven’t been able to work with North Central Solid Waste in a while,” Naranjo said, “but we’d like to re-implement that if we can.”
The three main violations Naranjo expects to find are blight, nuisance conditions and abandoned cars, he said.
Naranjo and his team will also be on the lookout for graffiti, he said, with the City’s Graffiti Officer on call to clean up graffiti as it’s found.
“Once we’re done with a neighborhood it will be clean,” Naranjo said. “There won’t be any graffiti, most nuisance conditions will be addressed and if not (the violator) will be on their way to court.”
The department plans to check every street in the city as long as staffing allows, Naranjo said.