City Council should look at nuisance rule

There were no surprises in the Fort Worth City Council’s decision last week to adopt an overlay limiting the number of unrelated adults who can live in a single-family home in the TCU area.

The vote was all but assured after a city-formed mediation group reached a compromise providing for a rental registration program and exempting those properties from the ordinance that now rent to more than three unrelated people.

What the compromise did not address were the underlying behavioral issues that many residents cited as the primary reason the overlay was necessary in the first place — noise, trash, parking, parties and other code violations.

Those concerns are not specific to the TCU region, and the mediation group and city staff recommended that they be addressed through a citywide chronic nuisance ordinance instead.

That seemed like a reasonable solution.

But Mayor Betsy Price questioned the need to pass additional laws to address behavior.

Councilmen Sal Espino and Danny Scarth worried that code compliance officers were already overwhelmed.

And Councilman Jungus Jordan asked whether existing laws already cover the kinds of problems that plague TCU residents and other city dwellers.

City Attorney Sarah Fullenwider said that while some ordinances are in place, they are probably not extensive enough to address the troubles people are experiencing citywide.

Indeed, a brief review of the city website shows dozens of frequently requested city ordinances, including laws that address animal control, parking, sign regulations and tree preservation.

The alphabet soup of city code is difficult to navigate and almost certainly filled with gaps.

Even City Council members seemed uninformed of what violations are covered.

It’s likely that residents are less familiar with the tools available to fight chronic neighborhood problems.

Adding more laws to the books is not a panacea, particularly if the city is struggling to adequately enforce existing statutes.

But as Councilwoman Ann Zadeh suggested, the city would be wise to evaluate existing rules to determine what is and isn’t addressed before dismissing outright the possible need for a comprehensive nuisance ordinance.

This story was originally published December 9, 2014 at 5:44 PM with the headline "City Council should look at nuisance rule."