Nuisances addressed

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
The Weston County commissioners have decided they would rather not create a resolution to address “nuisance” complaints for properties outside of city limits. According to the Aug. 20 meeting minutes, Commissioner Marty Ertman had expressed interest in having these complaints dealt by the Department of Environmental Quality or the state fire marshal, rather than by resolution.
On Sept. 1, County Attorney Alex Berger reported that other counties in the state have nuisance resolutions, specifically Carbon and Natrona counties, although they are very different. Ertman explained, however, that she would like to see nuisances handled by the other entities and that there should be no need for the commissioners to get involved.
“As I explained last time. Different boards could have different definitions,” Ertman said, noting that too broad a resolution could create issues with future boards being too controlling. “Someone could say they don’t like an orange house. It can get to that point. I am not comfortable with that at all.”
Ertman said that she was not comfortable with the county coming up with rules and regulations dictating what landowners could and could not do on their own property. 
Berger explained that state statute gives county commissioners the authority to draft a resolution outlining nuisances and that there was a way to make the resolution broad or to be more specific. 
“These are two different resolutions. … They are polar opposites. One is vague (Carbon County) and Natrona County’s is detailed,” Berger said, adding that Natrona’s resolution contains various definitions of the nuisances covered by the resolution. 
According to Berger, the county could easily draft a 50-page resolution so that there was little chance of misinterpretation in the future. He noted that the example resolutions would be hard for landowners to comply with and hard for the county to enforce. 
“If comes down to an issue of definition, … you can narrow it down and be specific,” Berger said. 
Berger said there might be a concern about a resolution being too specific. If seen as being too specific, he said, the commission could be viewed as creating a law to attack an individual person. 
Commissioners agreed that the county should refrain from creating a nuisance resolution and allow entities such as the DEQ or fire marshal to enforce potential cleanups of areas of concern. 
Ertman maintained that if the county wants to move forward in dictating what is and is not a nuisance, it should be done through a planning and zoning board and involve the public’s opinion in developing the rules and regulations. 
“It has been tried a couple times and it just doesn’t fly,” Ertman said. “But, the world changes.” 
According to Clerk Becky Hadlock, the topic is not scheduled for further discussion.