Council debates removal of junk vehicles

   The Washington City Council passed the first reading of an ordinance to quickly remove junk vehicles from city streets at its meeting Wednesday night. The current ordinance states that inoperable vehicles may not be parked outside in a residential neighborhood for more than seven days. The revised ordinance passed by the council would give the owner of the junk vehicle seven days to abate the nuisance instead of 14 days, which is how the current ordinance reads.

    Councilman Bob Shepherd was initially skeptical about casting a wide net when it came to the removal of junk vehicles.

    ?This is really taking a lot of rights away from people,? said Shepherd. ?I thought that in the past, you could have your vehicles on a hard surface. This ordinance is saying you can?t even let your vehicles sit on a hard surface. People may have an inoperable vehicle in their driveway for a week, and it?s in non-compliance. Parts of this ordinance I fully agree with, but I worry about the scope of it.?

    Shepherd said he was worried that the ordinance would be enforced on people who couldn?t attend to their vehicles because they were in the hospital, on vacation, or serving in the military.

    ?What?s wrong with someone having their vehicle in their driveway?? asked Shepherd. ?Do we want them parking on the street? No. We told them not to park on the street, and now we?re saying you can?t even park on your driveway. I have a problem requiring that the vehicle be parked inside a building. Not everyone has the means to have a garage.?

For the full article, see our Jan. 7 print edition.