The City of Zanesville will now have the law on its side when dealing with problem properties after council members passed a public nuisance abatement ordinance Monday evening.

The ordinance was introduced at the conclusion of a nuisance abatement executed through common pleas court in 2017 with the goal of giving the city more power to resolve chronic nuisance issues without the assistance of the county.

“The city needs to have something, like every other city in Ohio has, where it’s just an administrative function, you have ongoing fines if you don’t comply, and then if that continues, you know, the city can proceed against these structures,” said Assistant Prosecutor John Litle, who proposed the ordinance to city officials following the 2017 abatement.

Prior to the legislation’s passage, it required the joint effort of the county prosecutor’s office and several city departments to abate persistent nuisances within Zanesville city limits.

Now, the process is simplified and puts the pressure on property owners, residential and commercial, to take care of the issue with the threat of fines.

As described in the ordinance, a nuisance can be defined as a number of activities, including criminal activity, substance abuse violations, sex offenses, weapon violations and city code violations, to name a few. Felony drug offenses are also included but carry greater weight.

City health and safety or sanitation violations are no longer considered nuisance criteria.

It is the responsibility of law enforcement to track nuisances and give proper notice to residents and property owners when they are on the verge of becoming a chronic nuisance.

Once three nuisance activities or two felony drug offenses are committed in a six-month period, fines will be imposed on the owner for the chronic nuisance offense and each offense after.

Fines begin at $150 and can reach a maximum of $1,000 if not resolved.

If the property is physically abated, all costs associated with boarding up the property and seizing its contents would be the owner’s responsibility.

Before voting on the ordinance, public safety committee chair Rob Sharrer thanked Litle, City Law Director David Tarbert and councilman Andrew Roberts for their roles in drafting the legislation. He also thanked the members of the public who attended public safety committee meetings to express their views on the ordinance.

“This was a perfect example of the way government should work,” said Sharrer.

Once the ordinance is signed by the president of council and the mayor, the ordinance will go into effect 30 days later.

“We’ve been working on the different ways that administration’s actually going to enact this legislation and how they’re going to deal with it, and we’ll see how it works out in the coming months,” said Roberts.

Sharrer noted that even though the ordinance is a tool for the city to combat nuisances, it is not intended for the public to complain about neighbors they don’t personally like.

Additionally, Sharrer said properties at the center of active police investigations will not be declared chronic nuisances.

“It’s not going to be an instant fix,” said Sharrer. “It’s not going to be a magic wand that we wave and fix all the nuisances across the city.”