County inspectors cited 267 properties in Morgan Hill as fire
hazards; hired landscape contractors to clean up 55 parcels
Morgan Hill – A massive weed bust – but not involving any narcotics – will cost 55 local property owners $55,000 in extra property taxes this year.
The property owners, most of them out-of-towners, were cited by Santa Clara County officials in the city’s “2006 Weed Abatement Program.” According to the Santa Clara County Fire Department, hazardous native brush and vegetation should be cleared around homes each year to create defensible fire fighting areas.
Since 1995, Morgan Hill’s fire protection services and the city’s Weed Abatement Program have been administered through a contract with Santa Clara County.
The Department of Agriculture and Resource Management currently administers the hazardous vegetation program, sending inspectors each year to identify properties that are overgrown.
After the property owners are warned through the mail, those who don’t do anything to correct the situation are billed for having the county send private landscapers to do the work.
Now, this year’s bill – which also includes a fee for 150 percent of the county’s administrative costs – is about to be placed on the property tax bill for each parcel that didn’t do enough yard work this year.
According to Moe Kumre, who manages the Hazardous Vegetation Management Program for the county, inspectors usually respond to complaints phoned in from Morgan Hill residents and city officials concerned over unkempt properties.
“It’s typically overgrowth, somebody didn’t care for a property, or a section of property,” Kumre said.
While 55 properties had to be cleaned up by the county this year, a total of 267 properties were cited last December as being overgrown with weeds. But according to county records, 81 percent of those 267 properties complied with the required standards before the next round of checks.
Not surprisingly, the vast majority of the property owners who did nothing about their overgrown parcels currently live outside of Morgan Hill. Some reside as close as Gilroy. One property owner’s address is listed as Miami Beach, Fla.
“A lot of them will sign the letter that goes out” to them, Comer said, indicating they want the county to hire landscapers for them and add the bill to their property taxes later. “They want to be in compliance,” Kumre added, “but don’t want the hassle of finding a contractor. They want to alleviate that headache.”
Local property owner Akbar Hosseinpour, who lives about 50 miles away in Dublin, is being assessed an extra $2,000 on his property taxes this fall. It’s the third year in a row the county has cited him for not cleaning up his half-acre empty lot near Nob Hill Foods.
“I just gave up” on taking care of it, Hosseinpour said, adding he purchased the land 29 years ago. He wanted to use it for commercial development, but the zoning has since changed to residential, leaving Hosseinpour unsure about what to do with his parcel. He claimed his project proposals have all been rejected by the city.
