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Grants Pass passes nuisance ordinance Friday Oct 7, 2016 at 11:19 AM Oct 7, 2016 at 11:19 AM By Madeline ShannonGrants Pass Daily Courier Grants Pass City Council unanimously approved a new ordinance Wednesday night that would give the Department of Public Safety extra teeth in clamping down on drug houses and other "chronic" nuisance properties. "This came about because of problem properties, and this type of ordinance helps combat those quality-of-life issues in the neighborhood," City Attorney Mark Bartholomew said. "The way it works is through triggering events, and those triggering events are detailed in the proposed ordinance." The triggers, including harassment, intimidation, disorderly conduct, assault, menacing, public indecency, prostitution and gambling offenses, will result in the beginning of a three-strikes process in which the offending party will be cited for each successive nuisance. Three or more incidents within a 30-day period, four or more within a 90-day period, or five or more in a year will result in action being taken by the city. "The city can file suit in circuit court, the court can order the property vacated for up to six months, impose fines or any other remedy the court sees fit," Bartholomew explained. In addition to the triggers laid out in the ordinance, any other chronic nuisance could fall under a sort of "catch-all" if it in any way violated the city code. The chronic nuisance ordinance, unlike the city's already-existing nuisance ordinance, focuses on nuisances that are recurring and gives the city the ability to take a property owner to court if a frequently occurring nuisance is not taken care of. City officials said this is an especially important tool to handle nuisances that occur on rental properties owned by landlords who don't live in the area or otherwise don't take any action to remedy a nuisance happening on their property. "If tenants are up to mischief, and the court orders or threatens to order the property shut down, I think the landlord is going to take a more proactive approach to the problem tenants," Bartholomew said. The ordinance is not expected to be used very often, as the threat of chronic nuisance offenders knowing they can face charges in court would hopefully be enough to deter someone from repeatedly causing or allowing a nuisance-related disturbance. City councilors were generally supportive of the ordinance, wanting to provide extra force behind the already-established nuisance ordinance. "I'm in favor of this, but I'm troubled that in this great city, we have to take this step," Councilor Roy Lindsay said. "There is a public safety aspect to this, and if public safety is involved, we can move a little faster on getting something done." Members of the public who were present at the meeting also supported moving forward with enacting an ordinance that would further the city's ability to eliminate chronic nuisances. "One is warned first, given 10 days to fix the problem, then if it is not fixed, one is cited," said Rycke Brown, a regular at City Council meetings. "So that would be three offenses that one had been warned about and did not fix in a month. It's a serious matter, indeed."