City codes proposed to curtail junk cars

Mark Miller

Friday, Aug. 1, 1997 | 9:15 a.m.

Las Vegas City Councilman Gary Reese is sponsoring a bill to clean up residential lots overcrowded with junk cars and other neighborhood eyesores.

The bill is welcome news for Geary Lowery, a member of the city's Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance Committee.

"People leave their junked cars, boats, dune buggies, and trailers piled up in their yards," Lowery said. "They even take their companies' 10-wheeler trucks home to repair right in their front yards at all hours of the night.

"Sometimes they park a boat or RV in the street for permanent storage and cars can barely get by. Our streets are for vehicles that move. They are not a public storage facility."

Lowery hopes that Reese's bill, which was made in partnership with the ordinance committee, will lead to cleanups in his and other neighborhoods.

Under the bill, motor vehicles, including passenger cars, trucks and motorcycles, may be stored on a residential lot if the vehicle is not a "nuisance, health or fire hazard." The bill contains many intricate details designed to prevent stored vehicles from becoming a neighborhood eyesore, and noisy repairs from disturbing neighbors' sleep.

Here are the bill's major stipulations:

Reese does not expect any problems from this. "We don't go up and down neighborhoods trying to cite people, but when neighbors complain, the city has to have ordinances in place to address these problems."

The bill says recreational vehicles may be stored:

"They must be stored or repaired either in a garage, shed or other enclosure, in the driveway that leads to a garage or carport, or in a rear yard which shall be enclosed by a 6-foot opaque fence, unless the adjacent property is undeveloped. They may not be repaired in side yards.

"No more than one inoperable vehicle may be stored or repaired at a house. An inoperable vehicle may not be stored in a residential district for more than 90 days, except for a classic or antique vehicle in the process of being restored, refurbished or rebuilt by the property owner. Repair of vehicles must be done on the property of the vehicle owner not later than 9 p.m. or earlier than 7 a.m.

"No repair of vehicles or storage of mechanically inoperable or unregistered vehicles shall be permitted on a public street."

Temporary emergency repairs are exceptions.

Parts are also regulated: "There shall be no storage of junked vehicles, or parts thereof, in any residential district. Only serviceable parts for owned vehicles may be stored and only in the rear yard only if such storage is either fully enclosed by a 6-foot high opaque fence or in a fully enclosed building."

If the bill becomes law, a violation would be a misdemeanor that could result in a $1,000 fine and/or six months in jail.

Lowery is pleased with the bill. "I have to hand it to them. They're finally coming down the road to do what the people want."

The bill will be discussed Monday at City Hall by the city's Recommending Committee. An endorsement there will bring it to the City Council for a vote on Aug. 11.