East Capitol Avenue has become notorious for code violations, ranging from small nuisances like tall weeds to dangerous abandoned buildings. However, it's not the only Jefferson City neighborhood experiencing code enforcement issues.
Over the last few years, several Jefferson City neighborhoods have surfaced as having the most code and nuisance violations.
In the 2018 fiscal year - Nov. 1, 2017, to Oct. 31, 2018 - 2,175 Jefferson City parcels received code enforcement violations, for a total of 4,424 violations, according to city data.
While the east and west sides of U.S. 54 had a nearly equal number of code violations in the 2018 fiscal year - 2,236 for the east side and 2,188 for the west side - several particular neighborhoods stick out as having the most code violations.
Over the last few years pockets of large numbers of code violations have formed throughout the city - such as the neighborhoods southeast of the St. Mary's Hospital on Mission Drive, along Scarborough Way and Liverpool Drive, and near the intersection of Ellis Boulevard and Green Berry Road.
However, the largest area extends over multiple neighborhoods along the Missouri River, according to a heat map of the code violations from 2016-18.
In the 2018 fiscal year, about 2,876 violations - or about 65 percent - of the 4,424 code violations were in the neighborhoods extending roughly from Rock Hill Road to Eastland Drive, according to city data. The area is also bordered by the Missouri River and roughly Stadium Boulevard and Mesa Avenue.
Tall weeds and accumulation of brush, abandoned building activities, outdoor storage, and accumulation of trash accounted for more than 66 percent of the 2018 fiscal year violations, according to the city's data.
Areas with a significant number of code violations tend to have a high percentage of rental properties, said Dave Helmick, Jefferson City housing and property inspector.
Neighborhoods with primarily owner-occupied homes tend to have fewer violations and repeat offenders since the owners have invested in the homes and want them to be appealing, Helmick said. If there are code violations at owner-occupied residences, he added, the owners usually address the issues quickly.
"Where you run into the issues with the rental units is sometimes you have absentee landlords that don't live locally or landlords that buy the properties and don't maintain them, don't follow up on them," Helmick said. "They don't know what their tenants are doing, and those tenants have no investment in that property, so they tend to let the weeds go or the trash build up, things like that."
The total number of code violations in Jefferson City increased over the last couple of years - 3,217 violations in the 2017 fiscal year and 1,667 in the 2016 fiscal year, the city's data notes.
Jefferson City residents Gerald Ross and Rob Dallmeyer III said the increase is worrisome.
"The sad thing is it's everywhere now," Dallmeyer said. "It used to not be everywhere. It's mushroomed. It's an embarrassment. It's an impairment to the neighborhoods, and it's spite to the neighbors who try to do the right thing and be good stewards of their properties."
The increase in violations doesn't necessarily mean residents are creating more nuisances, Helmick said. Parts of the code enforcement process were inefficient a few years ago. Those ineffective processes were streamlined and changed, he added, which most likely contributed to the increased violations.
Code enforcers also have been more proactive when looking at potential code violations, Helmick said.
Despite the increasing number of code violations, the city has a high voluntary compliance rate. Of the 4,424 cases, the city closed 95 percent of the violations in the 2018 fiscal year, meaning the violations were corrected. Nearly 96 percent of residents voluntarily correcting the code violations in the 2018 fiscal year, the city's data notes.
In the 2016 fiscal year, 86 percent of 1,667 cases were closed, with 90 percent of those closed cased being through voluntary compliance. In 2017, 95 percent of the 3,217 cases were closed, with nearly 92 percent being through voluntary compliance.
Even though code enforcers know which areas tend to have the highest number of violations, "it really makes it tough to get out there and just zone in on one area" due to the small staff, Helmick said.
There are two full-time code enforcers and two part-time code enforcers.
While code violations expand citywide, Ross said, city officials' and residents' attentions are on areas like East Capitol Avenue and not on other neighborhoods.
"There's areas all over the city that are deteriorating and going to be just like Capitol Avenue or worse over time," he said. "We think the city administration should give a lot of attention and effort to that."
The city debuted a new software in December that may help streamline the code enforcement process and provide more education to the community, which could also allow code enforcers to visit neighborhoods that may not be receiving as much attention currently. It also could address neighborhoods that are notorious for having a high number of nuisance violations.
With the new software, a resident can report a potential code violation using an online portal. Once a code enforcer receives that complaint, he or she can go to the property and review the complaint. After that, the code enforcer can write in the portal whether the issue was or was not a c0de violation and why, allowing the resident who reported the issue to read the reasoning behind the conclusion.
With anticipated efficiencies from the software, Helmick said, the number of code violations will most likely increase over the next couple of years. However, code enforcers hope that spike would then decrease with more education.
"We will have an uptick for a year or two and hopefully at that point, we've talked and we've educated, we've worked with enough of the community that we can start decrease the amount of issues," he said.
Along with the new software, Jefferson City rolled out a new landlord registration process, which will provide updated contact information to city staff. That information will include all of the residential rental properties the landlord owns in Jefferson City, the addresses, the property owners' legal names, mailing addresses, telephone numbers and birth dates.
Not only could code enforcers easily contact landlords about nuisance violations at their rental properties, but they plan to send monthly educational newsletters.
Deadline for landlord registration is Jan. 31.
The city has had about 6,000 of the approximately 7,000 Jefferson City rental units registered, Helmick said.
If landlords do not register by that deadline, the city will send the unregistered landlords a letter giving them 10 days to register. If the landlords to not register within that 10-day time frame, they will receive a summons to municipal court.
The registration will help hold the landlords accountable.
"As we find landlords that won't register voluntarily, we'll bring them into court and hold them accountable and force them to be a property owner that's going to take care of their properties," Helmick said. "Once we know who owns these properties, we have somebody to summons in on the code violations."
Currently, if a rental property experiences code violations but code enforcers do not have updated contact information for the landlord and do not know who the tenant is, the city cannot summons someone to court for the violations.