Loudoun County supervisors moved Tuesday to reduce suburban blight caused by foreclosed homes and overcrowded neighborhoods, taking significant steps to improve the aesthetics of local property.
The Board of Supervisors moved toward approving a measure that would restrict cars from parking on front lawns and planned to set up a volunteer program to mow overgrown lawns of foreclosed houses.
“These are quality-of-life issues, or life-as-we-know-it issues,” said Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio, R-Sterling.
The board told staff to create an amendment to the county’s zoning laws to reduce the practice of parking vehicles on unpaved surfaces as well as to limit the percentage of paved front yard space in neighborhoods.
Neighborhoods without homeowners’ associations, which have rules that residents must follow, suffer because the communities cannot adopt or enforce guidelines to limit such activity, said Chairman Scott York, I-at large.
“There are also the folks who have been inappropriately running businesses from their house, with the consequence of those vehicles being there,” he said.
Delgaudio said the unsightly vehicle parking has significantly decreased property values and attributed part of the problem to “illegal aliens coming in and not understanding the culture.”
“An ambulance can’t get to the house. A fire engine can’t put out a fire on the lawn,” he said. “A hostage situation — you have a safety issue, you have a health issue; you have all kinds of issues.”
The board also directed staff to develop a system by which countywide volunteers could mow the lawns of the increasing number of foreclosed houses in the county.
Supervisor Andrea McGimsey, D-Potomac, remembered seeing her re-election signs at one point nestled amid lengthy, unsightly grass in front of a boarded-up home.
“I tried to go about solving the problem as a citizen might,” she said. “And I found that it was very difficult.”
Still, York expressed concerns with the legal issues involved in such a program.
“Quite frankly, without permission, it’s trespassing,” he said. “Are [the volunteers] helping those who simply can’t help themselves out, or are they going onto foreclosed properties where they’re not permitted to do so?”
Staff members are supposed to report back on issues by the board’s July 15 meeting.
