Working With Homeowners

Today, as a community, we are seeing an economy that we have not experienced in more than a generation. Clearly, we have families struggling with the cost of living in Sylvania. For some properties, this struggle becomes evident with a less-than-desired level of property maintenance. This is disconcerting to the property owners and may be unsettling to neighbors who are concerned about the neighborhood and property values.

For properties that have high grass, overgrown weeds and the like, our Zoning Department works diligently with home owners, renters, mortgage companies and real estate agents as the situation calls for, to help our residents keep their properties maintained and our neighborhoods inviting. The majority of the time, this is effective and we continue to monitor situations as appropriate.

Sometimes our efforts to work with property owners to resolve zoning compliance issues are not productive. In those cases, we have taken the legal steps available to us to remediate the situation, which may be as simple as mowing the lawn every few weeks (and billing the owner) to more drastic steps such as physical removal of a burned-out house from the property (after appropriate public hearing and notice). Our goal is to maintain the integrity of our neighborhoods while using township resources appropriately.
If you have concerns about the exterior maintenance of a home in your neighborhood, I would encourage you to contact me or our Zoning Department.