County struggles to keep lawns cut after foreclosures

By Lillian Kafka

Published: May 14, 2008

Cutting spending wasn’t easy in Prince William County.

Cutting the grass at thousands of foreclosed homes in Prince William County won’t be easy either.

County ordinance doesn’t allow lawns to have more than 12 inches of grass. As lawns of thousands of vacant homes grow, the county’s public works department is expected to be inundated with requests to trim grass.

Prince William County is expected to pay up to $2 million to keep yards trim this summer, said Michele Casciato, neighborhood services coordinator.

That’s the estimated cost for mowing just half of the 6,000 foreclosed homes three times this growing season, she said on Tuesday.

That money will eventually be recovered through tax liens.

“It’s going to be an expensive mowing job for the owner,” said Chairman Corey A. Stewart, R-at large. “The county is also going to charge the overhead expenses necessary to administer the program. The holders of this property would be much better off maintaining it themselves.”

The prices to mow each lawn could lower as the county seeks broader contracts to fill the need for grass cutting services, Casciato said.

“We are typically mowing when it gets to 18 inches,” she said. “By the time they get there it needs a commercial lawn mower.”

“We’re looking at a whole bunch of different ways,” she said. “We’re trying to do it at the most economical way to the county.”

Normally it takes three weeks for the public works department to notify land owners before they mow lawns, Casciato said.

“We’re trying, but unfortunately we’ve got legal constraints we’re dealing with,” she told the board on Tuesday. “It really has a cumulative affect on the neighborhood and on the safety of the community. It also has an effect on property values.”

City of Manassas residents are struggling with unkempt lawns, too.

In the Weems Road neighborhood, residents cited at least 53 foreclosures with lawns approaching the 12-inch height.

“This has been a bad spring for us with all the rain,” Manassas Ordinance Officer John Findlay said. “The [wet and dry] spells have been intermittent and the [tall] grass has just been terrible and not just for the foreclosures, some of occupied houses too.”

Kipp Hanley contributed to this report.