Supervisors approve graffiti removal ordinance

By Cheryl Chumley

Published: July 22, 2008

With an 8-0 voice, Prince William supervisors Tuesday gave the go-ahead for a new zoning ordinance aimed at ridding the county of graffiti.

Under the new ordinance, county employees will be able to go on private property and remove graffiti. The county cannot recoup its costs, but will instead partner with community and business volunteers who will perform the work for free.

The ordinance states that graffiti may only be removed when visible from the right-of-way. In other words, as Supervisor John Jenkins, D-Neabsco, brought to light, if a 7-Eleven convenience store has a spraypainted backside, the newfound authority of county workers to enter the property and clean the building only applies if the marks can be seen from the normal traveling route.

Also, the ordinance calls for property owners to receive a seven-day notification advising of the county's intent to remove the graffiti. In that time frame, the owner has the right to prevent county employees from entering the property by submitting his or her own abatement plan for approval.

Supervisor Frank Principi, D-Woodbridge, voiced the same concerns with the ordinance that he had raised during prior discussions—namely, that the ordinance did not call for harsher punishments for graffiti offenders. Specifically, Principi disliked that aspect of the new rules allowing graffiti offenders a clean slate in return for community service.

"I don't think we should sending the message to first-time offenders that it's OK as long as they clean up the community later," he said.

In previous board meetings, however, it was pointed that the ordinance could not rightly control the judiciary.

Following adoption of the new ordinance, supervisors then approved by 8-0 an amendment to another "pertaining to the removal of trash, garbage and refuse and litter or health and safety menaces on public and private property," according to the agenda. In so doing, the board broadened the powers of Health Department and Public Works Department officials to enter private properties for the purposes of removing garbage.

"This [action] was previously worked through zoning violations," said Michelle Casciato with Public Works. "This is an additional power to Public Works employees to remove [trash] and then charge it back to the property owner."

The justification for the ordinance change, she said, was due largely to the number of vacant and abandoned houses in the county.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.