The Riley County government will now have more power to go after local nuisances in unincorporated areas, something that has been a long time coming, local officials said.
Senate Bill 384, which Gov. Laura Kelly signed in April, sets up procedures for the removal and abatement of nuisances in the unincorporated areas of the county. Riley County deputy county counselor Bryant Parker said Thursday the bill will give the government more authority to stop nuisances from going unaddressed.
“A nuisance could be anything from having 20 junk cars on your property to having weather building materials,” he said. “To put it in simpler terms, it’s basically a bunch of garbage that is causing an issue for residents.”
Parker said the law, based on one Sedgwick County passed several years ago, will make people more willing to keep their properties from becoming a mess and follow directives from county officials.
“We had no teeth prior to this law passing,” he said. “By having this now, we can actually have some fight in our request to have the garbage removed.”
Prior to the passage of the law, Parker estimated that around 90% of county requests to remove nuisances went ignored.
With the new law, violators could face fines and possible private vendor cleanup.
