WEEKLY EDITORIAL RECAP

Thursday

By the code

The valley's housing meltdown has exacted a heavy toll on neighborhoods. Abandoned, foreclosed homes have brought down home values everywhere, frustrating neighbors who maintain their properties.

Southern Nevada's local governments have codes to keep residential areas from turning into junk yards and weed habitats, but 15-day cleanup notices and fines aren't much of a deterrent when the out-of-work owner has left town and an out-of-state bank holds the mortgage. Clark County, for example, currently fines property owners between $50 and $200 per day up to a maximum $10,000.

County staff believe stiffer fines might get homeowners moving a bit sooner on the messes they've made. Later this month, commissioners will consider increasing code violation fines to $1,000 per day, on top of cleanup and repair costs, to a maximum of $730,000.

"We're not looking to make money, said Joe Boteilho, the head of Clark County code enforcement. "We just want people to comply."

But if the county is creating steep fines simply to scare homeowners, why not assess $1 million per day for code violations? For goodness sakes, white collar criminals and imprisoned thugs rarely face fines that top five figures.

Neighborhood blight is a legitimate taxpayer concern, but big fines are the wrong approach in the current economic climate. ...

The county's current code-violation fine structure is appropriate for the offense. Anything more is just piling on.