APD Code Enforcement Team praised for service

type='html'>At Tuesday’s meeting of Neighborhood Planning Unit-B, Peachtree Heights East representative Peggy McCormick recognized the customer service work of the Atlanta Police Department’s Code Enforcement Team in resolving a difficult neighborhood issue involving an absentee owner.  

According to McCormick, in May 2012, adjacent neighbors filed a complaint with the Office of Code Compliance for three violations:

• The house was open and vacant for almost 3 years,
• The house was surrounded by junk, trash and debris, and
• A large dumpster had been in the driveway for over a year.

Peggy McCormick

Over several years, these neighbors attempted to work with the absentee owner, communicating their concerns about the appearance of the property and potential risks to their families, McCormick relayed to BuckheadView. 

(The absentee owner of the house and its street address are purposely not published in this article.)

All efforts had been unsuccessful and McCormick said the neighbors decided to move forward with a formal complaint, which was made.

After an initial inspection, research was necessary to locate the absentee owner.  The Code Enforcement officer, William Kirkland, contacted the owner, explained the process and gave the owner two weeks to remove the dumpster and the junk, trash and debris on the exterior of the property. 

While the owner was reportedly very unhappy about this process, he complied within two weeks, meeting the deadline set by Officer Kirkland.

McCormick said the neighborhood association worked closely with the neighbors in the complaint and resolution process.

McCormick offered her praise of the Code Enforcement Team’s customer service at the end of a briefing to the NPU-B board of recent code enforcement activities by Officer Stephen Clair. She said she wanted all of the neighborhood representatives at the meeting to hear her neighborhood’s success story.

NPU-B chair Sally Silver said that was the first time ever she could remember the city’s code enforcement staff being praised for their customer service.