Colorado is known for growing a lot of weed, but also has a long-standing issue of weeds growing where they aren’t supposed to.
Within the 45.1 square miles of land in the city of Pueblo there are approximately 108,249 citizens, 43,371 households and according to Steven Meier, the director of parks and recreation, about 3,000 acres of park land and over 3,000 in open space.
Between yards of homes, parks and open space these combined factors make the weed fighting battle a challenge year after year.
“It’s one of those interesting things ‘we really have a weed law?’ and yes we do,” Meier said.
In 1957, it was added to the Pueblo Code of Ordinances under Chapter 4, section 7-4-2 that “It shall be unlawful for any owner of land to permit weeds
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Through the abatement process a landowner is fined, if they do not clean it up the city will come and eradicate it for them and then the landowner will be fined the original fine as well as pay the costs of the city having to come remove it for them and an additional 25 percent or $100, whichever is higher, for administration fees. If they do not pay those fines the city can place a lean on the property and the owner will not be able to sell or transfer the property until it is paid.
Through the criminal process, a landowner is not given any notice and is just sent a ticket with a fine attached.
“The tough part about the criminal side of weed tickets is the liability defense. To me it doesn’t matter if they were out of town and it doesn’t matter if they didn’t have the money. I look at, ‘was it in violation on that day?’,” Sikes said.
Each year the city sets specific fines for different offenses, the weed violation fine is currently set at $125.
“Sometimes I reduce it based on circumstances, but not based on income. If the owner of the land attempted to clean it, but still haven’t hauled away the pile of weeds yet, but everybody gets fined the same amount regardless of income,” Sikes said.
If someone is unable to pay the fines at all, Sikes explained that they perform community service and work the fine off at