Just cut your grass and the problem goes away.

Foley’s environmental manager offers that assessment concerning the slew of grass and weed abatement cases the city is looking at in July.

But Leslie Lassitter knows there can be extenuating circumstances where grass is concerned, as with an elderly person who isn’t physically or financially able to keep a yard up. Yet, the record number of grass and weed abatement cases currently confronting City Hall, Environmental/Code Enforcement and Public Works are connected to home foreclosures and entire subdivisions undeveloped as a result of the economy.

“It’s a lengthy process,” Lassitter said this week of what’s involved in the grass and weed abatement process.

“The grass cutting ordinance is a state law with a lengthy notification process. At best, it could be two months before we set foot on a property and cut the grass.”

Involved in that time frame are setting a public hearing about the individual property, sending out certified letters to everyone on the property deed, placing two large abatement signs on each yard or property, and holding the actual public hearing, all that before the property in question gets put on the city’s grass cutting rotation.

How much of a problem is the mounting number of properties in violation of the grass and weed ordinance?

Lassitter said four years ago, in summer months, Environmental/Code Enforcement would handle about 20 complaints a month. When the recession first hit, that increased to 30 to 40. Now, as of July 16, there have already been approximately 120 complaints filed with the city, and July is only half over.

“Seventy-five percent of those have to do with grass and weed complaints, and the bulk of the rest are ‘nuisance yards,” Lassitter said, the latter defined by her as properties with debris or clutter on them. About half of those are foreclosures, Lassitter said.

A week ago, Lassitter handled 60 environmental complaints in a single day. Among those complaints was a “very large subdivision,” Lassitter said.

Pictures must be taken of each lot or individual property that might be in violation of the grass and weed ordinance.

“We are trying to keep the neighborhoods well-maintained,” Lassitter said, noting that grass and weed complaints and their abatement are simple to enforce and not difficult to handle, that is, not until they mount in number as they have been doing for over a year now.

Things can get complicated when you have a subdivision with 98 vacant lots and those lots are interspersed with lots with houses on them, Lassitter said. Naturally, the subdivision developer wants to wait as long as he can to cut the vacant lots so he doesn’t have to turn right around and cut them again.

When complaints start rolling in, however, Lassitter said that’s when this simple maxim about legalities in grass and weed abatement gets complicated: “If you cut it everything goes away.”