“Government overreach” kept coming up over the five months York County supervisors were struggling with an ordinance to hold property owners responsible for homes that are overgrown with vegetation.
District 4 Supervisor G. Stephen Roane, Jr. said he was concerned about “overreach by the government.”
“This is government overreach,” District 5 Supervisor Thomas G. Shepperd, Jr. said.
After sending county staff back to the drawing board for various changes since the issue came up in a February public hearing, they finally reached an agreement Tuesday night.
Supervisors voted 4-1 to approve amendments to the code that would be limited to the Yorktown Village Activity historic zoning area. It would require homeowners to cut overgrown shrubs, trees and other vegetation that obscures building numbers or mail boxes, obstructs traffic, or makes it hard for emergency responders to access a structure.
If property owners do not respond to a notice of violation, the county could hire contractors to ha…