JACKSON – The Township Council recently moved to lower fines for lawn maintenance violations shifting the blame from landlords to renters.
The ordinance was strongly defended by Council President Jennifer Kuhn when residents questioned it during its public comment period.
It was noted that an increase in rental properties in the township had contributed to the need for the new ordinance. Residents were told that there had been an upsurge in the number of rentals of single-family homes accompanied by an increase in properties that have been poorly maintained by tenants, a situation made worse by absentee landlords and neglectful property managers.
Kuhn explained that due to the extreme number of citations filling up the municipal court docket it was necessary to reduce fines and reduce the requirement for mandatory court appearances for property maintenance violations.
It was noted that one day every three months has been put aside to exclusively focus on property maintenance offenders. One resident argued that reducing penalties would most likely reduce, not increase, compliance.
During that recent council meeting, Kuhn discussed Ordinance 01-2025 “Property Maintenance” which received some negative feedback. Fine ranges went from $1,000 to $100. This meeting also saw the Council’s shortening of the public comment from five to three minutes for this session only.
The reason given was that eight ordinances, most of which were held up during prior meetings due to improper notification, were on the agenda. The meeting however ended prior to the 9 p.m. cutoff where some residents still remained to discuss the aftermath of that meeting which started at 6:30 p.m.
Resident David Visconi of Whitesville Road once again expressed his strong opposition to the ordinance. He is also a member of the township’s code enforcement office which has been under fire by Kuhn during recent council meetings with claims that this township department wasn’t enforcing ordinances on the books.
Visconi specified his comments were not as a code enforcement officer but as a private citizen. He criticized the shortening of the public comment period for that evening’s meeting. “All it does is stifle public comment for your convenience.”
Regarding the ordinance he said “it deters compliance – it does not encourage it.”
Resident Elenor Hannum said “in my view and opinion this is being done for developers.” She also accused Council Vice President Mordechai Burnstein of being involved with a political pack that has ties to land use “and rental properties so to reduce it from $1,000 to whatever it is you are reducing it to, Freehold and Howell has it up to $2,000.” She noted a state statute suggesting the fine be set at $1,250.”
“You are doing it for your developer friends,” Hannum accused.
“By reducing the fines from $1,000 to $100 you are further enabling illegal use of structures,” one resident said, noting a Hyson Road situation that was “causing mayhem and chaos. Why are we reducing violations?”
“This has nothing to do with that (ordinance) . What we are doing is adding it to code enforcement who will now be able to ticket the tenant. This is phase one. The judge is not ordering anybody to pay a $1,000 violation. The landlords aren’t showing up in court. We will add that the tenants be responsible so we can write tickets for people who are not going to show up,” Kuhn responded.
Kuhn added, “You want people to cut their grass and maintain their property, I get it, go after the tenant. I’m a landlord, I have a rental property. My tenant is responsible to keep up with the property. I can’t just walk on these tenants’ property.”
“They have more rights than you do as a landlord. You can’t just open up the door and ask how many people are living here. You can’t do that. It is not the way it works. We’ve been reaching out to other towns to see how they have been getting through the trials and tribulations of these rapidly growing rental situations,” Kuhn said.
Kuhn who works a realtor, and is a landlord was also accused by residents of a potential conflict of interest in voting on this ordinance as she and other landlords and developers might benefit from this ordinance.
The council president said that according to the township code enforcement office the number of properties that are rented in Jackson is 6,000 to 8,000 among the approximately 20,000 housing units in the municipality.
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