City Court Judge Sherry Paty Thursday dismissed charges that the property outside the fence at an East Brainerd woman’s home is overgrown, after Chattanooga Neighborhood Services Inspector Randy Ridge testified that the area had been trimmed.
But that’s far from the end of the case against Lana Sutton, Inspector Ridge told the court, noting that his office has received seven complaints against her since 2004.
The last time Ms. Sutton was cited to city court, in 2006, charges were dismissed after she explained that she was converting her property from a typical mowed lawn to a “wildscape meadow.”
“She said she was planting wildflowers,” Inspector Ridge told the judge. “That’s what we envisioned . . . I haven’t seen that, but I’m not a horticulturist.”
He suggested that the city forester and other knowledgeable authorities get together to study Ms. Sutton’s property and determine the nature of the growth there, and then determine the appropriate follow-up action.
“I don’t want the city to appear to be rigid,” he explained. “We need a policy that spells out what constitutes natural growth.”
If it is determined that Ms. Sutton’s property does not conform to that definition, he said, then additional charges could be filed at that point.
In court, Ms. Sutton was indignant, complaining that the real reason her property was cited is because it is not like the pristine mowed lawns of her neighbors.
“My neighbors are trying to hold me to their front yard standards,” she said. “I don’t have a yard, I have a wildscape meadow.”
Neighbors who appeared in court begged to differ.
James Kelly, who lives across the street, said Ms. Sutton’s property has become a public nuisance. In addition to being unattractive, he said, he recently saw a rodent there.
“When Lana bought the house she and her husband fenced in the yard and for several years they took good care (of the property),” he testified. “Then she got divorced and since then nothing has been done . . . She has beautiful Bermuda grass in front of her house and she hasn’t mowed it in two years.”
He said he finally decided to file a complaint with the city two weeks ago, when the property had become so overgrown that it blocked the views of motorists. “You couldn’t see to drive down the road,” he explained.
Another complainant, Vicki Smith, said she lives next door to the Sutton property.
“I’m sick of it,” she said. “She’s got more weeds than plants. She waters the weeds along with the plants . . . We’ve gotten into it. We’re not friends because of this yard.”
The dispute has gotten so intense, she said, that Ms. Sutton recently stuffed her mailbox with weeds.
“My husband has heart trouble,” Mrs. Smith told the court. “It really upset him. He thought maybe there was a snake in there with the weeds.”
Judge Paty cut the testimony short, noting that it was not germane to the issue that brought Ms. Sutton to court Thursday – the overgrown area outside her fence which has already been trimmed.
But if experts agree that the property does not really constitute a natural area, but is really just an unmowed property, then more citations are likely to be filed, the judge warned Ms. Sutton.
And if that happens and the case winds up back in court, she said, “then I will hear full testimony at that time.”