EAT
URE
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 11
LAW
POLICE CRACK DOWN ON NOISE
BY TOM SLAUGHTER · TSLAUGHTER@KANSAN.COM · KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Charyne Meyes got a ticket for disturbing the peace after having a few friends over at her apartment last November, the second time the police have come knocking on her door in response to noise complaints. Hayes was lucky the first time, receiving only a warning. Had she been cited both times, her apartment would have been tagged as a "Disorderly House Nuisance," and she could have been evicted.
Srmith/ AP Photo Wild Thing tale despite
joshua Bickel/KANSAN
BY TOM SLAUGHTER
tslaughter@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Charyne Hayes was adamant that she wasn't going to let a little thing like a nuisance ordinance get in the way of her having a good time.
Hayes, Smith Center junior, is a resident of Orchard Corners Apartments, 1405 Apple Lane. Hayes and her roommate were warned once for noise complaints. The second complaint resulted in both Hayes and her roommate being ticketed $92 and cited for "heavy foot traffic" coming through their apartment.
"It was so bogus," Hayes said.
Hayes was lucky that she and her roommate were only cited once for noise violations instead of twice, otherwise their apartment would qualify under what the City of Lawrence would call a "Disorderly House Nuisance."
According to the city's Web site, any residence where two or more felonies, misdemeanors, alcohol violations or violations of disorderly conduct occur within one year can be tagged as a nuisance.
Occupants of these nuisance residences can be subject to eviction. Also, visitors can be barred from entering the premises and fences can be installed around an offender's property.
Before being issued a penalty for being a nuisance, offending parties are given a written notice of the offense and are required to participate in a "Nuisance Abatement Conference," where attorneys for the city, the owner of a residence and the offending tenant discuss what action should be taken.
Blume said that despite the fact that the police told him he was being cooperative, they reminded him that if they had to come to the residence again for a similar complaint, the house could be considered a nuisance.
Scott Miller, attorney for the City of Lawrence, said that while most of the disturbances are "party-type offenses" that are often associated with students, they weren't the prime targets of the ordinance.
"We have problems in all areas of town," Miller said. "This isn't aimed at students, it's aimed at behavior."
"Student status has nothing to do with how we enforce this ordinance," Miller said.
"We'd prefer that our neighbors come to us," he said.
Nick Blume, Hays junior, lives at Seventh and Illinois streets. The police have given him warnings and a citation for noise complaints, which have come from neighbors. Blume said that he thought the matter could have been handled differently.
Jim Slough owns approximately 20 properties in Lawrence, mostly between Sixth and 15th streets and between Iowa and Connecticut streets. He said that students make up 90 percent of his tenants.
"I think that the number of tenants who are a problem is pretty small," Slough said.
Slough said the most problematic houses tend to be those with between six and eight residents. He said the more residents there are, the more likely it was for them to throw parties.
"Alcohol leads to a lot of problems that you wouldn't necessarily have," he said.
Slough cited one incident when tenants hosted a party and people in attendance caused damage to a nearby house, forcing him to pay for repairs because no one admitted to the damage.
Miller said that people who are prosecuted for nuisance crimes often feel the penalty is disproportionate to the severity of the crime. He said that the "propriety" of the penalties has been discussed, and members of the public
have been given opportunities to voice their opinions through public forums.
Miller said that there are currently five or six residences who qualify for an abatement conference, and the city has "everything in place" to go through with them.
"I imagine that number will continue to go up," he said.
Miller said that there is no way to tell if students make up the majority of offending parties; there is no screening process that occurs when homes are cited.
"This whole ordinance structure is aimed at solving the problem," Miller said.
So far, it is difficult to tell whether or not students are going to take the ordinance into consideration when throwing parties.
While Hayes did admit that one of the parties at her apartment did get noisy, she said that the threat of penalties wouldn't scare her from having people over to her apartment again.
"If I want to have a party, I'm going to have a party," she said.
Blume took a different philosophy.
He said that he thought the ordinance was "dumb" because an entire house can be blanketed a nuisance when only certain people living there have parties. However, he would take the ordinance into consideration.
"It's definitely going to be my thought to never have a house party again," he said.
—Edited by Dani Hurst