CAMDEN, S.C. — The City of Camden is working to make things neater as they prepare to ramp up code enforcement measures.
"It's really going to be an approach to really reach out and educate first and then enforce," said Camden City Manager Jonathan Rorie.
"The ordinances are already in place and they have been in place for years," Rorie said. "What we've really lacked is the enforcement side of it, so we will be enforcing this through a community-oriented policing officer. The entire city will be designated into 3 zones, and each one will have a specified community officer as a part of, from a community response team."
Those officers will come from the City of Camden's Police Department with a focus on three things that they say have become an issue.
The first is signage.
"You cannot have these temporary signs in right of ways, whether it's on Dekalb, Broad, US-1, Springdale any right of ways, you cannot put these temporary signs," Rorie said. "Ultimately people put them there for advertising, they never come back and remove them, so they become litter and therefore sign pollution."
Second is the storage of items in the yard.
"Everyone is only limited to 50 sq. foot of outside storage under a roof," Rorie said. "So, if you think of your front porch, you can put things on your front porch but it can't exceed 50 sq. foot. So, if you go out of your front porch or you get 100-200 sq feet, now you have outside storage."
Third on the list is traffic concerns.
"We will be looking at truck traffic in and around on the truck bypass on Broad Street, as well as speeding traffic in our neighborhoods," Rorie said.
Rorie said residents can expect to see notices coming out as soon as early March.
"First approach is to issue an NOV, or 'Notice of Violation,' and to give them a time frame to make corrections," Rorie said. "We want enforcement or a fine to be our last resort, not our first approach."