The city of Dearborn will kick off a two-week Spring Sweep Week campaign to educate on, survey and enforce property maintenance requirements among residents and businesses beginning Monday, May 20. The enforcement campaign will run through May 31.

Spring Sweep Week is an annual effort led by the city’s Economic Development Department to address common property maintenance issues with residents and notify property owners of ordinance violations when identified. The program allows city inspectors to help residents and businesses understand property ordinances, learn maintenance best practices and to provide guidance on how to resolve violations.

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud stated, “Sweep Week gives our team an added opportunity to remind businesses and residents of their responsibility to keep our residential neighborhoods and business districts vibrant, healthy, and safe.”

In preparation for the warmer months, the focus of these inspections will be on, and not limited to:

Many code enforcement violations contribute to other public health problems and nuisances. Overgrowth, for example, creates habitats for rodents, which may also attract predators.

This season, inspectors will be especially focused on the upkeep of alleyways, including evaluating tall grass, trash and litter, and overgrowth, all of which can have an impact on pedestrian and vehicle traffic and pose aesthetic issues.

While ticketing is not the main focus of Spring Sweep Week, a citation may be given for egregious violations.

Renault Arseneau, Dearborn’s code enforcement manager, explained, “We look forward to being more present in the community during Sweep Week to identify property maintenance concerns addressed in our code of ordinances that are commonly brought to us as complaints from residents. Once identified, our team will look to resolve these issues through a combination of education, notices of violations, and in the most egregious cases, ticketing.”

In order to enhance and refine enforcement practices, the city of Dearborn Code Enforcement team also tracks the number of notices or property maintenance guides handed out, the number of code issues resolved without a ticket and more during each seasonal Sweep Week.