Starting this month, residents of Mountain View will be seeing a new person handling code enforcement in our town. Jake Cooke is an experienced Safebuilt Code Enforcement Inspector in several other nearby small towns (Timnath, Castle Pines, Nederland, Foxfield, Morrison and Georgetown) and has been contracted by Mountain View to help with our new enforcement program.
The idea of contracting with Safebuilt to help with code compliance initiated with the Town Council back in 2021. It is a more affordable option than employing a new part-time person just to handle this workload since the town does not have to provide benefits and can contract for just a few hours each week. It also helps that Safebuilt specializes in this type of work for other towns. In other words, Mountain View benefits from a wealth of professional knowledge and experience.
Jake will be spending four hours each week driving around town and identifying areas of concern. Residents will also be able to report code violations directly to Jake by using a form on the town website.
The code that I’ve asked Jake to focus on is about the maintenance of general things like litter, weed control, junk stored outside, large objects discarded in the alley, and overhanging branches that make it hard to push a stroller or a wheelchair on the sidewalk.
After Jake has either identified a problem area himself, or verified one reported by a resident, the first step is a citation letter that informs the resident of the issue. The letter will reference the specific Town Code section that has been violated and will provide a reasonable time frame for fixing the problem.
I have asked Jake to look first at my own property and then at council members’ properties. We might all have slightly different standards for our yards, and at first, it may not feel great to be asked to make some changes – large piles of branches in the corner of my yard have come to seem like sculpture to me! But I am pretty sure my neighbors are not as enamored with my landscaped modern art as I am.
Over the years, the council has worked hard to articulate reasonable standards for maintaining our community. And I believe it is the respectful thing to do to meet those standards.
If residents get a letter they don’t understand, or if they need more time because they are traveling or have extenuating circumstances, Jake will work with them to adjust the schedule. His goal is the same as my goal: to ensure that the town is maintained in a clean, healthy and attractive condition by all of us.
If community members have questions about this new program, I hope they will reach out to me to ask. I welcome feedback.
Contact Town of Mountain View mayor Emilie Mitcham at EMitcham@tomv.org.
