Good afternoon.

Barely.

Today is Tuesday, July 1st, 2025, and this is the first hearing of the month for the hearing officer.

My name's Vanessa McDonald, and I am the hearing officer, so I'll be conducting the hearing this afternoon.

We have a real brief agenda, but I do need to read something into the record, and then we can go ahead and hear the single case that we have on our agenda.

The City of Tempe Hearing Officer is authorized by Arizona revised statutes and the City of Tempe zoning and development code.

The hearing officer is granted the authority to conduct public hearings to decide upon the abatement of code violations occurring on properties within the city.

These violations include deteriorated pool structures or landscaping, storage of junk or refuse, and storage of inoperable or unregistered vehicles.

Abatement actions are brought before the hearing officer by the city's code compliance division, typically after numerous attempts at contacting the property owner to obtain voluntary compliance with the code.

The hearing officer may issue an order directing the owner, occupant, property manager, or other responsible person to remediate a code violation, or may authorize the city to abate the property.

The cost of the abatement is the responsibility of the owner of the property where the violation occurs and will be collected as an assessment against the property in violation of the code.

On today's agenda, we have just two items.

We have a set of minutes from June 17, 2025, and a single property abatement.

Any property owner who is aggrieved by a decision of the hearing officer may file an appeal within 14 calendar days after the hearing officer has made a decision.

The deadline for appealing any decision rendered today is 3 p.m.

on July 15th, 2025.

Appeals are heard by the Board of Adjustment after which they may also be appealed to the Superior Court.

A property owner has 14 days after the hearing officer's decision to either file an appeal or to bring the property into code compliance.

If an appeal isn't filed or the property isn't brought into compliance within this required 14-day time frame, the property will be abated by the city.

Joining me this afternoon to my left are Cassidy McFarn and Sean DeFarah.

Thanks for being here, you guys.

As previously stated, we have a set of minutes from the meeting of June 17th, 2025, and I believe that those minutes accurately reflect what took place at that hearing.

So I'm going to go ahead and approve the minutes of June 17th, 2025.

This property is located at 1849 East Harvard Drive.

The applicant is City of Tempe, represented this afternoon by Code Inspector Hector Heredia.

Good afternoon, uh hearing officer McDonald.

As stated, my name is Hector Haradia.

I'm a code compliance inspector with the City of Tempe Code Enhancement Division, and I am here this afternoon to request a 180-day open abatement period for the property owner Zachary Shepherd, located at 1849 East Harvard Drive in the City of Tempe 85283.

This case, excuse me, was initiated back on January 7th 2025, approximately seven months now regarding junk trash debris in the front yard, backyard, lawn parked vehicles, and operable unregistered vehicles in the backyard, and including a deterioration.

As the case progressed, then due to lack of communication with the property owner, lack of corrective measures, citation, and ongoing concerns are here today to request the approval of the abatement period.

As stated, this case was initiated back on January 7th, uh 2025.

An anonymous complaint was received regarding uh junk trash debris in the front yard, lawn parking and Abuan registered vehicles in the backyard, including a deteriorated roof.

At the time of inspection, I noticed other concerns regarding an overgrown gravel landscape, both in the front and back, missing address numbers or deteriorated gate, uh including debris in the alley.

These concerns were verified and updated in a first notice.

That notice was mailed to the property owner and tenants approximately 14 days later at the file follow-up inspection.

Uh, very little was done in a final notice was then mailed to the property owner and tenants.

Shortly after that, I received a call from Mr.

Shepard where he requested an extension while ongoing efforts uh could be um scheduled between himself and his tenants, and that extension was granted.

Approximately 10 days later, I called and left a message for Mr.

Shepherd asking about a completion date for the projects.

A response was never returned.

Um, roughly about uh a month later, um, additional anonymous complaints were received regarding lawn park vehicles in the front yard on four uh 9 2025.

A final extension was granted over the following weekend before citation would be um uh could be issued or would be issued on 4 16th.

A force uh first citation was issued after the property was not brought into compliance.

The citation itself resulted in a failure to appear.

That prompted for us to take immediate action and initiate the abatement packet, and the packet was submitted on 521 2025.

At this time, I'd like to present photos taken this morning at approximately 9 a.m.

Uh illustrating our concerns with the violations at the property.

And uh am seeking the approval of the 180-day open abatement based on what um has not took place.

Um this first photo.

This first photo here illustrates an overview of the entire front yard.

As you can see, several vehicles not only in the uh driveway but on the roadway, some obstructing uh sidewalk, this one inoperable, and all these other ones here inoperable junk trash debris, pretty much layered throughout the first uh perimeter wall.

This is a close-up photo of uh the western portion or eastern portion of the property where we could see that there are a lot of loose items construction type debris that has been left out and unattended.

This is a close-up view of the center of the address where we can continue to see that there are several um miscellaneous uh machinery, workout equipment, couches, etc.

Bicycles that aren't properly stored.

Here we see one vehicle that is clearly uh surrounded by junk trash debris as well as uh unregistered.

This white vehicle that is in front of the Ponnie, I can clearly see here is beginning to become in an operable state.

Although this is not a concern that was on the notice, it can clear it is clearly a concern now and will be watched.

This is just to outline that particular vehicle obstructing the sidewalk.

These next photos are um overview photos of the backyard where we can clearly see where the concerns um lie pretty much predominantly throughout the entire backyard.