The city of Huntsville may start using artificial intelligence-operated cameras on garbage trucks to look for property code violations.

The use of the cameras was one of the measures discussed during last week’s City Council work session dedicated to efforts to rid the city of overgrown grass, structurally unsafe buildings, and other nuisances.

“There’s a challenge in monitoring the property conditions with the existing resources that we have,” City Innovation Officer Larry Lowe said. “It’s labor-based now, so it’s very time-intensive. There is a need for continuous, objective ways to look at the structures that we have going on here.”

Last year, the city inspected more than 10,000 sites for potential code violations and sent out more than 8,300 notices, 42% of which were for overgrown grass.

Lowe said the city was looking at an automated way to detect violations and automatically send notices which would relieve a lot of the load on inspectors, “allowing them to go look at some structures and maybe more important, bigger objects to look at as opposed to the nuisances of grass.”

He said the city was looking at weather-sealed cameras and mounting them to the garbage trucks.

“You would have cameras on both sides of the vehicle,” Lowe said. “Those trucks already drive every road in Huntsville. This would give us an opportunity to passively image every single parcel that their garbage trucks pass by.”

He said the cameras would check parcels of land for overgrown lawns, improper vehicle storage and other structural damage issues.

District 2 City Councilman David Little asked about privacy issues involving the technology. Lowe said the technology would blur images of people, including children who might be playing in the yard.

Huntsville currently uses inspectors and follows complaints from residents in investigating property maintenance issues. Residents have complained to council members about the timeliness in which nuisances are taken care of around town.

“We work primarily through voluntary compliance,” Community Development Manager Scott Erwin said. “That’s our goal, so we can maintain community standards, protect public health and safety and preserve our community property values.”

Erwin said everything his department does is based on a city ordinance or a state statute “and there is a timeliness factor.” That includes getting property owners’ notice.

Property owners are given 14 days to get overgrown grass in compliance. According to city ordinance, grass cannot be any higher than eight inches on platted property. If the property owner doesn’t bring their yard into compliance, the city may mow the grass and charge property owners for the work.

On a junk, litter and inoperable vehicle violations, property owners are given a 30-day notice. Property owners are given 120 days to rectify structural issues.

“If we find a building that is a danger to the life, health and safety to the public or occupants, we will post that property, then we will send a notice to the owner of record,” Erwin said.

Before the city sends out a notice, Erwin said the city must see who owns it, who the property tax assessor’s owner of record is and do a Huntsville Utilities to check to see if it is a tenant. Unsafe building property owners are given 30 days to receive a permit to bring a property into compliance.

One reason it may take the city so long to take care of a maintenance issue is that property owners are entitled to due process, which includes public hearings before council action and appearances in municipal court.

District 4 City Councilman Bill Kling and District 3 City Councilwoman Jennie Robinson asked if the time property owners are given to bring their issues into compliance could be shortened.

Kling asked about shortening the 14-day notice to seven and the 30-day notices shortened to 15. But Erwin said the 14 days allow property owners the time to receive notices by mail.

In addition to cameras on garbage trucks, the city is exploring other methods to speed up getting properties into compliance. That includes sending cases to circuit court rather than municipal court, which only has the authority to levy fines and short jail time.

But Erwin and City Attorney Trey Riley said the city continues to have problems holding out of state property owners accountable, as well as bringing property into compliance when there is a transfer of ownership or when it’s unclear who the heir is to property where the previous owner has died.

The city is also considering what to do about complaints about vehicles being parked on the grass in neighborhoods, which is currently not a violation of a city ordinance. Making it a violation could create complications, Riley said, when street parking is limited. He said there could be impoundment issues. He also said it might encourage property owners to pave their yards at a time when the city is trying to protect green space.