SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County is considering filing criminal charges against a business owner who refuses to clean up his trash-filled property.
Public works director Rene Green said the county has been taking the owner to court for years with little result.
"There have been six court cases on this particular property within the past two to three years," Green said. "It's extremely frustrating, but Texas is a personal property rights state, and so the statutes that relate to these types of nuisances favor the property owner."
The property in question is a strip center in the 6200 block of Binz-Engleman Road.
Residents have logged numerous complaints about the illegal dumping that takes place there.
"It's just gross," resident Lilly Affeldt said. "It's been bothering me for awhile. I just don't like the mess. I'd like it to be clean."
Green said the county has been dealing with the trashy lot for more than 10 years, filing case after case against one owner only to see the problems continue when the property was sold to the current owner in 2007.
According to Green, the owner has shown little interest in keeping the property clean, despite the repeated court cases, fines and threats of being arrested for not showing up in court.
"A lot of the time, we work with property owners because they want to do the right thing, but in this case we have a property owner that basically doesn't care. And some of the garbage out there is his, and he doesn't even throw it in the dumpster because he believes the taxpayers will clean it up for him. And that's just wrong," Green said. "We've given that owner options, very reasonable, affordable options, to mitigate the illegal dumping and he's chosen not to do it. Basically, it doesn't appear to us that he wants to invest or spend any money to either clean up or secure his property."
Records provided by Green show the owner has cleaned the property in the past but the dumping continues and the cycle starts all over.
The owner failed to show for another court appearance on March 2, forcing the county to take a new approach.
"We still have an open violation for him from Feb. 8, so we are talking with the District Attorney's Office about going straight to filing criminal charges against him. At the very least, we'll have the case heard in District Court, not J.P. court," Green said. "J.P. court is good for first and second time offenses, but when you have a repeat offender like this, we really need to step up and go the criminal route."
Should the DA agree to press criminal charges, it would mean the owner could face jail time instead of fines if he continues to ignore the trash.
In the meantime, the county is planning to install a camera at the site to catch illegal dumpers and deter others from using the property as a dumping ground.