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Code Compliance

To report a code violation, please contact a Code Compliance Officer at 979-337-7221

Code Compliance is located in the Development Services Department and consists of one full-time peace officer and the Code Compliance Manager.  Code Compliance enforces a variety of code violations including nuisance, zoning, signage and parking violations. Our compliance team works to protect the health, safety, and welfare of City of Brenham residents, visitors and stakeholders through the reasonable enforcement of the Brenham Code of Ordinances, and the 2015 International Property Maintenance Code.

Report a Code Violation

Code Compliance Officer Don Clark 979-337-7221

Code Reference

Common Code Violations Common Code Violations

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Common Violations:
Correction of violations may take days, weeks or in some special circumstances, months to complete.  With each violation or complaint, the department’s goal is voluntary compliance. The compliance team most often cites cases to Chapter 12 – Health and Sanitation of the Brenham Code of Ordinances. Below is a list of common code violations:
High Grass/Weeds: Weeds, grass, or other uncultivated plants which grow in such profusion as to harbor vermin, reptiles or rodents, or create a fire hazard; and weeds or grass which attain a height greater than twelve (12) inches. Exemptions from the provisions of this section are as follows:

  • Actively utilized crop production and/or grazing areas.
  • Heavily wooded areas containing uncultivated grass, weeds, or underbrush.
  • Property which is used for the production of hay if the said property is a minimum lot size of five (5) acres and a mowed fifty-foot wide buffer is maintained adjacent to property used for residential or commercial purposes.

Earth Materials: Earth materials, including substances such as dirt, sand, gravel, mud, clay, wood chips, limbs or brush capable of blowing or spilling thereby creating unsightliness and/or creating a hazard for the general public.

Junk: Junk, including worn out, used and/or discarded material or items, including, but not limited to, odds and ends, lawn maintenance equipment, dilapidated or junked trailers, travel trailers or boats, automotive parts or other machinery parts, furniture, iron or other scrap metal, tires, and glass.

Garbage: Garbage, including decayable waste from public and private residences, businesses, establishments and restaurants including vegetable, animal and fish offal, and animal and fish carcasses.

Litter: Litter, including garbage, refuse and rubbish and all other waste material which if thrown or deposited as herein prohibited tends to create a danger to public health, safety, and welfare.

Stagnant Water: Stagnant water deposited or allowed to remain into, upon, or along any drain, gutter, alley, sidewalk, street, or vacant lot or upon any public or private premises.
Mosquito Control Reference Guide – Stop the Bite

Dilapidated Fence: Fences in deteriorated condition or subject to falling down due to lack of maintenance or damage, or that have been repaired with materials that are not comparable to the original fence construction.

Leaves/Yard Clippings Deposited into the Gutter, Street, or Storm Sewer

Construction Materials: Construction materials, including all waste, debris, concrete, lumber, rock/brick, metal, or other materials resulting from construction or demolition.

Abandoned, junked, and/or inoperative motor vehicles.
It shall be unlawful for any person to leave, park, station, any broken down, disabled, dilapidated, inoperative, unused motor vehicle of any type or kind, upon the public streets day or night, or for any portions or parts thereof to be left upon the city streets.

Junked Vehicles: Junked vehicle means a motor vehicle, aircraft, or watercraft as defined in the Texas Transportation Code, Section 683.071, as amended, that:

  1. Is self-propelled and is:
    1. Wrecked, dismantled or partially dismantled, or discarded; or
    2. Inoperable and has remained inoperable for more than:
      1. Seventy-two (72) consecutive hours, if the vehicle is on public property; or
      2. Thirty (30) consecutive days, if the vehicle is on private property; and
    3. Displays an expired license plate or does not display a license plate.
  2. An aircraft that does not have lawfully printed on the aircraft an unexpired federal aircraft identification number registered under Federal Aviation Administration aircraft registration regulations in 14 C.F.R. Part 47.
  3. A watercraft that:
    1. Does not have lawfully on board an unexpired certificate of number; and
    2. It is not a watercraft described by Section 31.055, Parks and Wildlife Code.

It shall be unlawful for any person, individual, entity, company or corporation to maintain, possess, or locate any junked vehicle or parts or portion thereof, within the City of Brenham, in violation of this article.

Parking heavy vehicles: It shall be unlawful to park or to permit the parking of any motor vehicle with a "Gross Vehicle Weight Rating" of ten thousand (10,000) pounds or more, for a period in excess of three (3) hours, on public streets or thoroughfares within the city. It is a defense to prosecution under this section that the large/heavy vehicle is: (1) actually in the process of being loaded or unloaded, (2) parked while the driver or operator is performing a service visit, or (3) the city, upon application being made, may issue a permit for an extension of the three-hour period to the respective company and/or operator. This section does not apply to authorized emergency vehicles and/or any other vehicles as determined exempted by the City of Brenham.

Trailer parking within the city: It shall be unlawful for any person to leave, stand, or park a trailer, semi-trailer, pole trailer, house trailer, or recreational camper trailer, either attached or unattached to a motor vehicle, on the public streets of the city. This section does not apply to authorized emergency vehicles and/or any other vehicles as determined exempted by the City of Brenham. It is a defense to prosecution under this section that the trailer was: (1) actually in the process of being loaded or unloaded; or (2) parked while the driver or operator is performing a service visit.

Parking for certain purposes prohibited: It shall be unlawful to park a vehicle upon any roadway or street for the principal purpose of: (1) displaying such vehicle for sale; (2) storing such vehicle; or (3) washing, greasing, changing oil, or repairing such vehicle, except repairs necessitated by an emergency and/or vehicle that has broken down.

Parking prohibitions in residential districts: In residential districts, no truck exceeding 1½-ton capacity, no bus, no recreational vehicle, trailer, boat, motor home or mobile home shall be parked or stored on a residential lot in front of the existing front building line for more than seventy-two (72) consecutive hours within a given week from Monday through the following Sunday.

Sign Ordinance Violations: In June 2019 the City Council adopted a new Sign Ordinance (No. O-19-020) which established a list of prohibited signs, clarified maintenance requirements for signs, number of signs allowed per property, and additional signage standards.  Common violations to the sign ordinance include:

  • Use of prohibited signs
  • Sidewalk signs for non-residential use
  • Window sign allotments
  • Temporary signs
  • Maintenance of signs

For more information and examples:

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