BATON ROUGE - It's been at least two decades since the city changed it's blight fees and fines. The city is looking to increase fines for violations related to grass, garbage, and unsecured residential properties.

Tall grass is one of the most common blight calls. Development Director Rachael Lambert says the city spends significant time and money to abate tall-grass violations. 

"If you own property in this parish, we expect you to maintain it," said Lambert.

It's why the mayor's office is looking to increase first-offense fines for tall grass and weeds from $125 to $300. If offenses for the same property continue, those fines could reach $1,000.

"Hopefully it will deter people from maintaining blight in the parish and understand that we're serious about that and there will be significant penalties.

Property owners with a large pile of trash or debris in their front yard would see fines jump from $125 to $500 a first offense. If a property owner has left their property unsecured, they can expect to pay more for that too. Commercial property owners are already feeling the changes.

In May, the Metro Council voted to change fines for blighted commercial properties to $1,000 a day. 

If the city cleans up the blight, the property owner will incur more fines. If those fines aren't paid, the costs will be rolled into the property taxes. The city also incurs some of those expenses.

"That's just the cost of it; we're not even being made whole once we roll it to the taxes," said Lambert. 

The city is also asking to increase the fines for administrative costs and tax roll collection surcharges. 

In the past, the city has primarily relied on people to report blight in the parish. Now they're looking to take a new approach using AI to flag potential violations. The city would like to purchase five cameras and mount them to the top of City-Parish vehicles. Those cameras would automatically capture and analyze blight, including illegal dumping, litter, dilapidated structures, and tall grass. 

"We hope that we will be able to eliminate some of these initial inspections, thus increasing our capacity to be able to deal with the influx of additional violations," said Lambert.

The process will not be automated. Everything will need to be reviewed by a person. The city also hopes to launch a hidden camera program to combat illegal dumping. 

These items will be introduced at the September 23 council meeting and could be voted on at the October 14 council meeting.