SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. -- Spokane Valley is cracking down on nuisance properties and as part of the crack down, the city is limiting the number of yard sales you can have each year.
The Spokane Valley City Council passed two nuisance property ordinances Tuesday night. Both give the city more options to shut down problem homes and clean up neighborhood eye sores. They are also limiting the number of yard sales people can have each year to three.
During the recession, Spokane Valley allowed for unlimited yard sales to help people make it through. But they say people are taking advantage of it.
"There's been some that now run it basically 12 months a year, every day of the week, they'll call them estate sales, they'll call them garage sales, whatever, but they're actually running a business where they never got registered or it's not permitted," Councilman Arne Woodard said.
A year-round yard sale brings a lot of traffic into a neighborhood. Woodard said that is really the biggest issue.
"It's the traffic, the traffic becomes a nuisance. If you've ever had a garage sale you can advertise eight or nine o'clock, people show up at 6:30,” he explained.
It is something city leaders said they get quite a few complaints about. So they decided to change the rules.
"They're comes a point at which you have to move out of your home though, it's not fair to your neighbors to have five diesel pickups starting up in front of your home and what not and disturbing the neighbors," Woodard said.
Under the new rule, you could have a multiple day yard sale and it would count as one yard sale event. You would still be able to have two more during the year. City leaders also said this does not apply to groups like the Boy Scouts or churches that hold fundraising events. This is strictly for residential areas.