Meridian Underground Music already has one mural its side facing 23rd Avenue and is asking the City Council to grant a second mural on the building’s opposite side.

The City of Meridian is looking to make residents’ responsibilities for maintaining their property more clear as the City Council works to make changes to the current sidewalk ordinance.

In a work session Tuesday, Community Development Director Craig Hitt said his department has been working with Meridian Public Works to make sure residents understand they are responsible for maintaining the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street.

The homeowner is already responsible for maintaining that property under the city’s current ordinance, but the language is somewhat vague. Hitt said his department will bring proposed changes to the ordinance to the council to clarify those responsibilities as well as add penalties for those violating the city code.

Recommended penalties for those violating the ordinance will be $100 for first time offenders, $250 for the second offense and $500 for the third offense. The ordinance will authorize code enforcement officers to issue citations when violations are found.

“Right now, we don’t have that authority,” Hitt said.

Councilman George Thomas said he wasn’t sure the new ordinance was enforceable. Regardless, he said, the city has plenty of other ordinances on the books it could enforce but doesn’t.

Councilwoman Ty Bell Lindsey said she fully supported the ordinance changes and thanked Community Development and Public Works for taking the initiative.

“I think it’s great,” she said.

Mural Zone

The City Council on Tuesday also discussed the city’s mural committee and restrictions on where murals can be placed, as well as the idea of creating a mural zone in the downtown area.

Lindsey said she wanted to follow up about the mural committee after residents praised her criticism of the committee in an Aug. 8 work session for rejecting a request by Meridian Underground Music business owner Wayne Williams to add a second mural to his store.

After learning about the mural committee in the Aug. 8 meeting and hearing feedback from residents, Lindsey said she wasn’t sure the committee and the council were on the same page and believed the council can make decisions about future murals without the committee’s input.

“I’m interested in not having a mural committee,” she said.

City Attorney Will Simmons said the mural committee is only part of the equation. Numerous buildings in the city are designated as historical landmarks, and others fall within established historic preservation districts. Alterations and murals to those buildings have to be approved through the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Part of the reason the city requires a permit for murals is to make sure there is no conflict with state or federal historic preservation laws before a project begins, Hitt said.

Building Inspector Scott Sollie said the second mural at Meridian Underground Music was, to his knowledge, the first mural to be denied a permit. The reason it was denied, he said, is because the city’s ordinance limits the number of murals a business can have to one, and the mural cannot be on the primary street, which would be 8th Street.

The council has the authority to change the ordinances, Simmons said, but under ordinances currently in place, the city was right to deny the second mural.

Lindsey said she was also interested in identifying a street or area of Meridian that could be transformed by murals. Other cities have embraced murals in their communities, she said, and a similar approach in Meridian could be another draw for visitors.