Prince George’s County property owners who let their land become a public nuisance will soon face fines that will progressively get harder to ignore.
The county council unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that doubles the first fine for non-residential property maintenance violations from $1,000 to $2,000. After that, the county can fine a property owner up to $5,000 every day the violation continues. In a month鈥檚 time, the fine could end up reaching six figures.
The new law takes effect at the end of the summer.
District 2 Council member and bill cosponsor Wanika Fisher said she was inspired in part by persistent problems on land owned by utilities and private companies on University Boulevard near Riggs Road in Hyattsville.
“I’ve been dealing with a homeless encampment for years, and it’s really, really difficult. And one of the things that would help us sort of clean up that area is fencing that off,” Fisher said of the University Boulevard property.
Fisher said she also gets complaints about a shopping center in Hyattsville where open green space has become a spot for public drinking and dumping.
“You can’t have people bring actual furniture, drinking and public urination all day right near single family homes,” Fisher said.
She also said the old $1,000 fine gave property owners little incentive to act.
“You have to almost fine, sadly, some of our stakeholders to a point that they’ll actually step up and put their property correctly,” she told WTOP.
“And those two properties are not owned by the county at all. All we can do is fine them into compliance.”
The county’s Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement will need to consistently show up and issue the daily fines for the law to have real impact, she said.
The agency has come under criticism for a number of reasons, including its enforcement efforts, but Fisher said she thinks it will respond to this law.
“When something doesn’t have teeth, it’s hard for people to want to do it because they don’t see the result,” Fisher said. “With this, they will actually see the result.”
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
漏 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
