Oak Point adopts rewritten outdoor-burning ordinance to clarify pile sizes and penalties

Oak Point — The City Council voted unanimously to repeal and replace Chapter 8, Article 8.02 of the Oak Point Code of Ordinances to clarify rules and penalties for outdoor burning.

Chief Roach explained the rewrite adds definitions and clearer guidelines for pile sizes, clarifies when fires are considered "contained" and aligns penalty language so that fire-code violations carry the higher penalty allowed (discussed as up to $2,000) while other violations such as certain noise offenses remain at the lower penalty level previously used in other parts of the code.

Councilors reviewed the nuisance definition language and asked staff to clean up a phrase that carried over from the earlier text; staff agreed to return a cleaned version if council preferred, but the substantive updates — including distinctions between contained fires (for example, in a receptacle) and open burns — were supported. Staff emphasized that most citizen complaints stem from yard or property clean-up fires that are not contained and can drift onto neighboring properties.

After discussion and clarification on penalties and definitions, a motion to approve the rewrite as presented was seconded and adopted unanimously. Council directed staff to bring back any further cleanup edits as needed.

The ordinance rewrite is intended to improve safety and reduce ambiguity while preserving limited recreational or property-maintenance burning where allowed and contained.