INFOGRAPHICS: City Property Code Violation Data Supports Residents' Concerns
Williamsburg FOIA response reveals common violations, problematic properties and frequently cited owners
Earlier this year, I attended a community meeting in Williamsburg focused on property maintenance code violations. It’s worth noting that several members of the City’s staff graciously shared a couple hours of their time that evening addressing residents’ questions about code enforcement. During the discussion, a few common concerns surfaced:
Some neighborhoods are affected more than others.
It’s the same types of violations repeatedly.
It’s the same problem properties.
Some property owners are frequently cited.
Public information was subsequently obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the City of Williamsburg concerning property maintenance code violations cited since January 1, 2024 through April 8, 2025.
Individual addresses and property owners are not identified in the body of this post. But the public information released by the City of Williamsburg in response to my FOIA can be downloaded from a shared folder on Google Drive by clicking the button above.
Below are evaluations of the residents’ assertions based on this data.
Property code violations by the numbers
An analysis of property maintenance code violations in Williamsburg since January 2024 indicates that here were 303 total violations spread across 199 properties.
Month-to-month, the number of violations varies widely. Possible explanations are seasonal effects, enforcement patterns, as well as changes in compliance.
Concern #1 - neighborhood impact
The data indicates that violations are clustered in certain neighborhoods.
Certain areas of town seem to have higher incidence of property code violations, including areas south of the College of William and Mary, such as Indian Springs Rd and around Penniman Rd. and Lafayette St.
Concern #2 - common violations
The data confirms that a couple issues account for the majority of violations.
The most common violations are for tall grass, trash and exterior maintenance issues. Other violations include interior conditions, unpermitted work, inoperable vehicles and exterior storage.
Concern #3 - problematic properties
Some properties have a higher incidence of violations than most according to the data.
(Updated 5-15-25: An address was removed from this list due to owner feedback. Data provided by the City associated this homeowner’s address with 9 unique violation numbers, spread across multiple months. These entries were not violations for this property, but rather issues involving nearby properties on other streets, noted during a walk-through with the City inspector. It’s unclear why the City chose to record the data in this manner.)
Concern #4 - frequently cited property owners
The data shows that several property owners are cited for violations more frequently than most.
The data indicates that 10 property owners account for 25% of all violations, while nearly 70% of cited owners had only one violation.
FOIA costs: This FOIA request cost over $500. If you found the information valuable and would like to see more of it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a one-time contribution.
Use of AI: Several Google AI tools were used to help research, compile and analyze data for this post.
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