COLCHESTER, Conn. -- Colchester officials said safety concerns are the driving force behind its efforts to create a law restricting how much clutter or blight one can have.

Town leaders said they don't want people driving into town, whether on Lebanon Avenue or Route 85, seeing properties filled with debris and trash.

"No, currently, we don't have anything that would allow us to encourage property owners to clean up their property and make it to look like your neighbors would like it," First Selectwoman Linda Hodge said.

Town planners said they hope that by enforcing the cleanup up of rundown properties, it will give the town a better overall appearance.

"A lot of towns are doing that now," resident Bill Swanson said. "Do you want to live next to a junkyard?"

Town leaders defeated a blight ordinance a few years ago, but the Planning Commission is now looking at a state law enacted in 2001 that authorizes municipalities to make and enforce property maintenance regulations. The law allows municipalities to make regulations preventing housing blight and to impose fines from $10 to $100 a day for each violation.

"Many other towns are looking at it, so we're going to look at it, too," Hodge said. "We tried to look at it many years ago, but Colchester is a different town."

The blight proposal is just being formulated, she said. The Planning Commission could hold a vote later this month.