Council advances International Property Maintenance Code measures
Sunday, December 13, 2009 - 10:48 pm
Further consideration is on January agenda
Back in July, the City Council rejected a proposed ordinance to include provisions of the International Property Maintenance Code in the city's code book.
The IPMC received a friendlier reception when it was brought back to the City Council table on Dec. 9.
The code is used by other communities across the state and nation. Earlier this year the City Council heard a presentation about the IPMC from the Wayne police chief. Wayne, home to
Wayne State College and many properties rented to students, has used the code to with success, Mayor Dana Trowbridge said.
Trowbridge said that the IPMC offers a set of recognized guidelines which would help the Council to take action when homes and properties are deemed to be in unsafe conditions for habitation.
Trowbridge said that some properties in David City are not up to a "minimum standard for human beings to live in."
"We have owners and landowners that turn a blind eye to those standards," Trowbridge said.
"Some people are forced to live in those conditions. I think we owe it to our fellow man . . . to make sure that doesn't happen. Those (standards) should be met without working severe hardships on anybody."
Councilman Bill Yindrick said that the experience in Wayne appeared to be positive. Wayne uses an appointed committee of property owners and people who rent apartments and houses.
"It hasn't been a confrontational approach to rectify problems (in Wayne)," Yindrick said.
"It could be as confrontational as a body wants it to be," added Trowbridge. "This body is not a confrontational Council. They are willing to work with people that need to do what needs to be done. Some do and some don't. I don't see it as a threat."
Trowbridge noted that if IPMC is approved, the City Council would be responsible for enforcing its rules.
If the IPMC is in place, a building inspector could make a recommendation for the council to either ask a property owner to make improvements, or to begin the nuisance abatement process, City Administrator Joe Johnson said.
The Council voted 5-1 to approve the ordinance on first reading, with Councilman Bill Scribner voting no.
Currently, the city's Board of Health, made up of unpaid volunteers, looks into complaints about unsafe properties. The Board makes a recommendation to the Council, which must then decide a course of action. The result is often a process which takes up to three months before any problems are addressed.
With the current system, some problem properties have remained in violation of nuisance ordinances for months or even years before they are cleaned up. One property on West D Street had been a target for cleanup for 20 years until last spring.
With the IPMC, the City Council would be the body responsible for enforcing the standards of safety and health. The code would spell out how the city's nuisance ordinance would be applied.
Trowbridge said the maintenance code would only be used when the city got complaints about a property. It would not be applied to new homes or homes for sale unless someone complained about a property.
The Council also passed on first reading two other measures necessary to put the code in force.
The first is to create the role of building inspector who would serve the city on a case-by-case basis, and the second which would declare properties to be a nuisance if they are in violation of the maintenance code. Scribner cast the sole no vote on those two measures.
The city has codes in place for electric, plumbing and other systems, but it has no building inspector in place to enforce construction codes. Under IPMC, the city would ask its contracted building inspector to look at a property if complaints were filed. The ordinances concerning IPMC will require second and third reading approval before they are put into effect.
