Staff recommends the City Council approve the second and final reading of the amended ordinance Billings, Montana City Code (BMCC) Section 18-300, Nuisances.

At its meeting on April 8, 2024, the City Council conducted a public hearing and approved the first reading of the amended ordinance BMCC 18-300, Nuisances.  

The language of "Sec. 18-303" was removed in the clean version of the amended ordinance from Sec. 18-305, Abatement, and collection of costs after legal review in preparation for second reading. Section 18-305 will, in the future, be used as the process for other ordinances and therefore, the language of "Sec. 18-303" should be removed.

 

The residents of Billings will ultimately benefit from making these ordinance amendments as the changes will increase efficiency of enforcement, better clarify the codes so people understand their rights and obligations under the City code, and make it easier to apply the codes by the City Code Enforcement Division.

City Council may:

• Approve the amended ordinance BMCC 18-300, Nuisances; or,
• Not Approve the amended ordinance BMCC 18-300, Nuisances.  If not approved, ordinance BMCC 18-300, Nuisances will remain the same and not have the more effective and updated language Code Enforcement staff, City Legal staff, and the City Council have been working to implement.

There are no direct fiscal impacts; however, if the Council approves amended ordinance BMCC 18-300, Nuisances, there could be some advantages of efficiency and process that might be fiscally beneficial, although difficult to measure given the overall complexity of some of these enforcement processes.