Staff received direction at the September 27, 2022 City Council work session to prepare an ordinance with standards for the care of property and buildings.  While the attached Building and Property Care Standards address issues identified as important through the community process, it was also recommended to review existing sections of code that address littering, nuisances (dangerous and abandoned buildings), and abandoned vehicles.  

Attached to this report is proposed text for a new Chapter 7-06 Building and Property Care Standards, in Title 7 Health and Sanitation of the City Code.  Staff also reviewed City Code Chapter 6-06 Littering and recommends it be removed from Title 6 Police Regulations, and placed in Title 7 Health and Sanitation.  Recommended text amendments for a new Chapter 7-11 Littering are attached to this report.  

Staff took the property care standards presented at the September 27, 2022 work session and created Chapter 7-06 Building and Property Care Standards.  The chapter includes a purpose and intent, definitions, standards for property, standards for buildings and structures, and a section with exemptions. 

Definitions are short and consistent with those found in a dictionary.  The property standards address adequate storage of litter and debris, accumulation of litter and debris, storage of inoperable vehicles/equipment/appliances, hazards and securing of vacant properties.  The Building and Structures standards are intended to address abandonment, deterioration and attractive nuisances.  Because securing abandoned and dangerous buildings continues to require significant staff resources, creates attractive nuisances to the community and can become dangerous, the draft allows broken doors and windows to be temporarily secured for no more than 30 days.  Staff recognizes this is a significant change from current practices, which allow buildings to be indefinitely boarded up, and that additional community engagement and discussion is required on this detail.  

Also included in the packet are recommended amendments to the Littering Chapter that include new definitions of litter, the elimination of confusing definitions, removal of unnecessary and repetitive sections, and removal of enforcement procedures specific to litter.  Enforcement will utilize the  Civil Enforcement Procedures in the City Code in an effort to make procedures and penalties consistent.  Because the Littering Chapter is about private property and the Police Department does not utilize this chapter for littering enforcement within rights-of-way, staff recommends removing Littering from the Police Regulations and move them to the Health and Sanitation Title. 

At this time staff would like comments and questions on the material provided in the work session.  Because these chapters are related and all work to support the Building and Property Care Standards, it is staff's recommendation that we work on the Nuisances (Abandoned and Dangerous Buildings) and Abandoned Vehicle sections during the summer Council break. We will re-engage the citizens working group, and provide informational presentations to select Commissions.  It is staff's goal to bring the remaining code amendments, along with the Building and Property Care Standards ordinance to a City Council work session in the fall of 2023.   

Staff has included the presentation from the September 27, 2022 Work Session as additional background information.