Looking to modify ordinance
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – Airway Heights police are dealing with nuisance properties throughout the community, and during the Oct. 9 city council meeting Chief Brad Richmond asked council to consider making stricter penalties for properties that repeatedly violate city code.
Richmond said the issue is an ongoing issue, but the method for dealing with the problem is less than adequate.
Several residents attended the meeting, and shared similar concerns during the public comment period.
According to Richmond the chronic nuisance properties can become a financial burden to the city, so the city needs a stronger method for holding responsible parties accountable.
“Our current provisions in the Airway Heights municipal code cannot provide adequate tools for dealing with nuisance properties,” Richmond said. “Our code enforcement officer can go and talk to people, but there’s not much of a fine or fee structure.”
Richmond said they are trying to establish that fee or fine system so their ordinance “has more teeth.”
Richmond continued by saying nuisance properties are detrimental to both residential neighborhoods and commercial businesses.
Public safety is the primary concern according to Richmond, and that thought was echoed through Mayor Larry Bowman and some council members.
Bowman said there are specific properties along Hwy 2 that have become increasingly problematic.
“Not only do we have an abundance of calls for certain properties here,” Bowman said. “But if you look at Hwy 2, I’ve actually talked to the owner of Copy Junction and look at the property right next door.”
“There’s literally a burnt-up Jaguar on the property,” he added.
According to Bowman, he sees used drug needles littering the ground on the property as well.
Bowman said he was shown text messages from the nuisance property owners, claiming concerned businesses should get better insurance.
“If you want specific proof they have everything on hand for the code enforcement officer,” Bowman said. “But that’s ridiculous, that is absolutely ridiculous what’s happening over there.”
Richmond went back saying that nuisance issues on private property are even tougher for them to deal with, and that’s another reason the current ordinance needs improved.
City Manager Albert Tripp said the aspect of the current ordinance that is holding the process back is the term “voluntary compliance.”
Tripp said that allows people to voluntarily take care of nuisance properties by simply agreeing to clean up terms. There’s no actual current penalty in place if they don’t follow through though.
Instead each instance is treated individually so the process essentially starts back on square one.
Principal Planner Heather Trautman, who worked in code enforcement for 13 years said the issues need to be compiled into groups and not treated individually. This will give the courts more substance when dealing with nuisance properties when issues go that far.
“The key issue is that right now somebody is reporting each incident as an individual incident so the response is individual,” Trautman said. “By putting together an ordinance that identifies that incidents can be taken as a group in properties where numerous calls for service are made it creates a framework to deal with the underlying problem.”
Bowman said he wants to see property owners taking care of things because the end result is that it helps create a cleaner and safer community.
The first step is getting something started according to Bowman, so he encouraged council to consider pushing the ordinance through with a single read instead of the standard two readings through council sessions.
Tripp said the current draft may need modifications to truly get the results the city is looking for.
“Currently the existing draft uses voluntary compliance,” Tripp said. “We can still use that method, but if someone does not comply, they get penalized.”
Tripp said sometimes, the property owners or managers will try to tell residents they have to call the city to get something done, but that leads to another issue all together.
“The end result of that if the property manager doesn’t address it,” Tripp said. “It becomes a public health hazard, and the city is forced to step in and spend taxpayer dollars to deal with an issue the property manager should have dealt with.”
Mayor Bowman said they also need to consider helping the process when needed also.
“I understand that first and foremost we want to help the homeowner through the process,” Bowman said. “We want to help them if they need assistance, or if someone is disabled there are certain ways to go about this.”
Matthew graduated from West Virginia University-Parkersburg in 2011 with a journalism degree. He's an award-winning photographer and enjoys writing stories about people.
Reader Comments(0)