05-11-2016 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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The letter mailed to the property owner back in February made reference to this code provision and staff requested their cooperation to remove freestanding, wall, and menu board signage. Maintaining a Public Nuisance (Municipal Code 601) – (h) All noxious weeds, tall grasses, and other rank growths; (i) An accumulation of tin cans, bottles or trash or debris of any nature or description, and the throwing, dumping, or depositing of any dead animals, manure, garbage, waste decaying matter, ground, sand, stones, ashes, rubbish, tin cans, or other material of any kind on private property; (o) All dangerous, unguarded machinery, equipment or other property in any public place, or so situated or operated on private property as to attract minor children; Off-Street Parking (Zoning Code 903.050.E) – Maintenance. It shall be the joint and several responsibility of the lessee and owner of the principal use, uses or building to maintain in a neat and adequate manner, the parking space and any required curbing, access-ways, striping, landscaping and required screening. The League of Minnesota Cities has a sample ordinance regarding securing vacant buildings (Attachment A). Although staff believes this is worthy of consideration as part of our review of vacant buildings; we are fortunate that there has not been an issue of trespassing/securing the building from unwarranted occupancy with any of the three properties that staff is aware of. This sample ordinance does not address aesthetic concerns of general upkeep and maintaining the structure. City staff also surveyed White Bear Lake, Vadnais Heights, and Arden Hills to see what tools they may have for addressing similar situations in their community. All three cities responded that they do not have ordinance language specific to “maintaining” the building (i.e. paint, removal of prior business memorabilia, etc.). They have similar nuisance and signage references within their codes. Vadnais Heights did have an additional component in their ordinance which referenced exterior building maintenance (i.e. windows, rodent proof, foundations - Attachment B). Under our current nuisance ordinance, we could address rodent harborage, and depending on the degree of the foundation/structural issues, that may fall into the category of Hazardous Structure under the State Statute which staff has used in the past when dealing with residential vacant properties. The City of Brooklyn Center has a Vacant Building ordinance and registration requirement that covers residential and commercial properties. A vacant building owner is required to register and complete an inspection if a property has been vacant for more than 30 days. Included in the paperwork, the property owner must submit a Property Plan addressing current and possible long-term plans for the property if there are ongoing issues (Attachment C). Another option is the International Property Maintenance Code. This is an extensive document that we looked at in the past and determined it was too cumbersome for our needs. However, it does contain a provision for vacant structures and land that reads as follows: