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Item No: 2 <br />Meeting Date: 12/4/00 <br />Type of Business: WK <br />WK: Work Session; PH: Public Hearing; <br />CA: Consent Agenda; CB: Council Business <br />City of Mounds View Staff Report <br />To: Honorable Mayor & City Council <br /> <br />From: Jeremiah Anderson, Housing/Code Enforcement Inspector <br /> <br />Item Title/Subject: Possible revisions to the City’s Housing Code <br /> <br /> <br />Date of Report: 11/20/00 <br /> <br /> <br />Background: <br /> <br />In it’s current form, the City’s Housing Code is vague, and unclear, making some <br />portions of the code difficult to enforce. In order to provide the City’s residents with <br />a Housing Code that is clear, understandable and consistent, as well as easily <br />enforced by the City of Mounds View, several areas of the existing Housing Code <br />need to be amended. In order to accomplish this, amendments to the City’s Housing <br />Code need to accomplish two things: 1.) Proposed Housing Code amendments need <br />to provide language that is more specific, narrowing the possibility of numerous <br />interpretations of the same code section. 2.) Proposed Housing Code amendments <br />need to clarify the enforcement provisions of the Housing Code. <br /> <br />A majority of the proposed Housing Code amendments are clarification items <br />regarding the enforcement of the Housing Code. This is accomplished by <br />establishing an Enforcement Officer who is the primary party responsible for the <br />enforcement of the Housing Code. The other proposed amendments are directed at <br />providing specific and direct language and definitions that would narrow the <br />possibility of numerous interpretations of the code by eliminating “loop holes” and <br />“gray areas” in the Housing Code. This would be accomplished by building and <br />strengthening the current language in areas of the Housing Code that are vague and <br />unclear. No new material would be added to the Housing Code, only clarification on <br />the enforcement of the Housing Code and strengthening areas of the Code that are <br />vague and unclear. <br /> <br />In researching these proposed Housing Code amendments, staff has reviewed the <br />Housing Codes of the Cities of Brooklyn Park, Columbia Heights, and Brooklyn <br />Center. Additionally, the International Property Maintenance Code was also reviewed <br />and used as a reference in order to ascertain what materials would be consistent <br />with local Housing Codes, as well as internationally.