CC PACKET 06251996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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• June 20, 1996 To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Doug Bergstrom, Chair -D5g St. Anthony Planning Commission Subject: Recommendations of Planning Commission regarding maintenance of quality residential housing stock in St. Anthony Village During the goal-setting retreat last winter, the City Council charged the Planning Commission to review the City code and processes and make recommendations on how the City can improve residential housing. The context of that discussion focused on improving housing for which the City had sent many letters for failure to conform with City ordinances. We felt charged with the mission to review the process of enforcement of the City code, the Code itself, as well as to make general recommendations. To evaluate problem properties, we asked City staff to compile a list of residential housing which had received multiple letters from the City, so that we could see the nature of the code violations, the relative number of residences so affected, and personally view the houses. This was done, and the Planning Commission held a work session on May 21, 1996 to discuss what we had been given and had seen.. The City Manager and the City Public Works Director joined our work session to share their observations, experiences, and concerns. What follows is a summary of our discussion, along with our specific and general recommendations. REVIEW OF CITY CODE After review of the City building and housing code, the consensus of the members of the Planning Commission was that a significant revision to the code was not warranted. There appears to be sufficient general definition and breadth within the existing code to cover most of the situations which result in notices of violation. After extended discussion with the Director of Public Works, we elicited some specific requests for minor code changes which would make enforcement of the existing code by City staff easier. Suggested changes are itemized below in the Recommendations section. ENFORCEMENT OF EXISTING CODE Our initial work session discussion centered on the process by which code violations were identified, processed, and followed up on. The chronic conditions of most concern by the Director of Public Works generally included: -Long-term storage of large quantities of used construction materials -Storage of unlicensed vehicles which were being stripped for parts -Accumulation of miscellaneous "debris" in yards, including isolated auto parts • -Regular parking of vehicles on lawns, and -Lack of housing maintenance, including structural problems.