Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Public Transit

TO:	Diane Stoddard, Interim City Manager
CC:	Scott McCullough, Director Planning & Development Services
FROM:	Planning and Development Services Staff
DATE:	July 23, 2015
RE:	Property Maintenance Standards and Enforcement

The Issue

A core service of the city is to enforce the codes and ordinances adopted by the City Commission. Staff seeks clarification on the applicability of the Property Maintenance Code with regard to property owners maintaining the exterior of their property.

Background

At the June 23, 2015 City Commission meeting, staff provided a memorandum on the consent agenda regarding the status of the yard conditions at 1145 Pennsylvania St. The memorandum provided a summary of staff’s enforcement actions to date and identified future enforcement actions to consider that would bring the property into compliance with the City’s adopted Property Maintenance Code (PMC).

The item was removed from the consent agenda and was discussed amongst the City Commission with comments from staff and the public. During staff’s presentation, the City Commission was informed that the property contained PMC violations as well as potential land use violations. It was staff’s opinion that the yard conditions were out of compliance with the minimum standards set forth in Section 302.10 of the PMC, which states the following:

No person shall allow on any yard, porch, deck, balcony, or other exterior area of a premises, the accumulation of any of the following items: lumber, wire, metal, tires, concrete, masonry products, plastic products, supplies, equipment, machinery, auto parts, stoves, refrigerators, televisions, sinks, garbage, rubbish, refuse, junk or the like.

During discussion, it was noted that the property did contain a large garden, primarily in the right-of-way, which is a permitted use in the Development Code. Many in the community characterized the property as a good example of urban agriculture. It is important to reiterate that staff did not find the keeping/growing of plants to be a violation.

At the conclusion of the discussion, staff was directed to halt enforcement action against the property owner for the items stored within the yards of the property and on the right-of-way that were identified in the memorandum as being in violation of Section 302.10, and to provide the Commission a report on the PMC.

The City Commission also initiated a text amendment to the Land Development Code to pursue adding and defining Urban Agriculture as a zoning use. Staff agrees that such a use will help to incorporate several elements of urban agriculture that are currently being discussed in the community – bee keeping, animal production, agricultural sales, education, etc. This text amendment will be considered by Planning Commission in late summer/early fall. While there are land uses that permit exterior storage of materials, those uses typically have standards that require screening, and uses in residential districts are typically held to a higher standard of appearance.

Staff seeks clarification as to whether the direction of the City Commission to halt enforcement on the exterior yard conditions was the result of the property’s legal agriculture use, with the items stored in the yards and on the right-of-way considered appropriate for such a use, or whether Section 302.10 is considered to be an over-reaching standard for maintaining any property at a minimum level of cleanliness, thereby rendering residential properties that have similar yard conditions to not be in violation of Section 302.10.

As a result of the directive and the ensuing uncertainty of how staff should be regulating exterior yard complaints and violations, staff believes it is important to provide the City Commission the history of the City’s property maintenance codes and provide information on the enforcement of Section 302.10 of the PMC.

Property Maintenance Codes

The City has had property maintenance codes for interior house and exterior structure and yard conditions since the early 1970’s in one form or the other. The current version, the 2012 International Property Maintenance Code (PMC), adopted on June 18, 2013 (Ordinance No. 8873) merged all codes that regulated interior and exterior property conditions into one code, except for codes related to sidewalk maintenance, snow removal, weeds, and graffiti, which are located in other sections of the City code. All of these property codes are enforced by the Code Enforcement Division of the Planning and Development Services Department.

The 2012 PMC constitutes minimum requirements and standards for exterior premises, structures, equipment and facilities for light, ventilation, space, heating, sanitation, protection from the elements, life safety, safety from fire and other hazards, and for safe and sanitary maintenance.

Enforcement of the Property Maintenance Code and Other Codes

Two Code Enforcement Officers, who are not assigned to the rental inspection program, are primarily responsible for enforcing the minimum code standards of the PMC and other city codes related to exterior structure and yard conditions throughout the entire city. Their other enforcement duties include, but are not limited to, enforcing the Sign Code, Weed Code, Development Code, Sidewalk Dining Ordinance, Fence Code, Graffiti Ordinance and the Sidewalk Snow Removal Ordinance. These staff members do not enforce any of the rental licensing and inspection ordinance regulations. Rental inspection staff does, however, enforce the PMC through tenant based complaints regarding substandard housing conditions and through the rental inspection program.

Process of Receiving a Complaint and Opening a Case for Investigation

Due to limited resources, the two Code Enforcement Officers’ PMC case load is primarily complaint driven. Complaints can be received by phone, email, online complaint form, mail and in person. Complainants often request to remain anonymous and staff respects that request. In situations where staff is provided the name of the complainant, it is department policy to not release that personal information to a person in violation of the code or to other people seeking complainant information.

After receiving the complaint, staff opens a case for the property and inspects within two business days to verify whether there is a code violation, unless the violation appears to be an immediate life safety concern. If the violation is verified, staff begins the process of notification, which often includes a notice and order being mailed to the owner of record or tenant that identifies all code section(s) in violation. The notice also provides the corrective action to be taken to resolve the violation.

If the violation is unfounded, a case is still opened to appropriately document the complaint for future reference if needed. A narrative is provided within the case that identifies the violation as invalid and the case is closed.

Total PMC Cases Opened from 01/01/2013 thru 6/30/2015

From January 1, 2013 thru June 30, 2015, a total of 3,314 exterior property cases have been opened (including weeds, exterior housing, and exterior yard but excluding any cases opened as part of the rental inspection program).

A total of 983 cases were classified as exterior yard violations that were investigated by staff. Only 84 (8.5%) of these cases were initiated by staff. Of the 983 cases, 572 (58%) were cases opened for properties in violation of Section 302.10 (Exterior Yard).

Below are examples of other types of violations that involve exterior yard and/or premises violations that were queried from the total of 983 cases.

Upholstered furniture on porches, decks and balconies.
Dead trees or limbs.
Motor vehicles, inoperable or not registered.
Inappropriate disposal of garbage, rubbish and trash.
Deteriorated fences.
Dilapidated accessory structures.

The chart below reflects the total number of PMC exterior yard cases opened (excluding exterior structure conditions) from 2013 thru 2015, and the total number of PMC cases opened for section 302.10 compared to all other types of PMC exterior yard violations.

The following table provides the total number of cases entered by staff for the PMC case type of exterior yard, exterior structure, the Weed Code and all other codes enforced by the division. Additionally, the table identifies the number of cases that were staff initiated, the percentages of cases that were staff initiated for each respective case type and the active cases for each case type.

Cases Opened 1-1-13 thru 6-30-15 by Code Enforcement Staff

	Cases Opened	No. of Complaint Cases Where No Violation Was Found	% of Complaint Cases With No Violation Found	No. of Cases Self-Initiated by CE Staff	% of Cases Self-Initiated by CE Staff	Active Cases on 7-21-15
Exterior Yard	983	181	18.4%	84	8.5%	32
Exterior Structure	36	3	8.3%	3	8.3%	12
Weed Code	1,533	148	9.7%	401	26.1%	54
Other Codes	762	274	36.0%	165	21.7%	33
Totals	3,314	606	18.3%	653	19.7%	131

The data reflects that Section 302.10 is a frequently cited violation (58% of all PMC exterior yard violations) that provides the minimum standards for exterior yard/premise conditions in regards to the “…accumulation of lumber, wire, metal, tires, concrete, masonry products, plastic products, supplies, equipment, machinery, auto parts, stoves, refrigerators, televisions, sinks, garbage, rubbish, refuse, junk or the like.”

The data further demonstrates that citizens value these standards, as over 90% of cases opened for exterior yard conditions from January 1, 2013 thru June 30, 2015 have been initiated by a citizen complaint. It is staff’s opinion that Section 302.10 assists the City and our citizens in the prevention of blighting influences that can adversely affect our neighborhoods.

Pictures

The attached pictures demonstrate the varying degrees of yard/premise conditions that have been cited to be in violation of Section 302.10 of the PMC.

Summary

The City has regulated exterior structure and yard conditions since the 1970’s. Since that time, the city has merged the Environmental Code into the PMC and along the way adopted three editions of the PMC with Section 302.10 being a minimum code standard of each code adoption.

Staff seeks clarification from the City Commission on whether Section 302.10 should continue to be a minimum standard of the PMC. At issue is whether Section 302.10 of the PMC should apply differently to Urban Agriculture, once adopted as a use in the Development Code, than to other uses; or, whether these exterior yard standards should be removed or lessened to provide a lesser standard for exterior yard conditions for all properties and uses in the City. City Commission direction to staff is appreciated given that there are 23 cases in process at the time of this writing.

Action Requested

Direct Staff as appropriate.