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Ordinance No. 83 Housing Maintenance Code Page 1 of 15 City of Gem Lake, Ramsey County, Minnesota Housing Maintenance and Occupancy Code Ordinance No. 83 AN ORDINANCE CREATING THE GEM LAKE CITY HOUSING CODE The Gem Lake City Council ordains as follows: Section 1. Title and Purpose. This Ordinance may be cited as the "GEM LAKE HOUSING MAINTENANCE AND OCCUPANCY CODE". The purpose of this Ordinance is to protect the public health, safety and general welfare of the people of the City. These general objectives include, among others, the following: 1. To protect the character and stability of residential areas within the City. 2. To correct and prevent housing conditions that adversely affect or are likely to adversely affect the life, safety, general welfare and health, including the physical, mental and social well-being of persons occupying dwellings within the City of Gem Lake. 3. To provide minimum standards for the maintenance and conservation of existing residential buildings, the rehabilitation of existing substandard residential buildings, thus, to prevent slums and blight. 4. To provide minimum standards for cooking, heating and sanitary equipment necessary to the health and safety of occupants of buildings. 5. To provide minimum standards for light and ventilation, necessary to health and safety. 6. To prevent overcrowding of dwellings by providing minimum space standards per occupant for each dwelling unit. 7. To provide a diversity of housing choice and reasonable amount of low- and moderate-income housing in the City. 8. With respect to rental disputes, and except as otherwise specifically provided by the terms of this Ordinance, it is not the intention of the City Council to intrude upon the fair and accepted contractual relationship between tenant and landlord. The City Council does not intend to intervene as an advocate of either party, nor to act as an arbiter, nor to be receptive to complaints from tenant or landlord which are not specifically and clearly relevant to the provisions of this ordinance. In the absence of such relevance with regard to rental disputes, it is intended that the contracting parties exercise such legal sanctions as are available to them without the intervention of City government. Neither in enacting this Ordinance is it the intention of the City Council to interfere or permit interference with legal rights to personal privacy. 9. Any minimum standards shall not exceed the minimum standards provided for new construction by the Minnesota Building Code, and in the event any minimum standards herein do exceed said Building Code, the standards of the Minnesota State Building Code shall govern. Section 2. Applicability of Ordinance. Every building and its premises used in whole or in part as a home or residence, or as an accessory structure thereof, for a single family or person, and every building used in whole or in part as a home or residence of two or more persons or families living in separate units shall conform to the requirements of this Ordinance, irrespective of when such building may have been constructed, altered, or repaired. This Ordinance establishes minimum standards for erected dwelling units, accessory structures, and related premises. Section 3. Definitions. The following definitions shall apply to the interpretation and enforcement of this Ordinance. 1. Accessory Structure. A structure subordinate to the main or principal dwelling or dwellings and which is