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Regular City Council Meeting <br />Monday, August 22, 2016 <br />Page 42 <br />building, versus forcing the tenant to immediate close their operations in this <br />building and find a short-term solution for life safety issues but not requiring up- <br />grading of the entire building if only a small portion of it was being used. <br />Mr. O'Neill stated, without having had the chance to fully review their proposal, <br />from the building perspective and fire separations, an area could not be defined as <br />"operational" or "starage" without meeting certain criteria. Mr. O'Neill noted <br />other concerns with the building having been vacant, and then this or additional <br />tenants moved in and into conditions that may be allowed for how the building is <br />currently used versus how it may be used if and when future tenants moved in. <br />Mr. O'Neill stated he didn't like to make exceptions, as the city may not be made <br />aware of those future tenants. <br />Ms. Collins concurred, noting the current use (storage and repair) was a land use <br />that still required people having ingress and egress for the building, even if a cer- <br />tain portion of the building was vacated. <br />Mr. O'Neill reiterated that staff had been and continued to try to be accommodat- <br />ing; again noting the city could have closed the building down the first day versus <br />this notification process. If no workers are employed in the building, Mr. O'Neill <br />advised the issues went away, but as long as there were tenants inside, they and <br />the city needed to comply with fire code. <br />Based on the requested action tonight, Mayor Roe asked when the four identified <br />action steps were implemented, in light of the meeting later this week specific to <br />the sprinkler system test; and what had to be satisfied subsequent to that test for <br />these proposed conditions to be removed. Mayor Roe clarified that he was seek- <br />ing staf�s anticipated timing or most optimistic timing to turn things around, if <br />the building was posted tomorrow and whether this was a several week, six month <br />or longer process from staff's perspective to get to resolution and renewed Certif- <br />icate of Occupancy and utility connection. Mayor Roe further clarified that was <br />assuring satisfactory compliance for the city and staffls expectation that all would <br />go well and allow occupancy again based on city and fire code requirements. <br />Ms. Collins responded that one of the reasons for the abatement process was to <br />hopefully expedite code compliance. Ms. Collins stated that simply providing <br />pieces of information every few weeks to attempt to satisfy staff while real life <br />safety concerns remained unchecked, didn't suffice, when those protections were <br />put in place for everyone's protection. To reinstate occupancy, Ms. Collins ad- <br />vised, would require appropriate sanitation for employees, the sprinkler system to <br />be operational throughout the building, and all plans and corrective actions ad- <br />dressed or a timeline provided to bring remaining items up to code. Ms. Collins <br />further clarified that this confirmation would not be addressed by the property <br />owner saying they had hired a contractor, but that the items were checked off on <br />the list to reinstate occupancy. <br />