2009-04-21_Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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4. Nuisance Ordinance. Another regulatory approach is through the concept of nuisance. The City of Bloomington has successfully used its nuisance ordinance to address minor code violations relating to property conditions. The City provides the owner and occupant with a written notice of the violation, an opportunity to correct the violation, and notice that failure to comply will result in abatement by the City with the cost thereof charged against the property in the manner of a tax. If there is non-compliance, the City abates the violations and charges are assessed against the property. The City's Code provides for this abatement in Sections 10.37-.41, 8.35-.40, and 12.03-06. The City of Bloomington also employs a"3 Strikes You Pay" program. The first step is a multi-departmental staff group review of properties put on a watch list for nuisance conduct or conditions on the property. In the second step, the same staff group reaches a consensus on the appropriate enforcement options, which may include the issuance of a Nuisance Incident Notice (NIN) that advises all with an interest in the property (including the mortgage company, tenants, co-owners) that the City has started to count nuisance violations at the property and that three or more of said nuisances within a rolling 365-day period will result in the assessment against the property for the City's costs of responding. (The City charges a minimum of $250 as a Nuisance Service Call fee.) The third step is monitoring. If a second qualifying nuisance incident occurs, an Abatement Notice is sent. A third nuisance call with 365 days results in an assessment. The assessment is provided on a civil citation form and provides for a process and review procedure. The City's Code provides for this program in Sections 12.01-06 and 12.13-.16. 5. Eminent domain - HRA acquires building and building later resold The HRA could use its powers of eminent domain to acquire apartment buildings with the intent to re-sell them to private parties, either for rehabilitation or demolition and construction of new housing. Under this scenario, the only basis for using eminent domain is a finding that the acquisition is needed to mitigate a"blighted area." That term is defined (in Minnesota Statutes, Section 117.025, subd. 6) as property that is in urban use, and more than 50 percent of the buildings are structurally substandard. If the HRA were only acquiring one building that building would obviously need to meet the substandard test. Under Section 117.025, subd. 7, the term "structurally substandard" means a building that meets all of these four conditions: the building has been cited for violation of a housing, maintenance or building code. b. the violations involve one or more of the following items: (i) a roof and roof framing element; (ii) support walls, beams, and headers; (iii) foundation, footings, and subgrade conditions;