Peeling paint referendum
A group of Piqua landlords are hitting the streets gathering signatures to force a referendum on the City Commission’s package of property maintenance ordinances.
Last month, after three readings and much discussion, the commission approved a package of ordinances to streamline efforts to clean up and spruce up the city’s appearance.
The landlords claim the city is getting too much power and will be driving people out of their homes over peeling paint. To get a referendum on the ballot, they need the signatures of 604 registered Piqua voters by Jan. 17.
The landlords have been passionate in their opposition. They believe their livelihood is in jeopardy.
If they are going to be successful, they will have to convince homeowners that the city also is targeting them with unwarranted and unreasonable citations.
That might be a tough sell. Several neighborhoods have formed community associations to fight blight. Over the past several years, several neighborhoods have shown significant decline.
Some facts to ponder.
In 2006, Troy’s planning and zoning department sent out 869 letters for tall grass/weeds (206), junk vehicles (396), trash/debris (211) and property maintenance issues (56). The city has four employees whose job description includes investigating such complaints. One of the four does it full time.
In 2006, Piqua’s health and sanitation department investigated 3,546 nuisance complaints from citizens, including 1,547 for tall grass/weeds, 1,824 for trash/debris, 76 for animals and 99 for water shutoffs. In addition, the department handled 2,501 property maintenance inspections and complaints.
The department has three full-time inspectors, one of whom devotes all of their time to food and restaurant inspections. A second inspector devotes one-half of their time in assisting with food and restaurant inspections.
Then there are the allegations of city impropriety.
• It is claimed Piqua has added inspectors and plans to pay for the new inspectors by increased fines.
The city has not hired any new inspectors in the past two years. In 2006 and 2007, the city has not made any money on fines.
“Fines are meant to be an incentive for compliance,” said Stacy Wall, city law director. Wall said the city makes no money on those property owners it has taken to court. The fines are generally waived if the property owner fixes the problem.
• It is claimed the city would be judge and jury over enforcement matters under the amended ordinances.
Wall said the ordinance package would make enforcement a civil rather than criminal matter. The city would levy fines to prompt compliance. If the problem is fixed after the first notification, there would be no fine. The only time fines would be levied would be for repeated violations or failure to fix the problem.
Such fines could be appealed to a review board made up of the city manager and two citizens and the courts.
• It is claimed the city has more inspectors than the Miami County Health Department, which serves considerably more people.
The county has 11 inspectors. Of those, seven handle health-related nuisance complaints.
• And it is claimed people have lost their homes because of the city’s draconian enforcement
No examples have yet been put forward. City officials say there are a number of programs to help homeowners maintain their property. If there is a problem, the city says it will work with the homeowner to find a solution.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Piqua
Comments
By aharddaysnight
January 16, 2008 10:17 AM | Link to this
I live in Piqua and what I find ironic is how the city will gripe about my ugly garage and tell me to paint it when they have Piqua Memorial (and other buildings) slowly decaying and being vandalized. At least my garage cannot be seen from the street. And the programs are a joke. No one wants to see a town deteriorate or property values decrease but city officials in glass houses…. well, you get the jist.By Dan Swank
January 10, 2008 3:49 PM | Link to this
Doug, you truly hit the mark this time!By Riverdale Ghost
January 9, 2008 10:05 PM | Link to this
Buildings do not “re-generate” themselves, they only deteriorate, hence, there’s always something that can be fixed if someone wants to pick on something. There’s a lot of “gray” in the issue. A lot can be said about such things. When something is a matter of safety for the occupants (paint isn’t) that’s more important than something that is, say, cosmetic that the neighbors have to look at; meanwhile there’s only so much money available.