AgdaPkt 2000-02-28 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Sß/7 Summary. Is it important to retain the parking regulations? If the parking regulations are relaxed for garage conversions, is it equitable to allow some neighborhoods to carry a disproportional burden of loss of aesthetics and increased street parking? Staff recommends no change to parking requirements except as recommended in the companion report, by the Housing and Human Concerns Committee and Planning Commission, for legally created accessory dwelling units. 3. Code Enforcement Approach a. Backaround. In February of 1986, the first full-time regular position for code enforcement was filled. The person in this position was responsible for processing all municipal and zoning code violations, as well as housing and building code violations. Having only one person on staff meant that, initially, the code enforcement efforts were more reactive than proactive. In the six years that followed, there was a 300% increase over the number of complaints processed from 1986 to 1992. e. In 1992, the City Council authorized the implementation of a neighborhood improvement program. This signaled a more aggressive stance in efforts to alleviate concerns by attempting to find the problems before they surfaced as complaints. One additional position was added to code enforcement at the time. This proactive program is the vehicle through which concerns and complaints are received and processed today. Through the neighborhood inspection walk approximately 4000 properties per year are inspected. The compliance rate is generally 88%. Code Enforcement staff attend all neighborhood association meetings. At these meetings, staff are able to address neighbor concerns and provide feedback on topics of interest, such as recent code enforcement efforts in the area. Staff also accepts complaint forms that have been filled out by the attendees. Attendance by City staff at these meetings has proven to be very effective in reducing any acrimony between City code enforcement and citizens. Recently, code enforcement has been receiving an increasing number of concerns and complaints via e-mail. Some of these have come from people who have discovered the City's web site and e-mail addresses. Code enforcement staff have also become successful in initiating an on-line form that can be e-mailed directly from the web site to staff computers. Code enforcement staff have developed a very strong working relationship with Planning, Police, Fire, and Public Works Services. Numerous complaints are referred from these departments to code enforcement. Conversely, code enforcement staff will contact these departments whenever they find anything that needs to be brought to the attention of other departments. b. City Council Direction. The Council's stated direction to staff on the approach to code enforcement has been: . priority on health and safety violations. . balancing pro-active enforcement and violations received through complaint. . no distinction in enforcement profile between anonymous and known complainant. . little tolerance for repeat offenders. . enforcement of property regulations with eye toward beautifying the City. . educational programs such as attending neighborhood meetings, distribution of flyers, working with other agencies, etc. -7- . ~._. . - lr