Eureka drops rental housing ordinance

Thursday, August 27, 2009
Donna Tam
The Times-Standard

After hearing some very vocal opposition to two variations of a rental housing inspection proposal, creators have scrapped the program, opting instead to amend the city business licensing program.

The Eureka task force, created to solve blight and crime in neighborhoods, announced Tuesday night that it would be dropping the draft ordinance meant to start a compliant-driven program for rental housing inspection. The program drew opposition from landlords and property managers who said the ordinance allowed too much room for abuse from tenants and was an unnecessary rehashing of already existing regulations. The new licensing amendment will come before the council at a future meeting for official adoption.

Councilman Larry Glass, who spearheads the task force, said he has heard the concerns from residents at the multiple public meetings held on the issue and thinks the amendments to the city business licensing program are a reasonable compromise. The possible amendments include having a landlord with any number of rental units register for a business license, having the program partially finance a code enforcement coordinator position and allowing landlords to opt for notification if a unit has multiple calls for public safety services.

Glass said he's been assured by staff that this will still be an effective method of keeping track of code violators.

”I admit I'm skeptical, but I feel like in order to go any further I have to try this first,” he said. “So basically, this is me saying 'OK, I'm willing to try this.' If it's not achieving its purpose, then I'll be back again.”

The ordinance had originally been a citywide proposal, but ran into opposition from residents, citing privacy issues. Previous estimates from the county yielded 6,000 rental properties in Eureka. After a revision, the program was changed to complaint-driven, upsetting landlords and property managers.

Glass said he thought he had a majority of the community behind the new version, but there was a very vocal minority of people who probably would have swayed the rest of the council.

”There was no point in rolling that boulder up that hill,” he said.

Bev Hart, who manages 325 units in Eureka through Coldwell Banker Cutten Realty, has spoken out against the ordinance at multiple meetings. She said she was very pleased with the announcement.

”I can live with this,” Hart said. “I think this is ultimately very fair.”

At a previous meeting at the Wharfinger Building, Hart had asked the city to look into utilizing its business licensing program. According to the city's finance department, the program currently requires any landlord with more than four rental units to register for a license, which costs $55 plus $11 per employee annually. The license is renewed yearly. Although the license does not require a building inspection, any building with more than four units require a fire inspection.

City Attorney Sheryl Schaffner said the business licensing program will help partially fund a coordinator position, which is a key role in obtaining compliance for the existing regulations.

In a previous meeting, Schaffner had said that the shortage of staff time was making it difficult to keep track of all property code violation cases that fell to the wayside. She said she thought the new amendments will be a welcome addition.

”I think it will increase our effectiveness in that we'll definitely feel a difference,” she said. “It's probably not as much as we probably need just based on the sheer volume of sub-standard property.”

Schaffner said the number for open violation cases is still being determined, but she expects the registration of rental properties will help develop those numbers over time.

Donna Tam can be reached at 441-0532 or dtam@times-standard.com.

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