Kassie,
I was curious what your impression of the EDA meeting was.
Here are some of my thoughts:
The complaint from Scott Clark, the city's Community Development Director, is that too many homes are being sold that the city does not have a chance to inspect. I feel that if this inspection program passes it eliminates the ability of a person to sell a home 'as is' and the buyer to fix items on their own time, maybe even years later.
The City Council, EDA, several staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission were invited to go on a tour of homes on Wednesday night, May 27. Jim Kordiak (County Commissioner), Carolyn Laine (State Representative) and Eric Myers (NE Realtor's Association) went along with us. We were shown four properties. The first one is scheduled to be torn down by the county. The others are scheduled to be torn down by the city. None of these homes looked any worse, on the outside, than other homes in their block. Some of them looked better, on the outside, than other homes in the block. All of them needed the lawn cared for but since these were owned by the county and city they should have been taken care of. One of the properties that we entered is only being scheduled for demolition because it is in the Sheffield area and they want to remove this duplex and see this property replaced with a single family home. It was not scheduled for removal because of "safety and health reasons" other than the fact the city and the majority of the community want this area cleaned up. This is something I agree with them on.
The other three were in foreclosure so the city should have been able to enter those properties and been able to pull the certificate of occupancy so that these properties would have to be cleaned up before they could be inhabited. The city passed an ordinance last fall to take care of this situation. If that ordinance is not working than they should be fixing that ordinance not implementing another ordinance to hurt all home sales in this city.
At one of the homes we were warned there was a 'live' wire so we should be careful. The only 'live' wire I saw was a hole where a light switch cover should have been. For under $5 that problem could have been corrected by most homeowners. There was definitely mold in three of the homes. Mold is a correctable issue if done properly. Two of the homes were extremely small and for that reason alone, it might be better to tear them down and start over. As city council members, EDA and P &Z members, we were not qualified to determine that. Maybe Gary Peterson (mayor) would have that qualification since he had been in the construction business. Though tat is debatable since the members of this meeting were questioning any inspectors, other than the city inspector, because inspectors don't have to be licensed. I don't believe Mayor Peterson is a licensed inspector.
The reason for sending us on this tour was to show us how bad some of the homes are that are for sale in this city. I don't think anyone is disputing the fact that we live in an older community with older homes. Tami Diehm (council member) even mentioned that she is having to deal with her father's home. As he got older he was unable to care for his home as he should. What she didn't do was finish that story. She didn't say if they were now required to fix up that home before they could sell it. Which would mean traveling to an out of state location, hiring a contractor to make the repairs, and making sure they met the city's ordinances or if they could sell the home as is. Or, if they felt the repairs were too great and be forced to tear down the home before they could sell the property.
The concern from Tami Diehm was that these homes could be sold and then rented out to families with children. That shouldn't have been an issue if their foreclosure inspection ordinance was working correctly. Also, if it did become rental, than the rental inspection ordinance should cover that issue. The other concern, from several members, including Gary Peterson and Scott Clark was that last summer there was a lot of misinformation that got out about the inspection program. The city will try to correct that information by having the informational meetings. I personally believe the public, on a whole, understood the potential of this inspection program very well. Scott Clark is extremely passionate that this ordinance needs to be passed and at one point in the EDA meeting started yelling which was not helpful to anyone in that room.
Thanks for all of the time you spend trying to get out this information.
Donna Schmitt
Planning & Zoning Commission Member
Columbia Heights, Minnesota
Home-763-788-4905
Cell-763-227-3268
I was curious what your impression of the EDA meeting was.
Here are some of my thoughts:
The complaint from Scott Clark, the city's Community Development Director, is that too many homes are being sold that the city does not have a chance to inspect. I feel that if this inspection program passes it eliminates the ability of a person to sell a home 'as is' and the buyer to fix items on their own time, maybe even years later.
The City Council, EDA, several staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission were invited to go on a tour of homes on Wednesday night, May 27. Jim Kordiak (County Commissioner), Carolyn Laine (State Representative) and Eric Myers (NE Realtor's Association) went along with us. We were shown four properties. The first one is scheduled to be torn down by the county. The others are scheduled to be torn down by the city. None of these homes looked any worse, on the outside, than other homes in their block. Some of them looked better, on the outside, than other homes in the block. All of them needed the lawn cared for but since these were owned by the county and city they should have been taken care of. One of the properties that we entered is only being scheduled for demolition because it is in the Sheffield area and they want to remove this duplex and see this property replaced with a single family home. It was not scheduled for removal because of "safety and health reasons" other than the fact the city and the majority of the community want this area cleaned up. This is something I agree with them on.
The other three were in foreclosure so the city should have been able to enter those properties and been able to pull the certificate of occupancy so that these properties would have to be cleaned up before they could be inhabited. The city passed an ordinance last fall to take care of this situation. If that ordinance is not working than they should be fixing that ordinance not implementing another ordinance to hurt all home sales in this city.
At one of the homes we were warned there was a 'live' wire so we should be careful. The only 'live' wire I saw was a hole where a light switch cover should have been. For under $5 that problem could have been corrected by most homeowners. There was definitely mold in three of the homes. Mold is a correctable issue if done properly. Two of the homes were extremely small and for that reason alone, it might be better to tear them down and start over. As city council members, EDA and P &Z members, we were not qualified to determine that. Maybe Gary Peterson (mayor) would have that qualification since he had been in the construction business. Though tat is debatable since the members of this meeting were questioning any inspectors, other than the city inspector, because inspectors don't have to be licensed. I don't believe Mayor Peterson is a licensed inspector.
The reason for sending us on this tour was to show us how bad some of the homes are that are for sale in this city. I don't think anyone is disputing the fact that we live in an older community with older homes. Tami Diehm (council member) even mentioned that she is having to deal with her father's home. As he got older he was unable to care for his home as he should. What she didn't do was finish that story. She didn't say if they were now required to fix up that home before they could sell it. Which would mean traveling to an out of state location, hiring a contractor to make the repairs, and making sure they met the city's ordinances or if they could sell the home as is. Or, if they felt the repairs were too great and be forced to tear down the home before they could sell the property.
The concern from Tami Diehm was that these homes could be sold and then rented out to families with children. That shouldn't have been an issue if their foreclosure inspection ordinance was working correctly. Also, if it did become rental, than the rental inspection ordinance should cover that issue. The other concern, from several members, including Gary Peterson and Scott Clark was that last summer there was a lot of misinformation that got out about the inspection program. The city will try to correct that information by having the informational meetings. I personally believe the public, on a whole, understood the potential of this inspection program very well. Scott Clark is extremely passionate that this ordinance needs to be passed and at one point in the EDA meeting started yelling which was not helpful to anyone in that room.
Thanks for all of the time you spend trying to get out this information.
Donna Schmitt
Planning & Zoning Commission Member
Columbia Heights, Minnesota
Home-763-788-4905
Cell-763-227-3268
Powered by ScribeFire.
1 comment:
I need to make a correction. Tami Dehm was not referring to her father but to a very distant relative or rather a friend. I believe she was trying to make the illustration that as he was getting older it was harder for him to care for his home. Many of the homes in Columbia Heights have older people living in them and they cannot care for their homes as well as they did when they were younger. She will not be involved in any sale of his home because there is no real connection there. (If I didn't get it right again, Tami will let me know! Thanks!)
Post a Comment