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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/14/2002 AGENDA MAPLEWOOD HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY TUESDAY. MAY 14, 2002 7:00 P.M. CITY HALL MAPLEWOOD ROOM 1. Call to Order 2. Roll Call 3. Approval of Minutes a. April 9. 2002 4. Approval of Agenda 5. Communications a. Annual Tour - Monday, July 29 6. Unfinished Business None 7. New Business a. Truth-in-Housing Ordinance Code Amendment 8. Date of Next Meeting 9. Adjournment c:memoIHRAAGEND.MEM MINUTES OF THE MAPLEWOOD HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY 1830 COUNTY ROAD BEAST, MAPLEWOOD, MINNESOTA TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2002 7:00 P.M. CITY HALL MAPLEWOOD ROOM I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Fischer called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. II. ROLL CALL Commissioner Tom Connelly Commissioner Lorraine Fischer Commissioner Joe O'Brien Commissioner Gary Pearson Commissioner Beth Ulrich Present Present Present Present Present Staff Present: Ken Roberts, Associate Planner Larry Bunce, Building Inspector Lisa Kroll, Recording Secretary III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Approval of the HRA minutes for April 9, 2002. Chairperson Fischer had an addition to page 8 in the third paragraph starting before the sentence the committee also discussed. Please add "Chairperson Fischer questioned whether or not staff has questioned the city attorney to verify if when we received notice of a park closing, the city would still have sufficient time to enact an ordinance that would be applicable to that closing or if it would only apply to future closings in the city." Commissioner Connelly moved to approve the minutes as amended. Commissioner Pearson seconded. Ayes - Fischer, Pearson, Ulrich, Connelly Abstention - O'Brien The motion carried. IV. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Mr. Roberts had an addition to the agenda. Add item 7. b. for new business regarding the Springsted Study. Commissioner Pearson moved to approve the agenda with a change. Commissioner Connelly seconded. Ayes -Connelly, Fischer, Pearson, Ulrich The motion carried. Housing and Redevelopment Authority -2- Minutes of 05-14-02 V. COMMUNICATIONS a. Annual Tour - Monday, July 29, 2002 Mr. Roberts said to put Monday, July 29th on the calendar for the annual tour. Mr. Roberts said the CDRB would be working with the planning commission on selecting sites for the annual tour. Someone had mentioned they would like to visit some manufactured home parks. Chairperson Fischer asked if there would be a theme for the tour? Mr. Roberts said that is something to discuss with the planning commission. Please call if you have any suggestions for the tour. VI. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. VII. NEW BUSINESS a. Truth-in-Housing Ordinance Code Amendment Mr. Roberts said the city building inspection staff concludes that the existing truth-in-housing ordinance has served Maplewood well since the city adopted it in 1990. Staff is now considering an amendment to this code to include the inspection of manufactured homes. The city excluded manufactured homes from the original truth-in-housing ordinance at the request of the inspectors/evaluators. The purpose of this code amendment would be to maintain a higher quality of housing in all areas of the city. The adopted ordinance did not require the owners of manufactured homes to have them inspected before they list or show them for sale. Specifically, Section 9-236 of the code excludes manufactured homes as housing unit and thus from the truth-in-housing ordinance requirements. Mr. Roberts said the Maplewood Building Inspection Department and Minnesota State Building Code Division recently compiled a list of common violations and corrections for manufactured homes. The city could use this list as a tool for the evaluators, for inspections and for reports. The city building inspectors intend this list to be the minimum items mandatory for inspection for manufactured homes as part of the truth-in-housing report. They also suggest that the evaluators use the existing single-dwelling form when reviewing a manufactured home. Commissioner Pearson said the truth in housing ordinance conversation began when owners of manufactured home parks had discussions with the building officials in the city of Mounds View. They met with the city and told them what they were trying to accomplish for the manufactured home parks. Using the point of sale and what statute powers went with the landowner as a means of doing the appearance standards that would be instituted in advance so people would know what would be expected of them. Anything that is built on the exterior of the home comes under the UBC inspection and the city. Anything on the inside of the home since June of 1976 forward is a HUD home and there the city is responsible to make sure there is a fire extinguisher, smoke detectors, and address on the home. Everything else is under the HUD code and supercedes the state UBC code. Housing and Redevelopment Authority -3. Minutes of 05-14-02 Commissioner Pearson said when these homes are coming up for sale and they would have some bad additions put on them (which should have fallen under the UBC) and when park owners started enforcing the rights given to them at a point of sale, it became a requirement that the people be able to certify either that the addition was built with a permit from the city or they have an inspection to certify that it meets UBC or that it can be brought up to UBC standards. All this is to occur before a sale is consummated. This is where this all came into play because building inspectors did not want to be involved with the inspections. The state building codes said it was their requirement to inspect those homes and the people would have to pull permits as if it were being built. The city would assess a minimum value of a $1 ,000 and they would go out and check for four items. Including the blocking piers, the support on the walls, the wall that joins the home, and how it is built including or attached on the side of the home. In addition, the inspectors should establish if they have 16-inch centers on the wall studs and the ceiling joists, and what the floor is built on underneath and what the piers are underneath. Those were the only things. Commissioner Pearson said the 24-point inspection that was not a part of that but ended up being thrown into the mix as a part of that inspection. Up until now parks that want to run a nice manufactured home park and provide a clean place for people to leave they have had the weight of all of this. Consequently the residents get the feeling you are trying to make their lives miserable and to make their homes worthless. APAC then comes around the backside and says you are trying to close a park and that is exactly what happened at the St. Paul Tourist Cabins. Mr. Roberts said on the books with the state right now there are most of these standards that are on the form? Commissioner Pearson said yes with the exception of items 22,25,26, and 27. Mr. Roberts said if the city did not do anything we would still require permits for changes on the exterior and require inspections. What would happen at a point of sale if the city does not change anything? Commissioner Pearson said basically what they have done now for the most part they have had about 7 additions that did not meet any requirement what so ever. Those were put on the homes in the 1970's. Basically they put up a deck and enclosed the sides and put a roof on. The state Health Department requires that wheels and axels remain underneath the home. Mr. Roberts asked Mr. Pearson if the city doesn't change anything now what would happen at the point of sale, is there an inspection done by somebody? Commissioner Pearson said just the individual parks and the inspection is only as good as the park puts into play. Commissioner Pearson showed members the safety-feature-disclose code form that has the compliance requirements. This important notice is a list-of-residents' rights in a community and it also deals with the sales of homes. Mr. Roberts asked if the HRA thinks this is a worthwhile item to pursue or is it something that is not necessary for the city to do. Housing and Redevelopment Authority -4- Minutes of 05-14-02 Mr. Larry Bunce, the building inspector said a manufactured home is supposed to be treated as a house. Commissioner Pearson said personally he would like the city pursue this. They have been requiring the homeowner to keep up with the requiring people to keep up their properties. Mr. Bunce said the Truth-in-Housing would not be any different than for a house. It is just a record of looking at a few different items for a manufactured home than for a house. He said if you thing there is value in doing a Truth-in-Housing for a single-family dwelling then there is value in doing it in a manufactured home as well. Mr. Roberts asked Mr. Pearson if the City of Maplewood wanted to pursue doing the Truth-in- Housing for the manufactured homes, how would you recommend getting the word out to the residents? Commissioner Pearson said one thing he thinks the city should do is to talk to the Truth-in- Housing Inspectors for the city first before going too much further. Mr. Roberts said he sent a copy of this to Mike Moser who has worked with the city updating the forms and has been sort of a liaison between him and the Inspectors Association. He had a couple of concerns and Mr. Moser spoke with Dave Fischer, the Building Official about them. A few of the things on the proposed form were a little too vague. He wanted to make sure they were very specific. Commissioner Connelly asked Mr. Pearson if any of the manufactured home parks have Truth- in-Housing? Commissioner Pearson said not to his knowledge. Mr. Roberts asked Mr. Bunce if he knows how they could get this process started? Mr. Bunce said there is always somebody that wants to make money. The question of how to get it started and who will set up the testing process and the standards. Chairperson Fischer said both St. Paul and Minneapolis give the test to be a Truth-in-Housing Inspector. Maybe somebody there would be somebody in one of those cities that would know whether there are procedures that cover these things and what the time frames we would need be? Mr. Roberts said some of the issues or questions he has observed are: What does South St. Paul do for Truth-in-Housing? Would any existing evaluators be interested or would they be capable of doing this? What are the comments from the evaluators in general? Mr. Bunce asked when the city stopped requiring permits for to move the manufactured homes and requiring them to be blocked? Commissioner Pearson said most of the communities it started with the HUD code in 1976. The anchor ordinance started across the twin cities in 1974. Housing and Redevelopment Authority .5- Minutes of 05-14-02 Mr. Bunce asked Mr. Pearson weren't most of his manufactured homes permitted and inspected? Commissioner Pearson said they took over his park in 1982. Everything since 1982 had permits in his park since he took it over. Commissioner Pearson said if the manufactured home park had the truth-in-housing ordinance, they would require the homeowner before they put the home on the real estate market to have an inspection done and require a copy of that report be submitted to the manufactured home park office. If on the inspection it stated that they had an addition on the home and it doesn't meet the UBC standards the park office will require that the addition be removed from the house and the exterior of the home be put in the proper condition to meet the appearance conditions. Chairperson Fischer asked if all manufactured home sales involve financing? Commissioner Pearson said no they don't all involve financing. Many of the older homes are cash sales. Conseco is the only company that will finance manufactured homes now. Mr. Bunce asked if Mr. Pearson has had any experience with people leaving the home in the middle of the night and moving out leaving the home for the park office to take care of? Commissioner Pearson said no, very rarely. Mr. Roberts asked if it safe to say the HRA would like some more information on this? Chairperson Fischer said yes. Commissioner Connelly moved to table the Truth-in-Ordinance code amendment. Commissioner O'Brien seconded. Ayes - Connelly, Fischer, O'Brien, Pearson, Ulrich The motion is tabled for further information. b. Springsted Tool Study On Monday, May 20,2002, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. the city council will be discussing the Springsted Tool Study prior to their regular city council meeting in the chambers. Everyone is welcome to attend. VIII. DATE OF NEXT MEETING The next HRA meeting will either be June 11, 2002, or July 9, 2002, depending on the agenda. IX. ADJOURNMENT Chairperson Fischer adjourned the meeting at 8:35 p.m.