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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/11/2007 AGENDA MAPLEWOOD HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY WEDNESDAY, April 11 , 2007 7:00 P.M. CITY HALL, CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1. Call to Order 2. Roll Call 3. Approval of Minutes a. April 11 , 2006 4. Approval of Agenda 5. Communications a.lntroductions David Fisher, Maplewood Building Official Tom Ekstrand, Senior Planner Michael Samuelson, Maplewood Code Enforcement Officer b.Update - Gladstone Redevelopment Plan 6. Unfinished Business None 7. New Business a. Election of Officers (Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson) b. Housing Related Code Enforcement c. Rental Housing Licensing - Review of Other Cities d. Housing Rehab - Funding Sources e. Discussion - Possible Direction for Code Enforcement and Housing Matters 8. Date of Next Meeting(s) a. May 9, 2007 9. Adjournment MINUTES OF THE MAPLEWOOD HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY 1830 COUNTY ROAD BEAST, MAPLEWOOD, MINNESOTA WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2007 7:00 P.M. CITY HALL CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS I. CALL TO ORDER Mr. Ekstrand called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. II. ROLL CALL Comrnissioner Jeffrey James Commissioner Gary Pearson Cornmissioner Joy Tkachuck Cornmissioner Beth Ulrich (secretary) Absent Present Present Present Staff Present: Dave Fisher, Building Official Tom Ekstrand, Senior Planner Michael Samuelson, Code Enforcement Officer Lisa Kroll, Recording Secretary Prior to the start of the HRA meeting Dave Fisher and Michael Samuelson introduced themselves to the HRA commission members. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Approval of the HRA rninutes for April 11 , 2006. Because the HRA minutes were a year old and Gary Pearson was the only HRA member that previously served on the HRA that was present, the rninutes were approved and seconded by hirn because Beth Ulrich was absent during the April 11 , 2006, HRA rneeting. Commissioner Pearson rnoved to approve the rninutes. Cornrnissioner Pearson seconded. Ayes - Pearson Abstention - Tkachuck, Ulrich The rnotion carried. IV. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Mr. Ekstrand requested an addition to the agenda under V. Cornmunications, item c., to discuss Sustainable Developrnent - Green Building - Energy Conservation. Cornmissioner Ulrich moved to approve the agenda as amended. Comrnissioner Tkachuck seconded. Ayes - Pearson, Tkachuck, Ulrich Housing and Redevelopment Authority -2- Minutes of 04-11-07 The rnotion carried. V. COMMUNICATIONS a. Introductions Dave Fisher, Maplewood Building Official Tom Ekstrand, Senior Planner Michael Samuelson, Maplewood Code Enforcernent Officer The HRA has two returning rnernbers (Gary Pearson and Beth Ulrich) and two new mernbers (Jeffrey James and Joy Tkachuck). The city is continuing to advertise for applicants to fill the vacant, fifth position on the HRA. On April 2, 2007, Michael Sarnuelson, Maplewood's new Code-Enforcernent Officer began his work with the city. Michael will have a key role with the HRA due to his involvernent with housing- maintenance issues. In fact, he may serve as staff liaison to the cornrnittee as his involvement with housing rnatters increases in the city. In addition to staff, Michael Samuelson and Dave Fisher, the city's Building Official, will assist the HRA. b. Update - Gladstone Redevelopment Plan Before the start of tonight's meeting Mr. Ekstrand gave the cornmissioners a handout for the Gladstone Redeveloprnent Plan. Joy Tkachuck served on the Gladstone Task Force. Mr. Ekstrand said in Decernber 2006, the city council adopted the Gladstone Master Plan which had been under study by the city staff, consultants, advisory boards and city council for about three years. In March 2007, the city council approved the Comprehensive Land Use Plan arnendment for Gladstone which sets the types of desired land use types for Gladstone as well as the allowed maxirnum density. The allowed rnaximurn density is 650 units of housing. The next step is the adoption of new zoning criteria to regulate the future development in Gladstone. A workshop with the city council will take place April 23, 2007. The proposed zoning ordinance will then be presented to the planning cornrnission prior to final subrnittal to the city council for action. The city staff and consultants are studying for tax-incrernent financing (TIF) by Dabar, Inc., the developer for the St. Paul Tourist Cabin's property. Dabar Inc. is proposing to build 180 units of senior housing. These 180 units would include 100 units of market-rate independent-living housing, 40 units of assisted-care housing and 20 units ofrnemory-care housing. The council will hold a council/manager workshop on April 23 to consider the city's financial consultants' report regarding (TIF). The city council will then likely take action on the (TIF) proposal in late Mayor early June. c. Sustainable Development - Green Building - Energy Conservation Mr. Ekstrand had given the HRA a hand out regarding Sustainable Development - Green Building - Energy Conservation. This handout is about a rneeting to be held in the Maplewood Community Center, Banquet Room from 5:30 until 8:00 p.m. Invitations will be sent out in early Housing and Redevelopment Authority -3- Minutes of 04-11-07 May. VI. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. VII. NEW BUSINESS a. Election of Officers (Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson) Mr. Ekstrand said in the past the HRA had a Chairperson and a Secretary and Beth Ulrich was the HRA Secretary. The City Manager would like the HRA commissioners to consider voting for a Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson. Commissioner Ulrich asked if that meant eliminating the Secretary position because if that was the case there are docurnents that require the HRA Secretary's signature which may cause a problern. Mr. Ekstrand said that may be the case and staff is not aware of that. There may also be written bylaws that staff isn't up to date on. The Recording Secretary thought the idea of having both a Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson was to have an alternate person to chair the meeting in the event that the Chairperson was absent. Commissioner Pearson said the HRA is already at a bare quorum now since Jeffrey James is absent and there is still an opening left on the HRA. Commissioner Tkachuck said she would like to ask Commissioner Pearson and Comrnissioner Ulrich what they think since they had served as past commissioners on the HRA. Cornmissioner Pearson said he would be willing to serve as the Chairperson if Commissioner Ulrich would accept the position of Vice-Chairperson. Commissioner Ulrich said she was concerned that she could not hold two titles on the HRA if she continued to serve as the HRA Secretary. If there wouldn't be a conflict she would accept the nomination to be the Vice-Chairperson if Cornmissioner Pearson would accept the nomination of the Chairperson. Staff said they would check the written bylaws to see if it would be appropriate to have Commissioner Ulrich as Vice-Chairperson and still continue her duty as HRA Secretary she held in the past. Commissioner Pearson said he would accept the nomination of Chairperson. Commissioner Ulrich rnoved to recommend Commissioner Pearson as Chairperson. Comrnissioner Tkachuck seconded. Ayes - Ulrich, Tkachuck Housing and Redevelopment Authority -4- Minutes of 04-11-07 Abstention - Pearson Comrnissioner Pearson moved to recommend Commissioner Ulrich as Vice-Chairperson and to continue on as the Secretary. Commissioner Tkachuck seconded. Ayes - Pearson, Tkachuck Abstention - Ulrich The motion passed. b. Housing Related Code Enforcement Mr. Ekstrand turned the discussion over to Dave Fisher. Mr. Dave Fisher, Maplewood Building Official, addressed the commission. He said in an effort to educate and assist Maplewood residents and comrnercial property owners about the city code, the city has hired a full tirne code enforcement officer, Michael Samuelson will respond to building, nuisance and zoning violations generated from both citizen calls or from proactive investigation. Exarnples of investigation types include trash complaints, outside storage violations, parking, land use violations, housing maintenance issues and more. To report code enforcement issues there is a new nurnber to call with concerns at 651-249-2633(CODE). Mr. Fisher asked for direction frorn the HRA rnembers. Cornrnissioner Tkachuck asked if this Code Enforcement Officer position is new to the City of Maplewood? Mr. Fisher said in the past it has been handled as part of another position and done by different people in different departments. For example, issues were first handled by Bob Wenger the Health Officer, for about 25 years or so, and he also handled code enforcement duties as assigned which were handled on a complaint basis. Then Bob Wenger retired and DuWayne Konewko was hired. Then DuWayne Konewko's job evolved into another direction. Then the fire departrnent volunteered to help with code enforcement issues along with Butch Gervais, Fire Marshal who took over the inspections. Mr. Gervais worked with the Maplewood full-time fire fighters and paramedics as they did a sweep of the city and took care of some of the code enforcement issues. Then Molly Wellens was hired as the Health Officer who ended up working with Butch Gervais on some of the code enforcement inspections until the city hired the permanent code enforcernent officer which is now Michael Sarnuelson. Staff is now looking for some direction from the city and the HRA cornrnissioners regarding code enforcement issues in Maplewood. Comrnissioner Pearson said he and Mr. Fisher had the opportunity to speak a week or two before and he asked if Mr. Fisher was able to find any information on the previous blighted areas in Maplewood that was in the comprehensive plan? Housing and Redevelopment Authority -5- Minutes of 04-11-07 Mr. Fisher said he has the map of the blighted areas that Commissioner Pearson had shown him. Staff put the map on the overhead. He said if we start looking at blighted properties and are going to be rnore proactive in the field, those blighted areas are the first place he wants to start with the new Code Enforcernent Officer, Michael Samuelson. The only other way the city is aware of code violations is when Maplewood residents call the city with complaints about problem situations. Commissioner Pearson said the map of blighted areas in Maplewood was around 8 to 9 years ago so it would be interesting to see if those same areas were still blighted or if those areas have irnproved at all. Mr. Fisher said he was not working at the City of Maplewood 9 years ago and he isn't aware where that document would be anyrnore because Bob Wenger handled those situations back then. The records are in rnany different places and you could have two or three people working on the same problem and that has been an issue in the past. Mr. Fisher introduced Michael Samuelson to speak to the comrnission. Mr. Michael Samuelson, Maplewood Code Enforcernent Officer, introduced himself to the cornrnissioners. He gave a brief history of his past experience. He said during the last 6 years he served as a Neighborhood Preservation Specialist which is basically a Code Enforcement Officer for the City of Brooklyn Park. Before that he worked 1 year for the City of Richfield as a Housing Irnprovement Loan Officer so to speak, but also worked with people on home improvernent. He said he has quite an extensive background in Cornmunity Development, home improvement, crime prevention, block club organizing and things like that, basically working with communities to improve things. While working in communities we discovered the broken window concept. It means if sorneone had a broken window on the block and they didn't fix it, then people ask why they should fix their broken window if their neighbor down the street doesn't fix his broken window i.e. the broken window theory. He said he recently visited the manufactured horne park that Cornmissioner Gary Pearson lives in and runs and found it was very well taken care of. The problem is he visited other manufactured home parks and found some improvements need to be made. What attracted him to this Code Enforcernent Officer position was the chance to work with the planning staff, building inspectors and to work with the citizens and residents to get direction regarding how to preserve the quality of life and the housing stock in Maplewood. Like Mr. Fisher mentioned, the City Manager wants to hear ideas from the HRA cornmission. Staff has many ideas regarding what they want to do and we want to make sure the ideas and concepts we have for the community are things everyone wants to do. He said we see your role on the HRA as a very irnportant aspect of giving staff direction. There will be a lot of "reaction" to do something that may not have been as proactive in the past. We want to rnake sure the HRA is aware of what the city is up to and for the comrnission to tell staff their thoughts. Commissioner Tkachuck said she reviewed the minutes of the past HRA meeting of April 11, 2006, and she noticed Lorraine Fischer had made a cornment about a positive situation that happened in another city. (Referencing that the City of North St. Paul had sent letters out to residents one spring to let the residents know what the city code stated. By sending those letters out there was an 85% cornpliance to code problerns just frorn the letters that were sent out. Many residents don't know what the code is or that they are not following what the city ordinances are.) Commissioner Tkachuck said she hoped the city would take a positive approach when sending letters out to residents and not to use the letters in a threatening rnanner because people react better to a positive notification. If the information cornes out as an educational piece at least for Housing and Redevelopment Authority -6- Minutes of 04-11-07 the first time, people will probably be rnore readily to comply with the situation and not panic and feel it's a threat from the city. Mr. Fisher said just like Cornmissioner Tkachuck said, people may not know what the city ordinance is and don't know they have code violations. Around 90 to 95% of the residents will comply with the code violation just from receiving a letter letting them know what the ordinance is. Mr. Fisher said the other 5 to 10% are residents the city ends up dealing with. He said those are the people the city will be spending code enforcement tirne and staff time with. A lot of time just having information on the website is helpful. Michael is putting together a newsletter, sorne brochures and going through the city's ordinance. We rnay change the Maplewood ordinances a bit to be similar to the surrounding comrnunities which would be beneficial. That way if you rnove from one comrnunity to another the ordinances may be the same. c. Rental Housing Licensing - Review of Other Cities Mr. Fisher said he shared some inforrnation in the staff report regarding a survey on rental licensing for inspection programs in other communities from May 2006 from a group called (MAHCO) Minnesota Association of Housing Code Officials. This survey was sent to 29 cities and the results were from 16 cities. Those cities that responded included Bloornington, St. Louis Park, Brooklyn Park, Richfield, Oakdale, Robbinsdale, Plymouth, Minneapolis, Mounds View, Blaine, New Hope, North St. Paul, St. Paul, Maple Grove, Hopkins and Woodbury. There are some answers to the 13 questions that were asked in the survey that were different for the St. Paul's Rental Registration Program and their Certificate of Occupancy Program. In February 2007, the survey results showed that the City of Woodbury adopted a rental license program in 1993, and are using the International Property Maintenance Code (IMPC). The City of Oakdale adopted a Rental License prograrn in 2002 and use the (IMPC). Little Canada has not adopted any such program. White Bear Lake has a rental license prograrn. North St. Paul has a Certificate of Occupancy program for rental properties. The City of Roseville adopted the 2003 (IMPC) with some city amendrnents and are looking at a program to register all rental, one and two family dwellings. Mr. Fisher said the city is only in the discussion stage right now and want to get some direction and feedback from the HRA members. There are many different ways to look at this program. There are certificate programs where you identify the ownership of the rental program so if there is a violation you know who to contact and who to send the violation order to. There is a full Rental License program that is about granting the license to the individuals and if they violate the program the license can be taken away which is a more restrictive prograrn. If the landlords aren't taking care of the property and the individual unit that is how the city would deal with the situation. He said he has worked in cornmunities that the rental building has had their license taken away frorn the city council for having violations. There are cornmunities that just do inspections for multi-family dwelling and other cornrnunities that just do inspections for one and two unit dwellings. It all depends on what the particular city decides to do. Commissioner Tkachuck asked if that rneant Maplewood has no rental prograrns currently? Mr. Fisher said that's correct. Maplewood has a city ordinance in Article IV. ofthe Rental Housing Maintenance Code and the goal is to protect what is there and the stability of the property. The Housing and Redevelopment Authority -7- Minutes of 04-11-07 code has some minimum standards for maintenance to ensure people keep up the plumbing, heating, and srnoke detectors for life safety issues but it's a bare minimum for standards that are out there. Commissioner Tkachuck asked if this program would involve fees being charged in order to have these inspections? Mr. Fisher said the program would be somewhat fee based. The staff rnember(s) would do the inspection and deal with the property owner or landlord with code violations. It's really difficult to charge enough for the inspection without getting the owner of the property angry for being charged too high of a fee. A lot of time can be put into doing these rental property inspections, especially if the properties are not maintained and have many violations. Maplewood has never had a program like this and he assurnes there would be code violations in most ofthe apartment buildings the first time the inspector(s) would walk through the building so this could be a very large task for the code officer, especially for the very first inspection of the property. Commissioner Pearson said there's a large variation in the fee structure from city to city. Mr. Fisher said yes there is. It really depends on the level of enforcement and level of inspections each city wants to have control of. Commissioner Pearson asked over the last four to five years how have the complaints corne in to the city and what department are those complaints handled by? Mr. Fisher said his experience with code enforcement has only been since June of 2006. Before that it was handled by Bob Wenger and his successors. He asked Mr. Ekstrand to speak regarding what Bob Wenger did in the past during inspections. Mr. Ekstrand said Bob Wenger was with Maplewood for over 25 plus years before he retired. Mr. Ekstrand said he also has worked with the city for over 25 years. The bulk of his background was with Bob Wenger working in code enforcement. Mr. Ekstrand said he did code enforcernent inspections for zoning concerns. Bob Wenger was the Health Inspector and wasn't really the Code Enforcement Inspector but when residents would call the city regarding things such as inoperable vehicles, broken windows, and long grass and junk in yards, and just about anything that was nuisance related, Bob would react to thern and write a correction letter. Most people complied with the letter from the city and the small number of people that didn't would end up going to court. Commissioner Pearson asked with the cities that were surveyed, does staff have any kind of history regarding what types of violations there were and the numbers of violations they had? Mr. Fisher asked if Cornmissioner Pearson was referring to rental properties? Commissioner Pearson said yes. Mr. Fisher said the city would have to poll the cities and ask for that inforrnation and they would have to share their statistical inforrnation. The City of Maplewood's records for rental property Housing and Redevelopment Authority -8- Minutes of 04-11-07 complaints are not good. He personally doesn't know how many non-homestead properties Maplewood has or how many apartrnent units there are in Maplewood. Commissioner Pearson said he was trying to get a feel for the length of time the city gave the property owner of the rental units to correct the problern and how long it took the property owner to comply? Commissioner Pearson said sorne tirnes it's a matter of the rental property owner getting permission to access the unit to make the corrections or for the rental property owner to ask the resident of the unit to correct the violation to bring it into cornpliance. He asked if the city was looking at a 30, 60, or 90 day tirne limit to bring the violation into compliance before fines would be irnposed? Mr. Fisher said that all depends on if it's a life threatening issue or not. For example, if there's a hole in a parking lot, that would not be a life threatening issue. Since June of 2006 his experience has been that the City of Maplewood had a few issues with rental property on Beebe Road. The tenants cornplained to the city about how the units were being maintained. Molly Wellens, the Health Officer did the inspection due to complaints about the garbage not being picked up on a regular basis and there were some broken windows, bad screens and things like that. In this case it took at least 30 days for the landlord to get things taken care. The garbage was taken care of within a week but the windows and screens took longer, so it depends on whatthe violation is and how long it's going to take for the landlord to take care of. Dealing with tenants rather then the owner of the building or the landlord is a whole new issue. If renters screen their tenants really well the licensing fee is lower for the building because you take better care of the property and take more responsibility with who you rent the property to. Your property tends to get less abuse, which also means less police calls and less code violations, which is a positive situation. There are no programs in Maplewood currently so these issues bring up a lot of iterns to discussion. Mr. Samuelson said during code inspections we tend to spend 80% of our time with 20% of our customers with code violations. The vast rnajority of rental property owners or investment property owners are good, outstanding citizens. People try to rent to good tenants because this is a good investment. This is true for property owners of a duplex, a four plex, and apartment complexes who want to keep their properties up so the property value continues to go up and people will want to live in these communities. It's also because they want to be good neighbors. Often times people buy these buildings and make irnprovernents to them for their future and so they can retire and they can get the most for their rnoney. The city wants these property owners as residents in our comrnunity as long as they are good, outstanding citizens. It's also a small nurnber of property rental owners that are problematic and that's why we want to rnake sure if we choose to do this program the city will be able to deal with things effectively, if needed. Commissioner Tkachuck asked what's spurring this discussion? Is it because the cities that do the rental licensing and inspection program have less incidents or problems in their community and with run down properties and we are discussing whether or not Maplewood should do the same? Mr. Fisher said he isn't sure if those communities have less of an issue or not by having rental licensing and inspections but it certainly gives a city more control of situations and the city can Housing and Redevelopment Authority -9- Minutes of 04-11-07 help the tenants deal with an absentee property owner or a problem landlord a lot easier. Maplewood's ordinance has language in it that if things aren't right the city can ask the owner to fix things but he isn't sure where to get those statistics. Mr. Samuelson said the rental licensing and inspection program is another avenue to have just like it would be if the city did property maintenance sweeps and people have exposed siding on their homes and the home isn't protected from the elements. It's another way to systernatically going through the comrnunity and keep up the quality of the rental housing stock. Mr. Sarnuelson said it's there as a tool to make sure that the light fixtures work, air filtration systems work properly, egress windows are in basement sleeping quarters if someone is needing extra sleeping rooms etc. and to help the health and safety of the cornrnunity. It's to protect both the investment owner, the tenant and the surrounding neighbors that may live near the substandard property or a problernatic tenant. So these issues are a driving force in most communities. Mr. Sarnuelson said when he worked in Brooklyn Park, the Code Enforcement division worked on a daily basis with the rental housing and housing inspector in both multi-farnily and single family homes, duplex, tri-plex, and four-plex properties. The nuisance related concerns weren't necessarily concentrated there but what the city found was that landlords tended to be very cooperative when reached, when educated what the goals of the city were. Every once in awhile they had a tenant for example, that didn't clean up after the dogs, but it made it easy for the city inspectors to get a hold of people and say if you don't clean up their act there are repercussions such as taking away their rental license, raising the rental licensing fee or in some cases even lowering the rental licensing fee for successfully taking good care of the property. Comrnissioner Tkachuck said one of the survey questions asked if the fee covered the program or not and only 4 out of 16 cities answered "yes" to that question. 11 cities said that the fee didn't cover the full program. In order to institute a prograrn we would have to find out where the remainder of that fee would come from to make it cost effective. Mr. Fisher said typically that money would come out of the General Fund like everything else does for the city. The Building Inspector salaries also come out of the General Fund and it's a fee base inspection as well. Commissioner Tkachuck asked if that meant the fee wasn't meant to be a self-sustaining program? Mr. Fisher said the program is meant to be self sustaining but you don't know what you are going to get into for each rental building. In order for the City of Maplewood to do this program we would for sure have to count on hiring one inspector and one clerical staff. Then you need to arrange for work space to do the work, a city vehicle to get to the inspections, you also need telephones, computers, and supplies. The City of Maplewood would also need to know how many rental properties there are in the city and then decide what we would to charge for the service and if it would be a fee per unit or per floor etc because the fee range shown in the survey is quite a difference. One city had an education based prograrn which was a fee for the landlords or apartment owners to get some education that the city put on to help the landlords and property owners figure out how to screen their tenants better to get the best quality renters in their buildings and then the city would give them a discount on their license fee. That is something new Housing and Redevelopment Authority -10- Minutes of 04-11-07 that he had never dealt with in the past in previous jobs but that's a good way to educate the people that rent the units out so they can hopefully have good quality tenants. Commissioner Ulrich asked if staff had discussed whether or not they want to see a rental license prograrn go into place and if so would it be for one or two units or would it be for all units including for the higher unit count in buildings? Mr. Fisher said this is all open for discussion tonight and sornething the city hasn't really had a chance to discuss in the past, staff wants the HRA members to give the city some guidance regarding what we should do in Maplewood. Staff assurnes we will be doing homework and we will need information to bring back to the HRA rnernbers. Commissioner Tkachuck said one thing would be to find out other communities that currently have rental licensing fees in place. If it dramatically helps the city with housing and code enforcement issues and it's cost effective to put it in place then it would be a good thing for Maplewood. Commissioner Ulrich said staff would need to know how many rental units we have in Maplewood and how many multi-family units there are. Commissioner Tkachuck said she didn't know if that inforrnation is readily available but that would be a place to start. Mr. Fisher said staff could probably get sorne information from Rarnsey County regarding the number of non-hornestead properties in Maplewood. Staff could probably get information regarding how many apartment buildings the city has and how rnany units there are in each of the buildings. In another cornmunity he worked, in as part of the licensing program the information was required by the city and was in a book listing the names and addresses of the apartment buildings in the city and the contact person's name and phone nurnber and that would be good information to have in Maplewood anyway regardless ofthe fact that Maplewood mayor may not do this program. The Maplewood IT department may be working on something like that now. The Fire Department does do a life safety inspection for the apartment buildings but it's a basic inspection of areas like the common area, hallways, laundry roorn, and the boiler rooms. It's the goal of the Fire Department to do those types of inspections once a year or at least every other. There are senior housing units to consider as well. Comrnissioner Pearson said a prograrn like this would be more of an even handed inspection if it were done on a regular basis rather than just responding to cornplaints that are called into the city. He said he would like to have a listing of how many rental units and what type of units are at the property whether it's a four plex, twelve units, twenty five units or more and if the city has a history of complaints. Mr. Fisher said the history of cornplaints may be a little harder to get but staff can find out how rnany rental units we have in Maplewood. Typically a four-plex is a rental unit building but there are some four-plex townhorne facilities that are owner occupied. Housing and Redevelopment Authority -11- Minutes of 04-11-07 Comrnissioner Pearson asked Mr. Samuelson when he was with Brooklyn Park and there were rnultiple units of 25 or more did he get to choose which units you were going to inspect or was that limited to the units that were vacant at the time? Mr. Samuelson said in multiple-unit buildings the City of Brooklyn Park did inspections every other year and if it was a four-story building, the second and fourth floor would be inspected during odd years and the first and third floors would be inspected during even years. In some cases, if there was no history of problems they would do rnore of a spot check inspection for every other unit or every third unit. As an example, a 300 unit complex with one inspector to do those inspections even if it were every other year you are talking about at least 150 units to do in a timely manner. The property rnaintenance personnel may need to do such things as repair the smoke detector, replace caulking around the bathtub, make sure the light switch covers are protected, repair any rnold problems from moisture around a leaky window along with any safety concerns. If the inspector gives an order for repairs you also have to allow for the problem to be corrected and to have the work reinspected as well. Mr. Samuelson said if things aren't corrected in a "timely" rnanner there is a reinspection fee. The owners that keep up the buildings are charged a minimum fee and if you go out there once and everything is fine there are no additional fees. If you have to go out and do an inspection three to five times before it's corrected properly there are reinspection fees that need to be charged and collected. He said there are also court appearances, misderneanorfines, county tags and things like that for non-compliant property owners. Those are also things that can happen with single farnily home inspections. Mr. Fisher said he was once the Housing Inspector in another community and they did inspections every other year. They also did inspections such as 25% of the units in an apartment building unless we found a lot of issues, then we would do the whole complex which demands a lot of time. They also did Section 8 inspections at the same tirne. The city code and the Section 8 code are a little bit different, for example the city code requires screens on windows and the Section 8 code doesn't. Commissioner Pearson asked what kind of time line is staff looking for to present something to . the city council regarding this program? Mr. Fisher said we haven't even thought of making a presentation to the city council. We are only in the discussion stage and a lot more research has to be done before we could present anything to the city council. Michael Samuelson was just hired 1% weeks ago. We need to look at our property maintenance prograrn as well. He said we would like to be consistent with the other cities. There is the (IPMC) International Property Maintenance Code and he would like to get that irnplernented before we present anything to the city council regarding rental licensing. Before we can do anything we need more education on the process. We may be able to get some people in from MHA to explain more from the landlord's side. Staff would also need to hear the landlord's side to see how this would affect them as well. He said both he and Michael speak from the code enforcement side of things and he said he comes from the stronger side of the code enforcement side such as fix it and get it done, especially for life safety. Housing and Redevelopment Authority -12- Minutes of 04-11-07 Comrnissioner Tkachuck said she this program would give the city more power and more enforceability. Mr. Fisher said the program does a couple of things, it gives you better sustainable housing stock, it maintains the buildings, it keeps the property value up, therefore, the tax base is higher so we believe there are many things we believe it does for the cornrnunity. If you are the landlord and you are taking care of your property, you will have no problern with this program. However, if you are the landlord and you aren't taking care of the property, you are going to have a problern with this because the landlord or property owner is going to have to invest some money into their properties to fix them up. Maybe there is some type of loan program that the county has to help the landlords get the work done and corrected. Commissioner Tkachuck said it's good to hear staff is trying to balance both sides by making plans to do the research ahead of time. Commissioner Pearson said he wants to get a sense of how many total units Mr. Samuelson is going to be inspecting. He gets the sense that the rental properties are going to be the most time consuming. Mr. Fisher said Michael Samuelson was hired to do code enforcernent for the city for things like nuisance complaints, educating the residents and trying to be proactive on things. If the city decides to go with the rental licensing program the city will have to hire more staff, there is no way we could do that with one code enforcement inspector. Mr. Fisher said once we get into property maintenance for residential properties there is also maintenance for commercial properties. Conditional Use Penmit's (CUP's) are revisited every year or every other year so the city has the control of evaluating the property and bringing the property owner before the city council to continue the conditional use perrnit. Some commercial properties don't have conditional use permits though and then the city doesn't have that to fall back on. Commissioner Pearson said we would like to think the Truth-in-Housing inspection prograrn is taking care of a lot of these code violations but what's happening is that the problems are going from one horneownerto the next horneowner and the problems are not getting fixed or taken care of. He would also be interested in a city like St. Louis Park who had introduced compliance requirements to maybe two or three key issues. Mr. Sarnuelson asked if that was for the rental licensing program? Mr. Fisher said the Truth-in-Housing program for Maplewood would only be for single family detached residential homes. Maplewood has the Truth-in-Housing prograrn but it is a disclosure only program so you don't have to cornply with the findings of the inspector. That inspection is different than the Point-of- Sale inspection. Sl. Louis Park has a Point-of-Sale program "with" code compliance, which means an inspector does an inspection and tells them what needs to be fixed. Then there is a follow up inspection to verify the corrections were made, if it isn't corrected, money is put into an escrow to make sure those code violations are done. Mr. Samuelson said when you put the circle around all of those things it's still neighborhood preservation. If you look at it as another tool or goal of the city to make sure that the housing Housing and Redevelopment Authority -13- Minutes of 04-11-07 stock in the city is good and safe and in the long term, affordable for the families that live here. For the residents that want to stay in Maplewood it sounds like the HRA comrnissioners' who are also residents, think the city should do whatever they can to preserve this great city and this is one component to help with that. We didn't touch on the component of the public safety benefits but the police department could be a resource to speak to this group regarding how they work with both code enforcement and rental licensing programs and the benefits the police department sees in these programs. Mr. Fisher asked what Cornmissioner Pearson wanted to do with the Truth-in-Housing program verses the Point of Sale program? He understands the differences between the two of them but he asked if Commissioner Pearson was wondering what other cornrnunities are doing? He asked if he wanted the city to explore that program? Comrnissioner Pearson said he doesn't want to visit the Truth-in-Housing program verses the Point-of-Sale program at this time. If staff is gathering information and have infonmation regarding what other cities are doing with those two programs, he would be interested in viewing that. Mr. Fisher thanked Commissioner Pearson for the clarification. d. Housing Rehab - Funding Sources Mr. Fisher said he knows Ramsey County has a few different funding sources and there used to be CDBG Block Grants but you have to be at the poverty level and have a very low income level to qualify or be on social security to qualify. There are Seed Funds where the city would match funds. Those are things that Maplewood should ask about for the budget process to see if Maplewood would be able to do something like that with low interest loans that Ramsey County could help manage for Maplewood. There are people that are willing to help Maplewood set up a program but staff would need to do more research on that first. There are more programs out there that staff probably isn't even aware of. Commissioner Ulrich said the (MHFA) Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, state program, might have money as well. Mr. Samuelson said he did some research to find out what is available to citizens in Rarnsey County and they are a contract community with an agency called the Housing Resource Center. The Housing Resource Center is an owned subsidiary of the Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation or GMHC. GMHC started about 25 to 30 years in Minneapolis to build new construction for low to moderate income housing and home loan improvements. They are under contract with Ramsey County to provide to cities in Ramsey County specifically to manage the counties deferred loan program and there is an application process for that. For citizens watching this, the Housing Resource Center inforrnation can be gathered by call the Inspections, Planning and Building Operations (IPBO) department at the City of Maplewood at 651-249-2300. He said he ordered some brochures for the public. The Housing Resource Center had indicated they get quite a few calls and referrals from both social service agencies and from people looking in the phone book looking for resources frorn a local lending institution if they don't qualify for a regular home improvement loan. Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) administers the fix up fund and the cornmunity-fix-up fund which both programs are available and administered through that agency. The old Sl. Paul Neighborhood Energy Consortiurn (NEC) administers the energy Housing and Redevelopment Authority -14- Minutes of 04-11-07 improvement loans for insulation, home energy audits, sorne window funds and are involved with new furnace and home improvement weatherization prograrns. You could also do that with the fix up funds through Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) throughout the Twin Cities. Several cities have special contracts with the Housing Resource Center where a revolving loan fund can be set up with seed money put into a fund and those funds plus some administration buy in frorn the city would be given to the housing resource center and they would administer those funds and those would only go to Maplewood residents that would qualify for a certain amount. The idea of the revolving fund is when those people repay that loan the money goes back into the fund and another family a few years down the line can use those funds and the money keeps coming back to the community. That way homes can be improved and other people can help get those irnprovements done as well. Those are all avenues that the city will be looking at and bringing back to the HRA commissioners. Maplewood doesn't have a contract that would do this right now but Ramsey County has programs that provide assistance for people. Comrnissioner Pearson said he's sure the commissioners would appreciate seeing the qualifying guidelines and any other information you can provide. Commissioner Ulrich said the HRA would also like to get a schedule of the fees that is charged for administering those types of programs? Mr. Samuelson asked the commissioners if they like what they are hearing and do they want the staff to continue researching more and bringing information back to the HRA? HRA commissioners all said yes. Mr. Fisher said Michael has been with the city 1 Y:, weeks and he is very new. He was a good hire and he brings in a lot of knowledge to the city and that's why we hired him. It's all positive and we will see more things coming in the future but much of this is education and communication for everybody. Many people move into a city and don't have any idea what the city ordinance is. Comrnissioner Ulrich asked about the HRA commissioner vacancy, do we have any applications to fill that opening? Mr. Fisher said the city has been advertising the openings on the boards and commissions. If someone on the HRA knows someone that would be a good candidate to serve on the HRA please let them know they should call the City Manager's office for an application. Mr. Sarnuelson said more information can be found on the city's website at www.ci.maplewood.mn.us or you could call the City of Maplewood. Comrnissioner Pearson asked where Cornmissioner Jeffrey James was this evening. The recording secretary said Mr. James was absent due to business trip. e. Discussion - Possible Direction for Code Enforcement and Housing Matters (There was various discussions regarding the code enforcernent and housing matters between staff and the commissioners during the meeting.) Housing and Redevelopment Authority -15- Minutes of 04-11-07 VIII. DATE OF NEXT MEETING The tentative date for the next HRA meeting is scheduled for May 9,2007. The HRA commission rnay meet more frequently then they had in the past. Staff wasn't sure if information would be ready in time to meet on May 9,2007. (Updated information from staff is that the HRA meeting for May 9, 2007, is cancelled and rescheduled for Wednesday, June 13, 2007.) IX. ADJOURNMENT The rneeting was adjourned at 8:12 p.m.