City council approves codes, inspections by split vote
After weeks of discussion regarding controversial building codes and inspections, members of the Red Oak City Council approved the first reading of new ordinances.
“At this point, the city council has approved the first reading of both ordinances,” City Administrator Brad Wright said. “The one ordinance adopting the International Building Code and the International Residential Code and the other ordinance is the ordinance that adopts the International Property Maintenance Code along with additions that we’ve put in there for Red Oak, locally, which establishes the rental inspection program. Those are both approved on the first reading, so they’ll be back on next Monday’s agenda for consideration of the second reading.”
The ordinances require three readings; however, the council can choose to waive the last reading at the June 1 meeting.
Wright believes the council will continue with all three readings due to the controversy surrounding the subject.
“It will be up to [the council] Monday night if they approve the second [reading],” Wright said. “If they wanted to, they could go ahead and approve the third and adopt them. I doubt that they will do that, but that’s their right.”
During the first reading, a unanimous vote approved the proposed ordinance to adopt the 2015 International Building Code and the 2015 edition of the International Residential Code.
The second ordinance is to adopt the 2012 edition of the International Property Maintenance Code with local amendments. This set of codes will require rental properties to be inspected every three years for a new rental permit.
The reading of the ordinance passed 4-1, with councilman Bill Haufle voting against it.
“The reason he stated is he has no problem with the code, what he expressed [at the meeting] and to me personally, is that he has no problem with the code,” Wright said. “He’s not personally comfortable with requiring the inspections every three years of rental properties.”
The council will vote to approve or disapprove the second reading at next week’s meeting.
Another issue discussed at the May 18 meeting was the recertification of Red Oak’s levy, as required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. At a previous meeting, the council heard a proposal from Kirkham Michael Consulting Engineers to assist in the levy recertification. Another firm proposed a plan to help in the recertification process at last week’s meeting.
JEO Consulting presented a plan based on phases in which the first phase could take more than six months and cost nearly $45,000.
“[The proposal] is a phase approach, the first phase of which is [$44,890],” Wright said. “In essence, that phase is to gather enough data to inform the council if they believe we will be able to reach accreditation for our levy. If not, we’ll start making other plans. There’s quite a bit of research that needs to be done to determine if, in fact, we’ll be able to accredit our levy.”
As of now, the City of Red Oak and FEMA have entered into a Provisionally Accredited Levy System, or PALS, agreement that will assure accreditation until June 2016. After that, FEMA may begin a process that could possibly put even more of the city into a flood zone.
“The discussions we’ve had so far, and JEO brought that up as part of their discussion at the last meeting, especially if there’s any type of construction necessary on the levy or any type of repairs necessary to the levy, there’s no way that will be completed in that time frame,” Wright said. “But, FEMA, I think, understands that, and of course, their process … to take any action is a lengthy process in and of itself, so we will have some time after that. But the PALS agreement gives us until June of 2016 to take steps [forward].”
Council members plan to revisit the issue at next Monday’s meeting.