Council updated on rental inspection program

The Red Oak City Council heard an update from the Southwest Iowa Planning Council on its rental inspection program.
SWIPCO Executive Director John McCurdy spoke before the council at its regular meeting on Jan. 3. McCurdy said the city of Red Oak was having discussions about rental properties in 2014, and SWIPCO at around that time had completed a housing study in Red Oak.
“We layered a map of rental properties in the community with a map of housing conditions in the community, and they jived very closely with some of the older housing stock that wasn’t in such good shape. A lot of that was in a rental situation,” McCurdy explained. “We discussed with city leadership at the time about a comprehensive approach. We identified rental properties that we wanted to look at holding to a standard with the overall goal of approving the properties.”
Also, at that time, the city did not have a new building inspection program, merely a permitting process. SWIPCO worked with city leadership to put together a program that included the whole spectrum.
“There were inspections for dangerous and dilapidated buildings, as well as existing buildings, and worked to improve the housing stock. We knew then that it was difficult to build new housing, and we did not want to see the housing stock deteriorate. We did it by enforcing the property maintenance codes. Finally, on the new building side, we held new building construction to the same inspection standards as existing, and worked with the city to adopt a group of codes from the 2012 International Code Council codes, which included building, residential, and plumbing codes for new buildings, and the International Property Maintenance codes for rental properties,” commented McCurdy.
Enforcement of the codes began in 2015. According to McCurdy, there are between 850 and 900 rental properties currently in Red Oak. Because of the sheer number of properties, the inspections were done in thirds until completed, from north to south.
“The goal was to put the community on a rolling schedule, so that in every future year, about a third of the properties were inspected. However, there were a number of property owners who declined to participate and inspect their properties,” McCurdy said.
In 2019, McCurdy said the city updated the codes to the 2015 version, which is where the state is currently at in updated codes. The rental property codes were updated to the 2013 standards. McCurdy said Red Oak is the longest-active participant in the program.
As part of the presentation, McCurdy shared some recommendations to the city for changes.
“I would suggest updating from the 2015 International Council Codes to 2018. There’s not a ton of differences, but it would make Red Oak consistent with other communities that are updating it,” McCurdy commented.
The second area, McCurdy said, was to escalate the process with non-compliant properties, as it did no good when property owners were ignoring them.
“The city’s code of ordinances have all the processes and procedures we need, we don’t need the council to do anything as far as adopting any new rules. However, our role is to do the inspections and determine whether the property does or does not pass. In the vast majority of cases where one does not pass, when we re-inspect it, it’s in compliance,” advised McCurdy. “When we get into situations where’s there’s continued non-compliance or they’re just ignoring the process, that’s where we need to start talking about municipal infractions and things of that nature.”
McCurdy also recommended the council set up an appeals board, as the city code already called for it.
“The purpose of the appeals board is not to rewrite the code. If one recommendation is made to correct something, and the other party wants to correct it a different way, the appeals board will settle the disagreement of how to meet the goal and move forward. We haven’t run into a lot of scenarios where it’s necessary, but it’s something the city should potentially establish,” McCurdy stated.
McCurdy also felt it was time for the city to evaluate the building permit fee structure.
“We went from a $50 building permit fee for building a house, to a $1,500 fee, because before there was no inspection. However, that was back in 2015. I think now is the time to review those fees. Obviously the fees are covering what we’re billing you, but the city attorney is going to be more aggressively pursuing some of these properties, so we want to make sure the city’s net gain is at least even for the program,” McCurdy commented.
Also, McCurdy said SWIPCO would be happy to provide zoning review services to the city for free and provide professional feedback. Also, McCurdy stated it may be time to update the contract between SWIPCO and the City of Red Oak, as the last update had taken place in 2019.
McCurdy also praised the council for looking at the program comprehensively to include new building, dangerous building, and rental inspections.

The Red Oak Express

2012 Commerce Drive
P.O. Box 377
Red Oak, IA 51566
Phone: 712-623-2566 Fax: 712-623-2568

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