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Life Editor

The Spring Lake Park City Council’s Nov. 2 discussion of a complex set of housing code ordinance changes generated plenty of friction all around.

Council members spent the better part of a three-hour meeting discussing a detailed list of proposed city ordinance additions and amendments.

Mayor Bob Nelson said the code enforcement regulation recommendations, a series of seven ordinances and a PowerPoint presentation prepared by Barry Brainard, code enforcement official, were more in-depth than he remembered reviewing at any prior council workshop, specifically a meeting held July 13.

In the last eight years, Spring Lake Park has seen an 88 percent increase in vacant and foreclosed properties and a 42 percent rental increase, Brainard said.

Furthermore, according to Brainard, there has been a 74 percent increase in foreclosed single-family residential homes being converted into rental property.

Local property maintenance codes are a relatively new tool for communities to help maintain their existing property standards.

The beefed-up codes call for minimum standards for existing exterior property areas, exterior structure maintenance, interior structure maintenance, rubbish and garbage removal.

In an background memo to the council dated Oct. 29, Brainard recapped the July 13 workshop, stating he was directed to bring forward the code changes.

“This is more in-depth than the work session,” Nelson said. “I’m a little fuzzy on this. Some of this I like, some it I don’t like and some of it I don’t understand.”

Mayor isn’t pleased

Nelson balked at further review of the documents presented by Brainard, stating he wanted to contact the North Metro Realtors Association and ask questions.

More workshops were needed to discuss the proposed code and ordinance changes, Nelson said. He wanted to table discussion at the Nov. 2 meeting.

“This is too much to comprehend,” he said. “I don’t know what other cities are doing with [enforcement] fees. And we don’t know about staffing or budget.”

City Administrator Barbara Nelson said the council had conducted three workshops on the topic  – one on April 7, 2008, one earlier this year during the council’s Jan. 20 planning retreat and the July 13 workshop.

“I would like to remind the council that we [staff] were directed to bring this forward,” she said.

Councilmembers Jeanne Mason and Barbara Carlson then said they wanted to see the PowerPoint July 13 presentation that had been prepared by Brainard.

“I’m not happy with this,” Mayor Nelson said.

Councilmember Dale Dahl asked which proposed ordinances were a concern.

Nelson fired off a long list of questions.

“The certificate of occupancy worries me,” he said. “I don’t know how that’s going to set with the realtors. I haven’t been able to do my homework on this.”

Staff suggests action

City Administrator  Nelson said that ordinance was proposed because city staff had to deal with several foreclosed houses that had been gutted inside.

“Those houses had major livability problems,” she said. “We need to have a mechanism to make sure those homes are livable and certified for occupancy.”

Mayor Nelson stood his ground. “I don’t feel comfortable voting tonight,” he said. “I don’t think I’m doing residents a favor by voting on something I don’t understand.”

City Administrator Nelson said Spring Lake Park’s proposed code enforcement changes had been modeled after codes found in neighboring cities.

“Most of those cities [Blaine, Coon Rapids, Columbia Heights, Fridley and Mounds View] have these in place, in addition to the 2006  International Property Maintenance Code,” she said.

Mayor Nelson had “real problems” with the code and wanted parts of it pulled from a written ordinance if the city moved ahead, he said.

The 2006 IPMC addresses maintenance requirements for the interior and exterior of structures.

According to Brainard,  adoption of the IPMC  in its entirety would replace the city’s existing standards and create a common standard for all residential and commercial properties as well as homes used as rentals.

Heated debate begins

Carlson said she wanted to hear Brainard’s presentation about code enforcement, but Mayor Nelson said he wanted to table discussion and schedule workshops.

“We’ve had workshops,” Carlson said and asked for a vote on hearing Brainard’s presentation.

Councilmember Bill Loesch then asked Carlson to explain the excessive consumption ordinance.

As proposed, that ordinance would fine individuals who call repeatedly for false or erroneous city services, primarily code enforcement, inspections or police.

Carlson could not answer the question correctly. “I don’t know what it means,” she said.

Loesch then replied: “I rest my case. I move to table this as well.”

Mayor Nelson said the entire code enforcement ordinance overhaul needed a public hearing.

Carlson said she had received letters wanting new codes passed.

More workshops?

At that point, Nelson moved to table all seven proposed ordinances so future workshops could be scheduled.

Loesch asked if any of the ordinances could be pulled out and discussed.

Nelson said he would support a rental registration ordinance, but the council needed more workshops.

“The city won’t fall apart in 30 days if we don’t do this tonight,” Nelson said.

Carlson then accused Nelson of trying to scuttle the code revision process.

Nelson said the proposed ordinances represented a 360-degree change for the city. He continued to push for more time to review the ordinance packet.

“I’m not going to vote just because staff says so,” Nelson said. “I’m going to call for the question.”

Nelson’s motion to table discussion failed by a 3-2 margin.

Mason, Carlson and Dahl voted no, with Nelson and Loesch voting yes.

Even more discussion

After the vote, Dahl said he wanted to talk about fees and to move the general discussion forward.

“We did come to some agreement that we wanted an ordinance creating rental registration and inspections and an abandoned properties ordinance,” Dahl said.

Nelson said he wasn’t willing to “sit until midnight” discussing the bulk of the proposed ordinances.

“I can tell you what we’ve done in the past,” Dahl said. “We’ve had a city that hasn’t enforced anything.”

Loesch said he didn’t expect so much code material.

The excessive consumption fee was never discussed at a council workshop, he said,

He was uncomfortable discussing that type of change, Loesch said

Police Chief David Toth repeated the excessive consumption definition, stating the ordinance is designed to resolve a problem once without repeat calls.

Brainard said Spring Lake Park’s proposed excessive consumption ordinance had been lifted word for word from the city of Coon Rapids’ current ordinance.

Council, staff spar

Loesch was concerned if the city approved that additional code enforcement ordinance, another layer of bureaucracy would be created for the city’s residents.

Brainard responded by saying that Loesch was missing the big picture and the excessive consumption ordinance was a tool to improve the enforcement system.

“We are complaining about not having enough money for staff,” Loesch said. “And yet, we would be layering on all of this stuff and creating more work.”

Brainard replied that’s why a $35 fee would be included in the proposed ordinance.

“If we can attack some of this tonight, let’s do it,” Loesch said. “But it’s going to take a long time.”

Mayor Nelson said he still wanted to speak with the North Metro Realtors Association to learn how the ordinances would affect sales.

“Basically, I have no  choice but to vote no on every one of these items, because I haven’t had enough time to do my homework,” Nelson said.

Brainard strongly disagreed. Nelson had received his presentation in July, in particular the International Property Maintenance Code, he said.

The pair’s argument ended in a shouting match.

“My recommendations at that time specifically stated what the items were,” Brainard said.

Nelson yelled back at him: “Don’t sit there and argue with me.”

City Administrator Nelson said it might be a bad idea for the council to base code enforcement decisions on what realtors might think or suggest.

“You better look at the whole picture at what this is going to do to the  city,” Mayor Nelson shot back. “There’s nothing wrong with doing more homework.”

City Administrator Nelson said she objected to the attitude that staff had done something wrong and was only carrying out the direction given by a council majority on July 13.

Sea change for city?

City Attorney Jeff Carson said the seven proposed ordinances would represent a big change for the city of Spring Lake Park and its housing code enforcement.

“Barb [Nelson], Barry [Brainard] and I discussed that,” Carson said. “We are seeing a lot of vacancies and foreclosures. There’s no question its a big change.”

According to Carson, most cities are doing something similar to Spring Lake Park’s proposed code enforcement ordinances in order to protect property.

“That’s really the underlying basis for all of this,” Carson said.

Mayor Nelson agreed, but he still wanted more time to read and understand what was proposed.

Carlson suggested the council take the proposed seven ordinances in order and vote on them. “If they go, they go, if not, it’s back to workshop,” she said.

Nelson said the first ordinance, adoption of the International Property Maintenance Code, should to go a public hearing because it would affect housing stock.

Public hearing set

“There’s no way that should get done without the public being here,” he said. “That affects all kinds of houses, especially those built in the 1940s and 1950s.”

Carlson made a motion for a vote to adopt the 2006 International Property Maintenance Code in its entirety, as recommended by Brainard, City Administrator Nelson and Carson.

Mason abstained, Carlson and Dahl voted yes, and Loesch and Nelson no.

City Administrator  Nelson said the motion had failed for lack of a majority.

After the vote failed, Mason asked Mayor Nelson if the passage of two weeks would be enough time for him to do more backgrounding.

Nelson said yes, but he still wanted a public hearing. Loesch then followed with a motion to move discussion of the International Property Maintenance Code to a public hearing Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

That motion passed 4-1, with Carlson voting no.

Council members did agree that Brainard should give his PowerPoint presentation during the Nov. 16 meeting, which would start at 7:30 p.m. at city hall.

Ordinance actions

An ordinance establishing a fee schedule for rental conversion, re-inspection, vacant property registration and excessive consumption was also tabled and placed on the public hearing agenda for next Monday, along with the proposed ordinance relating to excessive consumption of city inspection or police services.

City leaders agreed to amend Spring Lake Park’s existing rental ordinance and require registrations annually and inspections every two years as well as adopt an ordinance requiring all vacant and abandoned property to be registered and an ordinance requiring abandoned properties to secure certificates of occupancy.

Analysis from others

ABC Newspapers asked the North Metro Realtors Association and the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry to comment on the proposed ordinances.

According to Brainard, if the city adopted of the 2006 International Property Maintenance Code, its existing rental housing maintenance ordinance would become obsolete.

He said the IPMC has the backing of the Department of Labor and Industry which adopts and regulates building codes throughout the state.

Steve Hernick is the state’s top building official.

He said in an interview property maintenance codes can’t be more restrictive than the state’s building code.

“We have not been directly involved in evaluating  property maintenance codes,” he said.

“Largely, they revolve around the housing conditions each city has.”

Bob Day is the immediate past president of the North Metro Realtors Association. He works for Weichert, Realtors-Premier in Andover and has lived in Anoka County since 1970.

Day had a number of concerns regarding the city’s adoption of the IPMC.

“If the city passed and enforced everything in that code, it would be a logistics nightmare and very expensive for home owners,” Day said in a phone interview.

New code concerns

According to Day, realtors want communities such as Spring Lake Park to improve their housing stock, but some homes would need a grandfathering provision.

“We want good housing stock but don’t want property rights to get trampled in this process,” he said. “There a lot of things the city needs to look at with this.”

Day said the city might be a little too zealous with its current approach to the code enforcement changes, but there are parts of the IPMC that are important.

“The approach on rentals is one way to fix the housing stock,” Day said.

“Sometimes, when a single-family home is rented, investors buy and keep it for a year or two, waiting for the market to come back and sell it. I understand using the code on rental properties but have a real concern with single-family homes.”

Another approach for cities with a growing vacant home problem, according to Day, is to use incentives or grant programs to improve existing, older homes.

Day used the current energy tax credit to replace windows as one example.

“Maybe there’s some offsetting help that a city can provide,” he said.

“It’s important to pick specific code enforcement issues to go after, because that’s better using the big stick approach of the International Property Maintenance Code.”

Tim Hennagir is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it