May 9, 2017 - 815 Capitol & 1217 Dodge Ct. ⢠Focus first on two properties â 815 Capitol and 1217 Dodge Ct. â¢
Mayor Marian Orr’s Fight the Blight Cheyenne, Wyoming Summary of Recommendations and Process Julie Gliem – Chairman, Jeff White – City Council, Steve Borin, Corey Loghry, Office Emmett Lusher – Police Dept., Dominique Valdez, Lawrence J. Wolfe
May 8, 2017
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Preface and Disclaimer • All the members of the Fight the Blight committee serve on it at the pleasure of the Mayor. • We don’t have any axes to grind. We each bring different sets of skills to the committee and our overriding purpose is to help the Mayor, the City Council, and the City Administration bring focus to the multiple and complex issues of residential and commercial blight. • I don’t have any clients who are involved in these issues. As of the end of May I will no longer be associated with Holland & Hart.
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Some Blight Is In the Eye of the Beholder. That Type of Blight is NOT What the Committee is Concerned With!
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What is Blight – Some is Obvious 815 Capitol - #1 Priority
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815 Capitol – Alley View
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316 Central – Trailer Park – All the Units Were Built Before 1965!
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316 Central – Many with No Windows, No Plumbing, No Electricity, No Heat
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316 Central - Rear – Next to Greenway, Kids Play in Crow Creek, There is Trash and Drug Needles
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316 Central – Interior Photos
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316 Central – More Interior Phots
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“Blight is a disease. It requires continuous and unremitting effort to combat it!” Mayor Orr 1017 W. 18th St
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1017 W. 18th St. Next to Habitat for Humanity Restore
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1017 W. 18th St.
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1217 Dodge Court Street side and Alley Views
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1217 Dodge Court – Alley view
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Some Blight is Not so Obvious 4th Ave. and Bent 2nd Ave. and Bent
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“Fixing Blight Requires Neighbors to Care About the Community and it Requires Persistent Political Will” - Mayor Orr • Different Circumstances Require Different Solutions • Residential Blight • Exterior Trash, Weeds, Junked Vehicles • Abandoned, Neglected, Unsafe Buildings
• Commercial Blight – Outside the Core Downtown • Commercial Blight – Core Downtown • Sidewalks
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Why is Fixing Blight Important? • Health and Safety • Crime Prevention • Community Pride • Preventing Exploitation of Vulnerable People • Maintain Property Values • Part of the Price We Pay to Have a Civilized Society
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Who Must be Involved? • • • • • • • • •
Mayor’s Office City Council City Attorney City Treasurer City Building Office City Building Inspector Police Department Fire Department Sanitation Department
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• City/County Health Department • County Assessor and County Treasurer (for tax valuation and assessment information) • Neighborhoods • Downtown Development Authority/Main Street • Cheyenne LEADS • Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce • Commercial Building Developers LJWolfe draft
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Residential Blight Exterior Trash, Weeds and Junked Vehicles • General Exterior Trash, Weeds, Abandoned Vehicles and Nuisance • Police Officer Emmett Lusher is the full time Code enforcement officer. • He has the authority to order cleanups, collect fines and to hire a crew to cleanup the property. • Liens can be placed on the property and foreclosed to recover the costs, but that is rarely done because of the time and expense involved on the part of the City Attorney. • The City Ordinances are sufficient to address these typical problems. • Junked vehicle ordinance that allows impounding and disposal of vehicles is under consideration by the City Council. • Chapter 8.60 - Nuisances 5/9/2017
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Definition of Nuisance • "Nuisance" means any use or nonuse of property, real or personal, which produces to others a material injury, annoyance, inconvenience or discomfort, and which endangers life or health, or gives offense to the senses of persons with normal or average sensibilities, and/or ordinary tastes and habits. • City Ordinance 8.60.020A.E.
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Residential Buildings - Continued • The City Treasurer has a small fund to pay for some abatement. • Abating occupied properties – such as 316 Central – is a complex problem. • The City of Casper – which has a robust blight program – will not deal with occupied properties. • Abatement requires a multi-step process.
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Residential Blight Continued Abandoned, Neglected, Unsafe Buildings • Many Different Circumstances – Each Requires a Unique Solution • Typical situation is a residence that has been inherited. The owners have no money to maintain the building so it is just ignored and allowed to deteriorate for years. Example - 815 Capitol. • International Property Maintenance Code – the City has adopted Chapters 1 and 2 (of 8 total). City Ordinance 15.24.040. Called the “City of Cheyenne Dangerous Building Code.” • There is a debate over whether the IPMC in Chapters 1 and 2 gives the City sufficient authority to address these types of structures. • City Attorney believes that the City needs to adopt Chapters 3-8. • Developers believe Chapters 3-8 are unnecessary and burdensome to businesses trying to fix up residential properties. 5/9/2017
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International Property Maintenance Code • CHAPTER 1 SCOPE AND ADMINISTRATION • [A] 101.2 Scope. The provisions of this code shall apply to all existing residential and nonresidential structures and all existing premises and constitute minimum requirements and standards for premises, structures, equipment and facilities for light, ventilation, space, heating, sanitation, protection from the elements, a reasonable level of safety from fire and other hazards, and for a reasonable level of sanitary maintenance; the responsibility of owners, an owner’s authorized agent, operators and occupants; the occupancy of existing structures and premises, and for administration, enforcement and penalties. • [A] 101.3 Intent. This code shall be construed to secure its expressed intent, which is to ensure public health, safety and welfare insofar as they are affected by the continued occupancy and maintenance of structures and premises. Existing structures and premises that do not comply with these provisions shall be altered or repaired to provide a minimum level of health and safety as required herein. 5/9/2017
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IPMC - Continued • [A] 102.6 Historic buildings. The provisions of this code shall not be mandatory for existing buildings or structures designated as historic buildings where such buildings or structures are judged by the code official to be safe and in the public interest of health, safety and welfare. • [A] 104.3 Right of entry. Where it is necessary to make an inspection to enforce the provisions of this code, or whenever the code official has reasonable cause to believe that there exists in a structure or upon a premises a condition in violation of this code, the code official is authorized to enter the structure or premises at reasonable times to inspect or perform the duties imposed by this code, provided that if such structure or premises is occupied the code official shall present credentials to the occupant and request entry. 5/9/2017
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IMPC - CONTINUED • [A] 107.6 Transfer of ownership. It shall be unlawful for the owner of any dwelling unit or structure who has received a compliance order or upon whom a notice of violation has been served to sell, transfer, mortgage, lease or otherwise dispose of such dwelling unit or structure to another until the provisions of the compliance order or notice of violation have been complied with, or until such owner or the owner’s authorized agent shall first furnish the grantee, transferee, mortgagee or lessee a true copy of any compliance order or notice of violation issued by the code official and shall furnish to the code official a signed and notarized statement from the grantee, transferee, mortgagee or lessee, acknowledging the receipt of such compliance order or notice of violation and fully accepting the responsibility without condition for making the corrections or repairs required by such compliance order or notice of violation. 5/9/2017
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IMPC - Continued • SECTION 108 UNSAFE STRUCTURES AND EQUIPMENT • [A] 108.1 General. When a structure or equipment is found by the code official to be unsafe, or when a structure is found unfit for human occupancy, or is found unlawful, such structure shall be condemned pursuant to the provisions of this code. • [A] 108.1.1 Unsafe structures. An unsafe structure is one that is found to be dangerous to the life, health, property or safety of the public or the occupants of the structure by not providing minimum safeguards to protect or warn occupants in the event of fire, or because such structure contains unsafe equipment or is so damaged, decayed, dilapidated, structurally unsafe or of such faulty construction or unstable foundation, that partial or complete collapse is possible. 5/9/2017
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IMPC - Continued • [A] 108.1.2 Unsafe equipment. Unsafe equipment includes any boiler, heating equipment, elevator, moving stairway, electrical wiring or device, flammable liquid containers or other equipment on the premises or within the structure which is in such disrepair or condition that such equipment is a hazard to life, health, property or safety of the public or occupants of the premises or structure. • [A] 108.1.3 Structure unfit for human occupancy. A structure is unfit for human occupancy whenever the code official finds that such structure is unsafe, unlawful or, because of the degree to which the structure is in disrepair or lacks maintenance, is insanitary, vermin or rat infested, contains filth and contamination, or lacks ventilation, illumination, sanitary or heating facilities or other essential equipment required by this code, or because the location of the structure constitutes a hazard to the occupants of the structure or to the public. • [A] 108.1.4 Unlawful structure. An unlawful structure is one found in whole or in part to be occupied by more persons than permitted under this code, or was erected, altered or occupied contrary to law. 5/9/2017
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Commercial Buildings – Outside Core Downtown • Commercial buildings are subject to the same Ordinances and Code Enforcement as residential properties for exterior trash, weeds and vehicles. • Office Lusher monitors these buildings and issues citations. • Current Ordinances adequate for addressing these problems.
• Commercial buildings that are abandoned, neglected, unsafe have historically been very difficult to abate. • IPMC applies to these buildings. • But other buildings must be considered – Cole Shopping Center, which is abandoned. K-Mart on Del Range. Sutherland’s on Yellowstone. 5/9/2017
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Commercial Building – Core Downtown Abandoned, Neglected, Unsafe, No Development • The most obvious problems and the most difficult to solve • Example: Z’s Home Furnishing (former Fowler’s) – 17th and Carey • The Bell Building – 1605 Central, across from Plains Hotel, next to Greer’s. • Owned by out of state individuals and companies who have generally no interest in the building and are unwilling to spend to maintain it and have no development plans. • DDA has mapped the abandoned buildings downtown.
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Z’s Building
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Bell Building – 1605 Central
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Sidewalks – Broken, Unsafe, Neglected • Cheyenne has a sidewalk ordinance that requires that sidewalks be cleaned of snow and kept in reasonable condition. • City Ordinance 12.04.040 • The persistent questions are how to get property owners to fix neglected sidewalks. The Ordinance places the burden and expense on the owner but City Attorney says that the law is not clear enough and that it needs to be strengthened.
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Liens to Recover Costs of Abatement and Misdemeanor • The City has the authority to place liens on property to seek to recover the costs of abatement and demolition (if necessary). • Ordinance 8.60.180 – Collection of costs of abatement; filing of lien. • City Attorney can file lien to collect costs assessed by Code Enforcement Officer. • City can foreclose lien. It can also refer collection to a collection agency.
• Foreclosure of liens is a lengthy process and it has generally not been a high priority of the City Attorney’s office because the time and expense. • Failure to abate nuisances can be treated as a misdemeanor. This rarely happens. Code 8.60.190. 5/9/2017
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Downtown Development Authority/Main Street (DDA/Main Street)Has a Wealth of Information • DDA collects information on core downtown vacant and neglected buildings. There are currently about 300,000 sq. feet of vacate office space, which includes entire buildings (Hynds, Z’s, Bell), vacant lower and upper stories. • This information is contained in several computer databases that are maintained by the DDA staff. • There are commercial products available to help track blighted areas. One product is at this link. • http://www.tolemi.com/ Also see the link below. • http://www.govtech.com/civic/Exclusive-Opportunity-Space-Enters-Y-Combinator-Rebrands-andLaunches-New-Product.html • This summer DDA will undertake a complete update to the business/property owner database for the entire, 72 block, 600 some-odd businesses. It will get data on everything from basic to highlevel: • Business name; owner; hours of operation; how long in business, type of business, etc. • Property owner's name and current contact info (County assessor does not always have all the correct info, currently)
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Urban Renewal Statutes • The Wyoming Urban Renewal Code, W.S. 15-9-102 through 223 provides a comprehensive scheme for Municipalities to address slum and blighted areas. • Casper uses the powers under this law to develop an Urban Renewal Plan which is much broader than blight issues.
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People Are Watching US What are We Going to Do?
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Plan of Action 815 Capitol & 1217 Dodge Ct. • Focus first on two properties – 815 Capitol and 1217 Dodge Ct. • Committee passed a Motion on 5/2/17 recommending that the City proceed post haste to carry out the demolition of the structures at these two locations. The Motion asks the City to report back to the Committee within 30 days and to try to have the demolitions completed within 60 days. The City Council may need to be asked to appropriate funds for the demolitions. • The costs for demolition may be able to be recovered by foreclosure of the liens that the City will place on the properties. • Plan a work session with the City Council if the Council wants to discuss the Fight the Blight plans. 5/9/2017
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Plan of Action – Continued 316 Central Ave. • Gather all facts related to this property, which is owned by a Colorado landlord. • Ownership. Property tax payment status. • Police Department reports. • Reports from City/County Health Unit. Gus Lopez inspected all the mobile homes in October 2016 and identified the ones that were abandoned and ones that were inhabited but unsafe. • Lawsuits filed by owner against residents. • Neighborhood actions – contact Annette Williams and Councilman Laybourn. • City has no obligation to provide housing but it can investigate housing options for current residents and make appropriate referrals. • Start issuing citations for abandoned and unsafe trailers and try to start demolishing them on site. 5/9/2017
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Plan of Action – 316 Central Ave. • On 5/2/17 the Committee passed a Motion recommending that the City begin to take action to inspect, tag as unsafe, and demolish mobile homes at 316 Central Ave. that are unoccupied and uninhabitable. The City is asked to report back to the Committee within 30 days as to the progress with abating the properties. • Funds may need to be secured from the City Council. • The Committee is of the view that the City has ample authority under current Ordinances, particularly the IPMC, to under these actions.
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Plan of Action – Residential Blight Continued • Maintain an up to date registry of residential properties that are subject to ongoing oversight and enforcement. • As properties are fixed or other changes are made update the data base. • Identify a fund for blight management and abatement and keep it funded at a certain level and set up mechanisms so that the fund can be replenished.
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Commercial Buildings – Core Downtown Neglected, Abandoned, Unsafe • Create a registry • Charge property owners to be listed on the registry • Publically identify owners. See the examples from San Antonio • Start identifying sources of funds to use to abate properties • City to develop a priority list and a plan of action for each property on the list. This is a multi-year undertaking that will need some dedicated funding.
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Will This Directory Ever Be Filled Again?
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