Jamestown City Council voting session (March 25, 2024)
Jamestown City Council has unanimously passed a vacant property registration ordinance and an update to the city’s public nuisance ordinance.
Jamestown Real Estate Investors Association President Brenda Strasser, speaking at privilege of the floor, said the association has met with the city on the public nuisance ordinance but not the others, “I think we need to involve us. A lot of the landlords in the city own properties and I think we should have a little bit of a say rather than having these things just put at us without any kind of input.”
Council President Tony Dolce said it was time to move forward, “When we hear our constituents, they’ll tell us housing, neighborhoods, vacant properties are at the top of the list or near the top of the list. Also, we should note that this is a direction the state is moving in where many communities we modeled this after.”
Dolce said the ordinances aren’t meant to make this harder on landlords, “The Department of Development and City want not only to work with the landlords but with the tenants and to rectify some of the situations that are out there. This is not, in any way, meant to be more punitive. I guess it looks that way if you see some of the penalties, but again, if something comes up we’re willing to work with those tenants and work with those landlords in order to rectify the situation.”
The vacant property registration ordinance will require the residential property owners to register the vacant property for a fee of $250. Commercial property fees will be $1,000 or 5-cents a square foot, whichever is greater. Fees will increase for both vacant residential and commercial properties each year.
The ordinance also states that a Certificate of Occupancy must be obtained before the property is occupied to ensure the health and safety of individuals in the building.
The public nuisance ordinance now states that a property is considered a public nuisance after three or more arrests in a 24-month period happen at a unit. A fine schedule for cases where the landlord does not remediate the issue also has been set. In cases where there is a complete failure by the landlord to remediate a property, the city can designate a receiver to take rents and profits from nuisance properties in order to remediate the issues.
Council will continue to discuss a proposed rental inspection ordinance at its April meetings. Council’s next work session is Monday, April 22.
Hi my name is Lisa Boutelle and I’m currently having to live with a friend because of the fact that my current landlord?? Has turned off my heat going on 3 months ago and I being forced to use my gas cook stove for heat with refusal to fix the heating issues with my apartment at 308 E. Second st. Apartment A. Last week I had the building inspector have to do an inspection because of this and other violations that Kimberly Darr my landlord has since I moved in refused to fix anything. I also get section 8 that was paying 60% of my rent with me paying the remainder 30% of 298$, section 8 just did there yearly inspection and again the apartment failed and this is at least the 4th time it has done so and this time there were even more violations this time from the basement and my apartment and including lack of a hand rail or something with the front steps. I really would appreciate it if you can look into this matter for me and let me know what i can do to hold her financially accountable for the hard ships I’ve had to endure since I first moved in to Kimberly Darr’s apartment building. Thank you so much, Lisa Marie Boutelle.