Jamestown City Council voting session (July 29, 2024)
Jamestown City Council has approved a new Rental Inspection ordinance aimed at improving rental housing in the city.
Jamestown Director of Development Crystal Surdyk stated at a previous Council meeting that the ordinance goes hand in hand with a state public health law that will require the inspections of rental properties with two or more units. New York State’s inspections will primarily focus on lead poisoning prevention and lead abatement while the city’s inspections will encompass all conditions that violate state and local code.
The fee structure passed in the ordinance will include an annual fee of $20 for a rental unit in a single family dwelling and $40 for two or more rental units. The fee shall be paid within 60 days of the owner’s acquisition of the property.
If code violations are found, a re-inspection fee of $25 per unit will be assessed unless that fee is waived by the Department of Development.
Owners who fail to register any unit will be charged a $50 fee per unit.
Surdyk said the fees are meant to help with the cost of having code enforcement officers conduct the inspections. She said New York State has indicated there will be some funding provided to municipalities to help cover the cost of the initial wave of inspections.
The city has been coordinating with the Chautauqua County Health Department on how the program will roll out as well as talking to the cities of Buffalo and Rochester who already have rental inspection programs in place to learn more about their process.
Healthy Communities Consultant Lisa Schmidtfrerick-Miller spoke in approval of the new ordinance at the city council voting session.
She said the timing is right for the city to pass the ordinance given that Chautauqua County has been charged with implementing a lead paint rental registry in the 14701 zip code, “It would make no sense not to take advantage of the funding that’s coming for that program to the county and the work that’s being done at the county, the staffing that will provide to leverage that and to start a rental inspection program in Jamestown. It’s long, long overdue. Properties should have never gotten to the point that we see them at now and the conditions that people are living in.”
Jamestown is ranked seventh in the state for lead poisoning, with 60 children in the 14701 zip code being affected by lead poisoning a year.
Another ordinance to make a Food Truck pilot program permanent was pulled from the voting agenda for further discussion at Council’s August meetings.
Council also approved several resolutions to replace the roof on City Hall.
Council President Tony Dolce said Jamestown Roofing, who was the only bid for the project, will be awarded $950,000 for roof repairs.
He said the bid received was much less than the original $1.5 million projection, “It was significantly less. So good news.. A. We won’t have to borrow for it and pay interest on it and B, it’s much less.. significantly less than it was originally expected to be.”
The project will be paid for using American Rescue Plan funds.
Also, council approved a contract with Greenman-Pederson, Inc. for a total of $40,450 to develop a construction package for the roof project as well as create an engineering plan to deal with water infiltration issues for the roof parapet. This also will be funded through American Rescue Plan monies.
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