The City Council finds as follows:
(A) Vacant and boarded buildings are a major cause and source of blight in residential and non-residential neighborhoods. This is particularly true when the owner of the vacant building fails to maintain and manage the building to ensure that it does not become a liability to the neighborhood. Vacant buildings can attract transients and criminals. Use of vacant buildings by transients and criminals, who frequently employ primitive cooking or heating methods, creates a risk of fire for the vacant building and adjacent properties. Vacant properties are often used as dumping grounds for junk and debris and are often overgrown with weeds and grass. Vacant buildings which are boarded up to prevent entry by transients and other long-term vacancies discourage economic development and limit appreciation of property values.
(B) Based on the likely economic and public health, welfare, and safety problems caused by vacant buildings, the city needs to monitor the status of vacant buildings so that they do not become attractive nuisances, are not used by trespassers, are properly maintained both inside and out, and do not become a blighting influence in the city. City departments involved in such monitoring include the Police, Public Works and Building Departments and the Code Enforcement Division. There is a substantial cost to the city for monitoring vacant buildings, whether or not those buildings are boarded up. It is the responsibility of property owners to prevent property they own from becoming a burden to the neighborhood and community and a threat to the public health, safety, or welfare, and any costs to the city for monitoring vacant buildings should be borne by those owners.
(Ord. 2023-004, passed 5-23-23)