(A) There is hereby created a Housing Appeals Board to which appeals may be taken from any decision or order of the Housing Inspector relative to the interpretation or enforcement of the provisions of this subchapter.
(B) The Housing Appeals Board shall consist of five members to serve for three-year staggered terms. It shall have the power to elect its own officers, to fix the times and places for its meetings, to adopt necessary rules of procedure, and to adopt other rules and regulations for the proper discharge of its duties. It shall keep an accurate record of all its proceedings.
(C) The Stoneville Town Council shall appoint the five regular members of the Housing Appeals Board for the terms specified in division (B) above. The Stoneville Town Council shall also appoint two alternate members to serve on the Housing Appeals Board in the absence of any regular member. Alternate members shall be appointed to serve three-year staggered terms. Each alternate member, while serving in the absence of any regular member, shall have and exercise all the powers and duties of any regular member absent from the meeting.
(D) Any appeal from the decision or order of the Housing Inspector shall be taken within ten days from the rendering of the decision or service of the order, by filing with the Housing Inspector and the Housing Appeals Board (by service on the Planning Director) a notice of appeal which shall specify the grounds upon which the appeal is based. Upon the filing of any notice of appeal, the Housing Inspector shall forthwith transmit to the Housing Appeals Board all the papers constituting the record from which the appealed decision was made. When the appeal is from a decision of the Housing Inspector refusing to allow the person aggrieved thereby to do any act, his decision shall remain in force until modified or reversed. When an appeal is from a decision of the Housing Inspector requiring the person aggrieved to do any act, the appeal shall have the effect of suspending the requirement until the hearing by the Housing Appeals Board, unless the Housing Inspector certifies to the Board, after the notice of appeal is filed with him, that by reason of the facts stated in the certification, (a copy of which shall be furnished to the person who is appealing), a suspension of his requirement would cause imminent peril to life or property, in which case the requirement shall not be suspended.
(E) The Housing Appeals Board shall fix a reasonable time for the hearing of all appeals, shall give due notice to all parties, and shall render its decision within a reasonable time. Any party may appear in person, by agent, or attorney. The Board may reverse or affirm, wholly, partly, or may modify the decision or order appealed from, and may make such decision and order as in its opinion ought to be made in the matter, and to this end shall have all the powers of the Housing Inspector. The Board shall have power also in passing upon appeals, in the case where there are practical difficulties or unnecessary hardships in a way of carrying out the strict letter of the subchapter, to adapt the application of the subchapter to the necessities of the case to the end that the spirit of the subchapter shall be observed, public safety and welfare secured, and substantial justice done.
(F) Every decision of the Housing Appeals Board shall be subject to review by proceedings in the nature of certiorari instituted within 15 days of the decision of the Board, but not otherwise.
(G) All appeals are subject to the remedies and procedures described in G.S. § 160A-446.
(Ord. passed 9-1-2021)