(a) The purpose of this section requiring the registration of all vacant buildings and the payment of registration fees is to assist the City in protecting the public health, safety and welfare, to monitor the number of vacant buildings in the City, to assess the effects of the condition of those buildings on nearby businesses and the neighborhoods in which they are located, particularly in light of fire safety hazards and unlawful, temporary occupancy by transients, including illicit drug users and traffickers, and to require of the owners of such vacant buildings their registration and the payment of related fees, and to promote substantial efforts to rehabilitate such vacant buildings. The provisions of this section are applicable to the owners of such vacant buildings as set forth herein and are in addition to and not in lieu of any and all other applicable provisions of the Codified Ordinances of the City of York and all relevant codes and/or regulations adopted therein.
(b) Administration and enforcement of this section shall remain under the sole control of the Department of Fire and Rescue Services, hereby referred to in this section as the Fire Department or the department. The Fire Chief and/or designee of Department of Fire/Rescue Services shall have the authority to institute summary criminal proceedings as a means of enforcement of this section and shall, when acting within the scope of employment hereunder, have the powers of a police officer of the City; provided, however, that under no circumstances shall they have the power of arrest.
(Res. 134-2008. Passed 9-2-08.)