AN ORDINANCE related to monitoring and inspecting vacant buildings for compliance with the requirements of the Housing and Building Maintenance Code; amending Section 22.900F.010 of the Seattle Municipal Code; and amending Ordinance 125704 and Ordinance 125727 to modify monitoring fees and monitoring program requirements.
The bill passenger will sign it. Please read the next agenda item. The Report of the Planning Land Use and Zoning Committee Agenda Item seven Council Bill 119497 An ordinance related to monitoring and inspecting vacant buildings for compliance with the requirements of the Housing and Building Maintenance Code. The committee recommends the bill pass. Councilmember O'Brien. Thank you. Just really briefly, this ordinance would implement a new set of rules for inspecting vacant buildings. But I'm going to hand over to my colleague, Councilmember Herbold, who did a lot of work on this. As a member. Herbold. Thank you so much. So this is legislation that I sponsored post budget cycle last year. During the budget, the council acted on an amendment to the existing mandatory I'm sorry, not mandatory, a vacant building monitoring program. And these recommendations came out of a couple of years process that council had engaged in. We both hired or funded the hiring of a staff person at SDC to make some recommendations for how to improve the monitoring of the vacant building monitoring program. And we also indicated in a prior piece of legislation that we intended to. Make these changes in. Last year's budget cycle because of the concerns that the executive had about those changes. We agreed to have them not go into effect until the beginning of June, and we addressed some of the concerns that they had prior to it going in effect. So the changes to the program will modify fees for buildings found to meet the requirements of the code to better reflect the cost of the inspection to the Department of Construction and inspections. Fees would change from $171 to to 61. Again, this is intended to be a fee neutral program. The fees associated with inspecting these buildings are intended to pay for the inspections themselves. It also allows buildings to fall off of the monitoring list. In other words, no longer be in enrolled in the monitoring program when there have been three consecutive inspections without violation. And then finally, the amendments allow the city to enroll buildings after one violation. If that violation is not remedied by the compliance date established in the note of violation, or if there are subsequent violations within 365 days from the date of the first notice. Again, just this sort of big picture, the reason why this is really important is we've seen how much damage can be done to a. Vacant building that is. Not being maintained. In a way that is. Consistent with the city's existing vacant building code. Those are requirements that really are focused on boarding up the property so that. People cannot. Access it. And so that, frankly, they can't be. Magnets for. For crime and other. Unlawful activity. We found through our review of the existing program that police and fire are often having to go out to these properties hundreds of times. And that is. That. Is being paid. For with public tax dollars instead of. Being paid for. By the. The property. Owners who are choosing to keep these. Buildings vacant rather than. Either maintaining them as occupied buildings for people to. Live in or. Moving forward with. Their development projects, because many of these properties. Are within the development, redevelopment process and cycle. Very good. Thank you, Councilman Herbold. Are there any other questions or comments on this bill? Customer Gonzalez. Thank you. Council President. Oh. And I might need it later on because I just pulled a bunch of water on my keyboard. Oops. I just wanted to say that I was one of the councilmembers during the budget process that expressed some reservations and concerns about this particular program as it was being proposed, and wanting to make sure that whatever approach the city took was one that was going to be responsive to the realities around the implementation of the program and really want to appreciate the work that Councilmember Herbold has done as their prime sponsor on this bill to make sure that those the flexibility is going to continue to exist within the program, but also making sure that we're managing community neighbors expectations about the city's obligations to respond to what are real, real concerns within the community. So I really do appreciate your your hard work over a long period of time to be responsive to those what I think were reasonable concerns around implementation. And I am excited to be at a place now where I am supportive of this legislation. Those comments, any other questions or comments? If not, please call the role on the passage of the Bill O'Brien. Sergeant Bagshaw. Hi. Gonzalez, I Herbold. Hi, Suarez. Let's get to President Harrell. Eight in favor. Nine opposed. The bill passed. And, Cheryl, sign it. Please read the next agenda item into the record.