108 Dunn City Council Special Called Meeting Tuesday, October 6,2020 3:00 p.m., Dunn Municipall Building Minutes PRESENT: Mayor William P. Elmore Jr., Mayor Pro Tem Chuck Turnage, Council Members J. Wesley Sills, April Gaulden, Frank McLean, Billy N.1 Tart, and Dr. DavidL. Bradham.) Notice, relating to the Special Also present: City Manager Steven Neuschafer, Assistant City Manager Mathew Boone, Finance Director Jim Roberts, Public Utilities Director Heather Adams, Planning Director George Adler, Chief Building Inspector Steven King, Chief of Police Clark White, Parks and Recreation. Director Brian. McNeill, Librarian. Mike Williams, Communications Coordinator Kaitlin Adkins, City Attorney Tilghman Pope, and City Clerk Tammy Williams. Mayor Elmore opened the meeting at 3:00 p.m. and City Council Member Gaulden gave the invocation. After ar review oft the Agenda, Mayor Elmore turned the meeting over to Manager Neuschafer. Neuschafer Chief Building Inspector Kingi introduced thel Planning: andl Inspections staff in attendance: Codel Enforcement Officers Dwayne Williams, Slater) Johnson and Stephen Hodges, and Administrative Supports Specialist Carmen Barnes. Het then reviewed the minimum! housing standards versus the condemnation process. Once and order is given from the Chief Building Inspector for not meeting minimum housing standards, the landlord or owners are given 90 days for repairs or demolition ofs structure. Thei inspector can allow more time and most homes are repaired and never come to Council. After allowed time period expires with nor repairs, structure is taken to Council for adoption of ordinance declaring property "Unfit for Human Habitation." Once ordinance is adopted, occupants must vacate the dwelling and the property owner has one year to make repairs. If repairs are not made in the time period allowed, the ordinance to demolish can be adopted by Council, then after 90 days the dwelling can be demolished and lien placed on property. Minimum housing Attorney Pope confirmed thatt the City's minimum! housing standards mirror state statutes. For the City tol be Ifpropertyi iss sold, the 90 days will transfer tot ther new owner. Discussion: followed onp preventing purchase of these properties. Attorney Pope said the city cannot prevent people from purchasing a home, but can incorporate language in the notice warning new owners that the ordinance to condemn transfers. Council Member Tarts stated that sometimes thet tenanti ist the one that tears up the property and thel landlord needsi it Council Member Bradham said there are three factors to consider: safety especially for the children, fairness to neighbors, and the image problem these structures cause for the city. When King was asked what the Council could do to make things easier for his department, he replied to adopt stricter code to give the inspections department more authority. Council Member Bradham suggested research be done to see what other cities do. Council Member Tarta asked ift there was anything the city could do abouti repeato offenders and King confirmed there is nothing in the code that addresses it. King shared that he has spoken to three landlordst that own dozens ofp properties andl has gone over all thei rules andi minimum) housing standards with thesei individuals. He addedt thati ifp property owners wouldi investr more money ini the houses and go up ont the Mayor Elmore confirmed consensus from Council for the Inspections Department to research and determine King then reviewed the Unsafe Building Condemned Procedures. The city goes strictly by the General Statutes as there is nothing in our code that addresses unsafe buildings condemned. Order to repair or demolish is issued to the owner of the property and after hearing, they have sixty days for repairs or demolition. After granted time, if repairs or demolition has nott taken place, the structure would be taken to Council for adoption of ordinance to demolish. Afterwards, the owner has 30 days for appeal before the property can be demolished. He shared a comparison oft the timeline for repairs based on square footage, noting repairs vary on the amount oft time it takes. It depends on who is doing the work and if they know what they are doing. Itis up to the council to give the owner additional time. Two oft the dwellings coming Meeting Conditions, is incorporated: into these minutes as Attachment: #1. CALLTO ORDER. ANDI INVOCATION ITEMS FORI DISCUSSION. AND/ORI DECISION Afterwards, Mayor Pro" Tem' Turnagel ledi int thel Pledge of Allegiance. recognized Chief Building Inspector Kingt tor review the condemnation process. Review: and Discussion ont the Condemnation Process allows ay year andl halft before thel home can bet torn down. tougher, ordinances must bec changed. condemned: sot thatt they can gett thet tenants outa andi make repairs. rent, aloto oft these issues would bel handled. what would! bei involved toa adopts stricter code related tor minimum) housing. back upa att the October meeting! havel been going onf for overay year. 109 King sharedt that att thel hearing hel has with the owner, everything is explained ast to what needs tol be done. Mayor Pro" Tem Turnage asked how inspections finds out about condemned homes. King replied Inspectors have to depend onl how the structure looks ont the exterior ort they are contacted by the police department, fire department or complaints. Sometimes the owner or tenant will allow them toi inspect the interior and Discussion followed ont the amount oft time that has been given to property owners to make repairs. Mayor Pro' Tem' Turnage stated that each decision has tol be treated on a case by case basis. Adding, ift they wait to the last minute to do repairs, it doesn't take council but a minute to decide, but if they have done due diligence tol begin repairs then itr makes itt tougher to not give them the extended time. King referenced the Property History report which outlines contact with owners concerning the dwelling. Kings stated once time is given and money invested inj property, then iti isl hard not to givet that extension since they have already invested money in the house. At that point, you have to just keep giving them time. Attorney Pope recommended Council could make the decision not to give extensions for those whol have not started repairs prior tot the public hearing. Mayor Elmore said council will need to decide on! how they are going tol handle City Manager Neuschafer reviewed the information included in packet, which includes a Retreat Summary and Staff Work Plan. The work plan essentially includes all the items on the summary, color coded for prioritization. Council Member Bradham asked if there were any short term goals that were not going to happen by the end oft the year. Neuschafer replied that the trail from Tyler to Tartl Park may take longer to establish. Council! has acknowledged the route but needs to determine signage and whati improvements will bec done. Small scale paving! had tol bes shifted because oft the amount oft time needed to work on storm drains duet to allt thei recent rain. Also, there was a challenge findinga a qualified operator for the paver. An operator has now been hired! but must bet trained to operate the paver purchased by the city. The visioning processi is going well andi information should be available for review at the retreat. Neuschafer added that staff is also moving ahead on some oft the longt term projects. Water sewer storm water and paving project should be done within the next few months. Council Member Tarti inquired iftherei is anywhere on website where you can report potholes to develop al list that needs tol be handled. Neuschafer said that the 311 system Public Works uses does work orders but they should be able to add something to web page. They accumulate list until enough to purchase load of hot asphalt ort they can put cold ash down for a temporary fix for real bad potholes. NCDOT Road Maintenance inl Lillington has tol be contacted for state roads. Council Member Sills asked about edging being required by ordinance or for the City to just handle as overgrowth looks bad and does not help with the city's image. Neuschafer said currently the cityj just edges 421 and small portion of 301 tol keep itl looking nice. Neuschafer: added that the city could dor more edging! buti itist the responsibility of City! Manager Neuschafer: shared that the amount ofi impervious surface isar major part of the problem when dealing with storm drainage. The water just runs off the impervious surface and when running fast, and ground is not absorbent, it causes flooding issues. He added that the city does not have any storm water control requirements for commercial development Ifover an acre, the development has to abide by state's system for storm water control. He showed Council the drainage basins for the city, which includes lower Black River, upper Mingo and! lower Mingo. He also showed! how thel landscape of the city! has changed since 1949, decreasing the free flow ofs storm water. Housing has been developed where creeks used to run free, constricting the flow ofv water. In1 1996, minimum storm drainage repairs was projected at $2.61 million butt to do a 20t to5 50 yearf fix was projected at $11.5 million. He added, something needs tol be done, but the city has to decidel how tof funda andl how to develop aj priority list. Over the years, mapping storm water structures and changing the fee schedule have been discussed. A study would provide information as to where the storm drains were, thes size and condition of pipes. The cost for these studies for the water and sewer systems were about $150,000 each. He added that the commercial storm water feei is $7.75 and residential is $2.75 which brings in around $170,000 to $180,000 a year. All commercial facilities, no matter the impervious service area, pay the same fee. He recommended the city may want to look at a rate based on the amount of impervious service area, where those with more oft this area pay a higher storm water fee. He used Hope Mills as an example, which brings in more than $730,000 a year to doi improvements on their storm water system. Ift the city does not want to increase. fees, then decision must be made on how to pay for needed projects debt ort taxes. He addedt that something has got tol be done on) Juniper Creek ast thei improvements are aging out. Ar rate and fees study would probably be around $20,000 and a mapping study over $100,000. Planning Director. Adler sharedt that the alley report distributed to Council: inl December 2019 was a report on the staffs study oft the City's alleys. The city has 110 alleys and 53 are rated to potentially be closed while others arer ratedi from goodt tor needing work. Hej pointed outt that the city willi need to determine what process tof follow. Who will handle the costs of closing toi include advertising for public hearings, surveys, recording fees, and informing adjacent property owners? For alleys kept open, what is the criteria for maintenance? Each alley! has tob bel looked: ati individually, to determine ifthea alley contains utility lines ori is ita driveway or pedestrian path. Ifa right of way is closed, the property automatically reverts to the property owners whether they wanti it or not. Needt to develop process for closing the alleys and decide if the City wants to absorb the cost ori ifthe city could assess the property owner. Attorney Pope addedt that he was not sure the city could assess property owners for something they do not want. Currently, the city has a lot of right of sometimes they havet tog get an Administration: Search' Warrant. extensionsi forf future ordinances for consideration. Review ofF Progress on Goals and Objectives established: at Retreat thep property owner tor maintain growtht tos street. Identify Storm Water Drainage Process andi Prioritize Consensus wasf for City Managert tob bringay proposal to councill byt thel December meeting. Review: and Discussion on City's Alley Assessment Report ways not beingr maintained. 110 Consensus was that more study oft the process is neededt to determine how to evaluate the alleys and move forward witha a decision tob ber made withint ther nexty year. Withi no further! businesst to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at5 5:22 p.m. OFL DE 9 CORPORATE SEAL TH CAP Jr. Mayor BA Attest: Cmmy Tammy Williams, CMC City Clerk WAuonin