HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-07-01 - AGENDA REPORTS - CODE ENFORCEMENT (2)CITY OF SANTA CLARITA
INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM
TO: M Sm and City Councilmembers
FROM: ennet
Vu
Manager -
DATE: July 1, 2003
SUBJECT: CODE ENFORCEMENT
RECOMMENDED ACTION
City Council receive a presentation regarding the City's Code Enforcement program and provide
direction to staff.
BACKGROUND
At the request of the City Council, staff is bringing to Study Session a presentation of the City's
Code Enforcement program. Staff will present the various policies used for enforcement of the
City's laws and ordinances regarding property maintenance.
The City's Code Enforcement group is working diligently to achieve compliance with properties
that are in violation of maintenance provisions of the Municipal Code. The group has
traditionally used a customer -oriented, educational approach to inform property owners of the
observed violations. This approach has led to compliance with most cases. However, our
standing policy follows a mostly -reactionary approach that responds to citizen complaints rather
than addressing property violations proactively. This leaves many properties that are in
violation, unattended by Code Enforcement when a citizen complaint is not received. With time,
this can have a negative effect on neighborhoods whose appearance can begin to show serious
signs of deterioration as a result of little or no citizen participation in the form of complaints to
City Hall.
A customer -friendly code enforcement approach, while making the City more friendly to the
property owner involved, makes it difficult to achieve prompt and responsive compliance with
most cases, which erodes at staffs efficiency and limits the number of cases that can be
processed by the group.
Staff will also discuss some of the issues and challenges facing the Code Enforcement Section in
dealing with the more difficult cases where property owners are non-responsive to requests for
compliance.
Agenda Item: Z
Various options will be presented to the City Council for considering a more proactive
enforcement policy through the use of additional and/or improved administrative mechanisms
that can be useful to achieving compliance more effectively.
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Pbs/council/7-2-03studysession-codeenf.doc