Law, Buildings and Code Enforcement Committee

This meeting is being held in accordance to Governor Hochul’s signed legislation allowing municipalities to resume remote meetings until January 15, 2022 and we encourage residents to continue participating. Constituents provide public comment on our new public comment line 518-694-3987, by email commoncouncil@albanyny.gov or the form on our website https://www.albanyny.gov/Government/CityOfficials/CommonCouncil.aspx. These comments will be shared with members and/ or read for the record at the meeting, posted on our website and Facebook. Constituents may also register to speak during the meeting and you to will be provided with the zoom credentials if it is your intent to speak email us at commoncouncil@albanyny.gov COMMON COUNCIL MEETING LAW, BUILDINGS, AND CODE ENFORCEMENT Joseph Igoe, Chair DATE: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2021 TIME: 5:30PM TOPICS OF DISCUSSION:  Ordinance 30.102.21 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 133-78.3 (VACANT BUILDING REGISTRATION) OF CHAPTER 133 (BUILDING CONSTRUCTION) OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF ALBANY TO REQUIRE OWNERS OF VACANT BUILDINGS TO POST CONTACT INFORMATION ON SUCH BUILDINGS PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD: YES Council Member Anane introduced the following: ORDINANCE 30.102.21 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 133-78.3 (VACANT BUILDING REGISTRATION) OF CHAPTER 133 (BUILDING CONSTRUCTION) OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF ALBANY TO REQUIRE OWNERS OF VACANT BUILDINGS TO POST CONTACT INFORMATION ON SUCH BUILDINGS The City of Albany, in Common Council convened, does hereby ordain and enact: Section 1. Subsection F of section 133-78.3 (Vacant building registration) of Article XIA (Vacant Building Registry) of Part 2 (Building Construction) of Chapter 133 (Building Construction) of Part II (General Legislation) of the Code of the City of Albany is hereby amended to read as follows: F. As a condition of registration[,]: (1) [a]All applicable laws and codes shall be complied with by the owner[.]; and (2) The owner shall notify the Enforcement Officer of any changes in information supplied as part of the vacant building registration within 30 days of the change[.]; and (3) The owner shall conspicuously place on the exterior of the registered building according to the reasonable rules to be promulgated by the Chief Building Official a placard to be provided by the Chief Building Official providing notice as to how the owner of the building or a party responsible for its maintenance may be contacted concerning the building. Section 2. This ordinance shall take effect 30 days after enactment. APPROVED AS TO FORM THIS 4TH DAY OF OCTOBER, 2021 ________________________________ Corporation Counsel Matter in [brackets and strikethrough] to be deleted. Matter underlined is new material. To: Danielle Gillespie, City Clerk From: Brett Williams, Esq., Sr. Assistant Corporation Counsel Re: Common Council Legislation Supporting Memorandum Date: October 4, 2021 Sponsor: Council Member Anane ORDINANCE 30.102.21 TITLE AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 133-78.3 (VACANT BUILDING REGISTRATION) OF CHAPTER 133 (BUILDING CONSTRUCTION) OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF ALBANY IN RELATION TO REQUIRING OWNERS OF VACANT BUILDINGS TO POST CONTACT INFORMATION ON SUCH BUILDINGS GENERAL PURPOSE OF LEGISLATION The numerous vacant buildings all across Albany pose one of the greatest quality of life issues in the City. In an effort to combat this issue, the Common Council instituted the Vacant Building Registry in 2018, which requires owners of vacant properties to, among other things, submit and annually renew a registration form to the City containing identifying information for both the property and the owner. When the Common Council instituted the Vacant Building Registry, it declared that “vacant buildings, by nature of their vacancy, impose disproportionate costs on the neighborhoods in which they are located and on the City of Albany at large. The purpose of this [registry] is to provide City personnel with the knowledge they need to mitigate these costs and incentivize the owners of vacant buildings to rehabilitate and return them to occupancy.” See Code § 133-78.1. Such knowledge, albeit more limited in scope, can also be of benefit to the public at large, who may also wish to incentivize owners of neighboring vacant properties to maintain and rehabilitate them, or may even wish to reach out to owners of vacant properties to inquire about purchasing them. This law will require owners of vacant buildings to post contact information for the owner or his or her designee conspicuously on the exterior of the property in order to facilitate such interactions. NECESSITY FOR LEGISLATION AND CHANGES TO EXISTING LAW This local law makes available to the general public up-to-date identifying information for owners of vacant properties, which information was previously only easily available to City officials. FISCAL IMPACT(S) None.