City Council Work Session

Lake Havasu City Lake Havasu City Police Facility 2360 McCulloch Blvd North Work Session Minutes - Final Lake Havasu City, Arizona 86403 www.lhcaz.gov City Council Work Session Tuesday, August 12, 2014 4:30 PM 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Nexsen called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The mayor led in the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. ROLL CALL Present 6- Mayor Mark S. Nexsen, Vice Mayor Dean Barlow, Councilmember Crystal Alger, Councilmember David McAtlin, Councilmember Don Callahan, and Councilmember Donna Brister Absent 1- Councilmember Jeni Coke 4. CALL TO THE PUBLIC There were no requests to address the Council. 5. PUBLIC HEARING ID 14-0407 Code Enforcement Discussion Community Services Director/City Engineer Greg Froslie gave a brief project overview and update of the General Plan re-write being addressed by Clarion and Associates (Clarion). Mr. Froslie said Clarion was hired to accomplish two goals: 1) provide the City with a General Plan update, and 2) review and revise the City’s Development Code. He said both tasks are happening concurrently and reviewed the project timeframes. Mr. Froslie said the City received the first draft submittal, titled “General Plan Assessment,” for the General Plan just last week that outlines the potential improvements and includes the additional chapters that are required by State law. He said once staff has reviewed, it will be available to the public on the City’s website and will also be made available to the General Plan Advisory Committee. Lake Havasu City Page 1 City Council Work Session Work Session Minutes - Final August 12, 2014 Mr. Froslie added that Clarion is scheduled to be in Lake Havasu for two full days in September and will meet with the General Plan Advisory Committee and will also conduct a public meeting to present the document. He said the General Plan Advisory Committee will be before the City Council in December this year to make a presentation and give their recommendation, with the formal adoption of the General Plan hopefully in January 2015. Mr. Froslie said there has been more work done on the Development Code, and said the City received the first submittal of the “Development Code Assessment” document that breaks the code into three modules, which was presented to the Planning & Zoning Commission and the Zoning Advisory Committee in July 2014. Mr. Froslie stated that Clarion is revising Module 1 “Administration and Enforcement” of Title 14 – Code Enforcement, and will be back in October 2014 with the revised code. Mr. Froslie identified the other two modules as: Module 2 “Zoning Districts and Uses,” and Module 3 “Forms and Development Controls.” He added that there will be a presentation and review of Modules 2 and 3 in January 2015. Mayor Nexsen asked if the General Plan Advisory Committee and the Zoning Advisory Committee were comprised of citizens, and if so, how many citizens are on the committees, to which Mr. Froslie said he believes there are approximately 12 members on the Zoning Advisory Committee and approximately 5 on the General Plan Advisory Committee. Mr. Froslie added that both committees consist of citizens’ at large as well as Councilmembers and members of the Planning & Zoning Commission. Mr. Froslie stated this would be a follow-up of the presentation to the City Council a few months ago. He said he was happy to report that the City, since May of 2014, has one full-time code enforcement officer, Mr. Luke Morris, and is currently in the recruitment process to hire one more code enforcement staff. Mr. Froslie reviewed the workload in code enforcement before and after May 2014. He said today, on average, it takes approximately 23 days to close a code enforcement complaint, which is less than the 30 days allowed by City Code. Mr. Froslie said Mr. Morris was assigned to categorize the types of complaints into two categories: 1) Title 14 Development Code – 31% of complaints, and 2) Title 8 Health and Safety – 69% of complaints. He said a re-write of Title 14 is included in the contract with Clarion; however, Title 8 is not under a contract to be revised. Mr. Froslie said Title 8 does have provisions for civil citations and fines. Mr. Froslie noted that the code enforcement portion of Title 14, as anticipated by staff, is rather small as the majority of complaints are outside Title 14. He further noted that although only 31% of the complaints that fall into zoning are Title 14, the process that is used and has been used for several years, is that all the code violations are enforced using the process in Title 14. Mr. Lake Havasu City Page 2 City Council Work Session Work Session Minutes - Final August 12, 2014 Froslie explained the current process under Title 14 which allows for 30 days compliance, a re-inspection fee (which has not been established but certainly could be), and if compliance is not met the case is turned over to the City prosecutor. Mr. Froslie stated that the Title 14 process is being revised because the citizens have said the process needs to be more robust. He discussed the following possible revisions under review in Title 14 “Administration and Enforcement”: • Use one enforcement process for all violation categories • Allow civil citation tickets for all violations (escalating fines for non-compliance) • Charge re-inspection fees • Establish an abatement program for messy yards (60% of complaints) • Mediation program • Vehicles parked in front yards Mayor Nexsen asked if Clarion or code enforcement was going to establish an education component of the code enforcement process, to which Code Enforcement Officer Luke Morris replied yes and added that it is fairly common for educational materials to be available on the City’s website or included with the contact/violation letter. Mr. Morris noted that often times the public is not even aware that they have a violation or what constitutes a violation. Mayor Nexsen said many other cities use a volunteer task force that assists with the abatement program and wondered if the City would be including this into the new abatement program as well. Mr. Froslie said the City has discussed citizen volunteers and the possible use of Police Department resources; however, they have not had any detailed discussion as to how to include it in the City Code. Mayor Nexsen said it may not need to be in the City Code but thought the call should go out to the citizens that are willing to volunteer because he has received many calls from citizens that are interested in helping. Councilmember Barlow said years ago there were two sources that would assist with cleanup around town and with messy yards: 1) City work release and 2) Keep Havasu Beautiful Committee. Mayor Nexsen said in thinking about the compliance timeframe and when a re-inspection fine could be assessed, he wondered what staff estimated the compliance timeframe to be once there is a second code enforcement officer. He said he does not want the Council to establish a timeframe that City staff cannot meet. Mr. Froslie said after the March 11th work session, the 30 day compliance timeframe was well received and everyone seemed comfortable with that timeframe. Mr. Froslie said the timeframe could be discussed further with Clarion if needed. Councilmember Alger said she would like to see the compliance timeframe stay at 30 days because there are citizens that may not have the help or the funding earlier than 30 days. Lake Havasu City Page 3 City Council Work Session Work Session Minutes - Final August 12, 2014 Councilmember McAtlin asked if there would be any provision in the City Code to deal with neighbors that are feuding and using code enforcement as harassment, to which Mr. Morris said the City does receive a number of repeat complaints from neighbors that are not getting along. Mr. Morris said sometimes a violation is not obvious and other times it is. Mr. Morris said he tries to mediate feuding neighbors and get voluntary compliance. He added that this is where an education program is beneficial and also the possibility of establishing a re-inspection fee for compliance. Councilmember Alger asked if there was something that the City could generate for those people that are repeatedly using code enforcement to harass their neighbors, not complaints that are for a specific purpose but just those little complaints over and over again. Councilmember Brister added that she would like to see something in place as well for those in-home businesses that are issued a violation letter, comply and close for a month or two, and then re-open until they are caught again running the same in-home business. Mr. Morris said these things could certainly be addressed by the consultant through the current re-write process. He said some language could be added that addresses automatic fines if the same complaint is opened again within a period of 180 days and fines could also escalate with repeat occurrences. Mr. Froslie added that he has discussed this with Clarion and adding language like this is not unique to just Lake Havasu City. He said many other cities and towns are facing the same code enforcement issues. Mayor Nexsen opened the public hearing. Mr. Don Bergen addressed the City Council and said he is concerned about the code enforcement process. He said years ago the code enforcement process was not restricted to complaint driven. He said this is a beautiful city and the City needs to see that the code is enforced. He said he has many years of background and feels qualified to serve on either the General Plan Advisory Committee or Zoning Advisory Committee, to which Mayor Nexsen stated he would see that Mr. Bergen get placed on these committees. Mayor Nexsen clarified that code enforcement has been complaint driven since he has served as Mayor. He wondered if there were other cities and towns that list the complaints and the address on their website to initiate compliance. City Manager Charlie Cassens said many times people call the City complaining that a property has too many cars or looks terrible, and while the property may look bad it is often times not in violation. He said when the City tells the complainant that it is not a violation they usually state that it should be. Mr. Cassens asked if these types of issues will be included in the process, to which Mr. Froslie replied that all of the codes are up for interpretation and are not necessarily Lake Havasu City Page 4 City Council Work Session Work Session Minutes - Final August 12, 2014 black and white. He said while some properties may not look nice there may not be a violation, and that is where the code enforcement officer has to use his or her best judgment to address the complaint and work with the person to get the property cleaned up. Mr. Froslie added that one of Clarion’s goals is to better define what a violation is and is not. He said the revised code is to make the enforcement process easier on staff. Mr. Cassens said the City is not looking to create new rules with respect to the number of vehicles on a lot or prohibit parking on only a driveway, to which Mr. Froslie said that was correct. He said the code is currently silent on the number of vehicles on a property. He added that there are many cities in Arizona that limit or regulate the number of vehicles on a property. He said more specifically cities in the valley area limit parking of vehicles on an improved surface only, which would be a nightmare for Lake Havasu City with the number of recreational vehicles parked on properties. He said to enforce something like this would be another full-time job, and questioned how the citizens would respond to the City enforcing something like this. Mr. Cassens said overall the City’s is to clean up the process and give code enforcement officers the tools they need to get compliance under the codes as they are written now. He said this process is not to start moving towards a Homeowners Association (HOA) type of community. Mayor Nexsen said he receives calls from those wanting the city to be cleaned up and others that like the way it is, he said until there is a clear message from the community on what they want to see he suggested that the City continue keeping record of the number and type of complaints to see what the community is reporting. Councilmember Barlow said he thought liening a property should be the last resort and was in favor of the City looking into code enforcement violations being publicized. Councilmember Barlow said he also has a distain for anonymous complaints. Councilmember Alger asked what happens if there are renters in a property that the City is looking to issue a lien on, to which City Attorney Kelly Garry said it would depend on the type of violation and under what process the City is looking at charging that person. She said if it has to do with the property then the City is going to go after the property owner and not the renter. Ms. Garry added that there are only very specific instances where the City would put a lien on a property. She stated that it would have to be advantageous to the City; otherwise, the City would go through a big exercise that may never result in anything. She said unless the City can get a priority on that lien by going through very specific statutes, the City is not likely to go through that process. Mr. Morris added that the current code enforcement process currently sends a violation notice to both the property owner and the occupant so that both are aware of a violation. Lake Havasu City Page 5 City Council Work Session Work Session Minutes - Final August 12, 2014 Mayor Nexsen asked when dealing with home-based business out of the garage, if code enforcement under the current code or planning code, is allowed to enter the garage, to which Mr. Morris replied no. He explained that if code enforcement is invited onto the property and allowed access then certainly; otherwise, the City would not have the authority to enter. Ms. Garry added that code enforcement does not have have the authority to go onto the property, inspect, open any doors, or anything like that without going through a search warrant type of process, which is not something that the City currently has in place. She said they are limited to what they can inspect and see from the street. Mr. Froslie said often times once a violator feels that the City is on to them they tend to stop what they are doing and then start up again at a later time. He said this can be handled by limiting the number of similar complaints in a specific amount of time. He said code enforcement also receives pictures and evidence from neighbors in regards to a complaint; however, the City cannot use this evidence in Court but the complainant could go to Court with the evidence and testify if they choose to do so. Mr. Froslie said staff would include some frequently asked questions and a list of the most common code enforcement complaints to the website to better educate the public. Mayor Nexsen said he would like to see information on the website that addresses home-based occupations and what particular actions are violations of the City Code. Mayor Nexsen said the City has zoning for a reason and there needs to be limits. Ms. Christine Bergen addressed the City Council regarding site distances. She said she sees a lot of areas around town that violate site distances. She asked if the City enforces the areas where site distances are blocked by things like trees, vehicles and signs. Mr. Cassens said if the site distance is a traffic and safety concern it would be something that the Police Department would handle; however, if it is a tree or something in the public right-of-way that is limiting the site distance, then the City can tend to those. Mr. Froslie said to his knowledge site distances are not written as an ordinance but are included in the offsite improvements for public right-of-way. He said the City maintains the public right-of-way; therefore, if there was something that was obscuring the site distance then the City would take care of it. Councilmember Barlow asked about home-based business licenses, to which Mr. Morris said there are business license applications for home-based businesses, and added that the City does receive complaints related to home-based businesses and those are documented and inspected. Lake Havasu City Page 6 City Council Work Session Work Session Minutes - Final August 12, 2014 Mr. Joe Tommila addressed the City Council regarding the current code enforcement process. He said once citizens are aware that code enforcement is out there enforcing and has the tools to work with, people become more apt to follow the laws. There being no further comments, Mayor Nexsen closed the public hearing. Mayor Nexsen said he feels like code enforcement is going in the right direction and asked if staff needed further direction from City Council. Mr. Froslie said the information from today’s discussion will be incorporated into the first draft of the revised language, which will be reviewed by the Planning & Zoning Commission and Zoning Advisory Committee, and brought before the City Council again to discuss the new language and enforcement process. Mayor Nexsen said these are very important topics and he wanted to encourage citizens to get involved and join the General Plan Advisory Committee or Zoning Advisory Committee. 6. ADJOURN Upon motion by Councilmember Callahan and seconded, the meeting adjourned at 5:39 p.m. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing is a full and true copy of the Work Session Meeting Minutes of the Lake Havasu City Council held on the 12th day of August 2014. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and posted, and that a quorum was present. ____________________________________ Kelly Williams, City Clerk Lake Havasu City Page 7