AUGUSTA — A proposed property maintenance ordinance – modified by the addition of a ban on boarded-up windows and a requirement that occupied buildings remain connected to utilities such as electricity and water – is up for City Council consideration Thursday.
Those changes are the latest revisions made since the ordinance was proposed last November. They are meant to address both aesthetic and public health concerns, city officials said.
The city, according to development director Matt Nazar, has discovered a number of occupied properties where the water has been turned off.
They include an Eastern Avenue apartment building the city shut down and ordered tenants to vacate March 24 where, tenants said, they hadn’t had running water since February.
An addition to the proposed ordinance would forbid building owners to shut off or remove utilities and services required by city codes from occupied buildings, except temporarily if necessary to do repairs or alterations.
It applies only to occupied buildings, so the owners of homes left unoccupied, such as “snowbirds” who go south for the winter, still could have utilities turned off in their homes while they are away, Nazar said.
Another change is that the proposed ordinance would not allow any boarded-up windows. The draft document states, “Every window and skylight shall be kept in sound condition, good repair and be weather-tight.”
Owners of buildings that already have boarded-up windows would have – if and when the ordinance is approved and takes effect – 30 days to come into compliance. However, the ordinance notes owners of such buildings could comply by contacting the code enforcement office and submitting a reasonable plan and date by which their building would come into compliance.
The proposed new ordinance goes to councilors at 7 p.m. Thursday in the council chambers at Augusta City Center, for the first of two readings required for approval.
Other changes to the original proposal include an exemption to requirements that properties be kept free of tall weeds if they are wetlands.
Keith Edwards can be contacted at 621-5647 or at:
kedwards@centralmaine.com
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