DEBATE SET TO CONTINUE ON LOCAL CODES

After more than a year of deliberation among citizen groups, a minimum property maintenance code proposal now is in the hands of the Cape Girardeau City Council.

The council is expected to make a recommendation on the Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA) version of the code sometime in August.

City staff members have said the code is needed to ensure Cape Girardeau has safe and sanitary buildings. The city's Board of Appeals also has recommended adoption of the BOCA code.

But some of the council members have reacted strongly to the idea of expanding city government in the area of building regulations.

This newspaper has examined the issue by looking at similar property maintenance codes in other cities. Officials in those cities were interviewed as were those most affected by the measure: landlords, realtors and tenants.

Of course, each city is different and chooses different ways to enforce the minimum property maintenance code. Subsequent articles in this series will explain these enforcement methods.

This series will examine cities that have adopted building maintenance codes. But there are many cities in Missouri and the surrounding region that, like Cape Girardeau, have no such regulation.

In the past, the city staff has taken the position that the private sector, through market forces, would resolve the problems of inadequate and shoddy housing on its own.

But as the debate over housing assistance resurfaced this year, a recurring theme was that the private sector has failed to meet the housing needs of the city's low-income residents.

Proponents of the property maintenance code have said the city government should regulate those landlords who buy dilapidated, inexpensive properties with the intention of renting them to low-income tenants.

It's been proposed that the city either appoint a housing authority to build public housing or further regulate landlords with a minimum property maintenance code or both.

Without such action, proponents contend, not only will there continue to be a shortage of low-income housing in Cape Girardeau, but the city also will see its housing stock deteriorate.

Assistant City Manager Al Stoverink has said the city routinely gets complaints from tenants and adjoining property owners of substandard buildings.

The city now can do nothing about such complaints, which would change with a minimum property maintenance code.

Stoverink said most landlords work hard to keep their properties safe and clean, but those who don't must be regulated.

But council members, who met earlier this month with the Board of Appeals to discuss the BOCA property maintenance proposal, said they thought the measure was too intrusive.

Also, many landlords have objected that the code does nothing to protect property owners from tenants who damage their buildings and refuse to pay rent and utility bills.

Rick Murray, who supervises Cape Girardeau's inspection department, insists that rental properties are but a small part of the code. Technically, that's true the maintenance code would cover all properties in the city.

But officials in cities that handle building code violations on a complaint basis report that a vast majority of such cases regard complaints filed by a tenant against a landlord.

The city council plans to further study the proposed code before Aug. 15 the deadline for council members to submit to the city staff their suggested changes in the law. The council also plans to conduct a public hearing on the issue in August.