Fairfield council pursues action against dilapidated properties

FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield City Council has taken the next step in its mission to improve the housing stock in town, and that is to clean up dilapidated properties.

During the council’s meeting on Dec. 18, the members voted unanimously to proceed with legal action against seven structures in Fairfield that have become dilapidated and whose owners have not brought them up to code. Five of the seven properties belong to Mary Welch, who appeared before the council to argue that she was making progress on fixing up her properties.

“I have been a landlord in this city for 30 years, and this is the first time I am being made to face the committee like this to talk about my properties,” Welch said.

Welch said that, for her property at 306 E. Burlington Ave., she was given a list of 26 items to address, and that she had completed all 26. Welch said that, for her property at 303 N. Sixth St., she had a tenant at that property last year until the code enforcement officer performed an inspection and ordered the tenant to vacate. Welch said the list of repairs she was required to do was a “typical list” that she would do on an annual basis.

Members of the council, as well as Fairfield Mayor Connie Boyer and Fairfield Code Enforcement Weston McKee, contested Welch’s claim that she had made substantial progress, saying that some of the nuisances have been a problem for years.

One of Welch’s properties that received special attention was the building she owns on the east side of Fairfield’s square (57-59 N. Court St.), what locals refer to as the former JC Penny building and which until just a couple of months ago leased space to the restaurant Noodle House on its ground floor.

The council voted to give Welch four months to make substantial progress on bringing her downtown building up to code. For the other six properties under review, the council voted to begin legal proceedings under Iowa Code 657A, which refers to abating a nuisance caused by an abandoned or unsafe building. The process is designed to give property owners ample time to fix the nuisances on their properties, and if they fail to do so in that span of time, the city will take possession of the property.

McKee told The Union that several of Welch’s properties have been on the city’s radar for years, where the city cited Welch for code violations. McKee inspected Welch’s downtown building last year because it had apartments on its second floor, and he discovered “substantial” leaks in the roof.

“It had not passed an inspection by the fire marshal, and it had quite a few electrical problems that needed to be addressed,” McKee said. “We made a list of 59 deficiencies.”

McKee and the city decided the property was in such bad shape that it was no longer safe for people to inhabit its second floor apartments, and gave the tenants 48 hours to vacate. When that was done in November 2022, McKee said the city did not require the ground floor tenant, Noodle House, to move out because there was no water damage directly above the business, even while the rest of the building had water damage on its ceilings.

In October, Noodle House decided to move out of that building into a new home a block north on North Court Street. McKee said the business made that decision on its own, and it was not because the city had asked Noodle House to move out.

McKee said that he and the members of the council agreed that giving Welch four months was sufficient to bring her downtown building up to code.

“We’ve been doing this for over a year with her,” McKee said. “She has put a new roof on it.”

McKee said the city expects to see progress on fixing the building’s leaks, bringing its electrical up to code, satisfying the fire marshal’s requirements, adding smoke detectors and addressing the mold problems.

“All of those things would be first on the list versus fixing things like painting,” McKee said.

McKee said nobody in city government wants to become a landlord for these properties, and they all hope that the owners will bring them up to code so the city does not need to take possession of them. However, if they are not brought up to code and the city must take them over, the city would then need to decide whether to fix them up, sell the properties to an investor, or demolish them.

“We would decide that on a case-by-case basis,” McKee said. “If a property still has a good foundation with good walls and a roof, it might be a project someone would bid on.”

McKee said he believes it’s important for the city to clean up dilapidated and abandoned properties not only because they are eye sores but also because they’re safety hazards.

“One of the properties we’re looking at has squatters inside, and neighbors have said they’re afraid to go outside because of the activities at the house,” McKee said. “[Abandoned homes] attract things to the neighborhood that you don’t want going on.”

Fairfield council member Paul Gandy is chair of the property committee that looked into these dilapidated properties. He said that improving the city’s stock of quality and affordable housing is its “single most pressing issue,” and that part of that process involves making sure existing properties meet the city’s standards.

“It’s about the economic development of the city, making property safer and more appealing,” he said.

Gandy said that Fairfield is able to devote more resources to code enforcement now that its code enforcement officer is fulltime. Before McKee was hired in 2022, Fairfield’s code enforcement position was part-time and held by Scott Vaughan, who was also the city’s fire chief.

“Our city staff has done a thorough job of providing multiple notices to these landlords, detailing the code violations and what we expect them to do,” Gandy said. “What happened [at the Dec. 18 meeting] was no surprise to any landlord. From the evidence we’ve gathered, from the pictures and documents, it should not have been a surprise. We’ve given [Welch] ample time to correct these deficiencies, and unfortunately we saw the same response, where promises were made but not necessarily the follow through.”

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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