One meeting left for Washington vacant building code

WASHINGTON — City council members completed the second of three public readings on a new ordinance governing vacant building management Tuesday night. That leaves just one more meeting — scheduled for Sept. 5 — for community members to voice any concerns about the rules before they’re written into municipal law.

If it passes after a final reading, the chapter would require that unused and underused buildings be registered with the city, with owners paying an annual fee. That fee hasn’t been set yet by the city’s elected officials, but an earlier draft of the code suggested an amount of $25 with a penalty of $10 per day for late submissions.

Registered buildings would be subject to occasional “on-site evaluations” to determine their compliance with several maintenance standards as well as already established fire, building, and housing safety codes.

As it’s written, the policy would apply to buildings that are unoccupied by people or businesses for a year, as well as partially vacant buildings, including any with a “floor that is at least 50% vacant above basement level.” Publicly available meeting materials from Tuesday night said property owners would have until Jan. 1, 2024 to register before incurring late fees.

Unlike an earlier draft of the code, the version lined up for approval next month is limited to the Main Street Washington district, rather than the smaller Historical District which is closer to downtown.

“The main reason was so we can tap into that Main Street funding and leverage all that,” said Bethany Glinsmann, a city council member who was on the ordinance’s drafting committee. “The districts almost overlap, but not entirely.”

Terry Philips, another drafting committee member as well as a downtown building owner, said the city was committed to collaborating with property owners under the proposed chapter, and added that he hoped to see more support for the area moving forward.

Philips said decision-makers had discussed information sharing programs and potential building improvement grants during their meetings. While such commitments were ultimately left out of the ordinance now before council members, he said he hoped to see them come up again soon.

“The city is taking the attitude that we want to help building owners as much as possible to get them to having their buildings being productive,” he said at the policy’s first public reading Aug. 1. “This isn’t a penalty to building owners, it’s something to help them … I hope the council can look on this later on and say, ‘OK, how can we build on this ordinance?’”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com