Washington City Council requires sidewalks in new housing developments

    The Washington City Council has passed an ordinance that requires sidewalks on newly developed land. The council passed the ordinance unanimously at its meeting Wednesday night. Under the new ordinance, the city council would no longer need to give a specific order to a property owner to force him to install a sidewalk. The property owner would be required to pay the expense of the sidewalk.

    At a previous council meeting, Mayor Sandra Johnson asked the council if property owners would have to pay for ?sidewalks to nowhere? which did not connect to another sidewalk or street corner. Councilor Karen Wilson-Johnson said the ordinance would require them to do that, but that they could request a waiver from the city council if they had a reason the ordinance should not apply.

    City Attorney Craig Arbuckle gave a report on the Mills Seed Building. At the council?s Dec. 15 meeting, Building and Zoning official Steve Donnelly told the council he communicated with employees of Jeremy Patterson House Moving and believed he would be able to enter the building that week. On Wednesday, Arbuckle reported that Donnelly has not been granted access to the property as requested.

    ?I have proceeded to make preparations to obtain that access,? said Arbuckle.

    Arbuckle explained that he has ordered a lien search on the property, the results of which should be available next week.

    Councilor Bob Shepherd reminded the council that the structure was declared a dangerous building in the fall of 2009 when it was owned by Larry and Mary Raid. Jeremy Patterson later purchased the building from the Raids and moved it to its current location on North Iowa last February.

?We voted it was a dangerous building for a number reasons,? said Shepherd. ?Do we have a report as to whether those reasons have been mitigated??

Arbuckle responded, ?Because the structure was transported to a different site, we have to start over and make all our determinations starting from scratch.?

For the full story, see the Jan. 6 edition of The Washington Evening Journal