ACTION REQUESTED:
Title
Communication from the City Manager and the Community Development Director with a Request to ADOPT an ORDINANCE Amending Chapter 5 and Chapter 32 of the CODE of the City of Peoria Pertaining to CRIMINAL HOUSING MANAGEMENT.
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BACKGROUND: During the City Council meeting on January 26th, Councilwoman Jensen asked why the current ordinance regarding Criminal Housing Management is rarely used. (As indicated by staff in the Council Communication.) The current ordinance states that that correcting the violation constitutes a valid defense and thus the fine is dismissed. Thus, putting the property into the Hearing Officer and citing the code violations have the same result. The current change allows City staff to impose a fine on a property owner for the violations existing and leaves the fine in place even if the violations are corrected.
The Community Development Department continues to look for ways to strengthen ordinance language to decrease blight in neighborhoods and provide safe housing options for citizens in the City of Peoria.
The current code has a section on criminal housing management that is rarely used. One of the major flaws in the current language is that the prosecution process involves sending it to the Hearing Officer, as defined in Chapter 5 of the Code of the City of Peoria, Illinois. One aspect of this prosecution process states a viable defense is that the violation has been corrected. While often the goal is compliance, there is occasion where Staff feels conditions were so poor that simply allowing the conditions to exist in the first place constitutes criminal housing management, and the property owner should be punished. By strengthening the language and changing the prosecution process to what is identified in Chapter 32, property owners who create situations that endanger the health and safety of the inhabitant can be fined accordingly. These cases will be presented to the Administrative Hearing Officer who will determine if the conditions existed at the time the citation was issued, and a defense that the violation has been corrected will not be allowed.
In addition, the ordinance will be amended to make it a criminal housing management violation to move a person into a property when health and life-threating violations exist as defined in Chapter 5-531 of the Code of the City of Peoria, Illinois. The fine range for a violation of this ordinance is $500 to $5,000.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: N/A
NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERNS: Neighborhoods are negatively impacted by property owners who willingly allow their properties to deteriorate without correcting code violations.
IMPACT IF APPROVED: The Community Development Department and the Police Department will have additional tools to enhance neighborhoods and public safety.
IMPACT IF DENIED: The status quo will remain.
ALTERNATIVES: NA
EEO CERTIFICATION NUMBER: NA
WHICH OF THE GOALS IDENTIFIED IN THE COUNCIL’S 2014 - 2029 STRATEGIC PLAN DOES THIS RECOMMENDATION ADVANCE?
1. Attractive Neighborhoods with Character: Safe and Livable
2. Grow Peoria: Businesses, Jobs, and Population
WHICH CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR(S) FROM THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN DOES THIS RECOMMENDATION IMPLEMENT?
1. Reinvest in neighborhoods.
2. Reduce crime.
DEPARTMENT: Community Development