Tuesday, March 14, 2006 — Piqua Daily Call
Proposed code changes outlined
Large crowd turns
out for meeting
BY BECCA MANNING
Staff Writer
bmanning@dailycall.com
PIQUA — About 80 people
attended a public meeting Mon-
day evening to hear proposed
revisions to the city’s building
regulations, property mainte-
nance and nuisance codes that
city officials say would bring
Piqua’s codes up-to-date and
align them with state require-
ments.
Planning and Zoning Super-
visor Chris Schmiesing and
Health and Sanitation Director
Amy Welker presented the pro-
posals at the meeting, which
was followed by time for citizens
to voice questions and concerns.
The code revisions — which
will go before Piqua City Com-
mission for a first reading at the
March 20 meeting — were
based on “hours of review and
research” conducted by the
city’s Neighborhood Improve-
ment Team (NIT) and members
of the police, fire and health de-
partments, planning and zon-
ing office and public works
office, with guidance from the
city manager, law director and
Miami County chief building of-
ficial, Schmiesing said.
“We’re all here primarily for
the same reason, and that’s for
the betterment of our commu-
nity,” Schmiesing said at the
meeting.
Copies of the code revisions
were available on a table at the
front of the room and also are
available through the city’s Web
site, www.piquaoh.org/nit_pro-
posed_changes.htm, at Flesh
Public Library or through city
offices, Schmiesing said.
Building regulations changes
are based on a bill passed by
state legislators in 2005 that es-
tablishes a standard statewide
universal residential code and
requires all municipalities to
adopt it as their own by May 27,
Schmiesing said.
The proposed change would
adopt the state’s residential
building code, revising a city
code which hasn’t been thor-
oughly updated for about 20
years, Schmiesing said.
The state also now requires
all local permits to be distrib-
uted by a state-certified licens-
ing agency. Previously, the city
has provided permits for resi-
dential projects and referred
commercial permit requests to
the Miami County Building
Regulations Department.
Under the NIT-proposed revi-
sions, all permits will be dis-
tributed and building
inspections done by the county
department, with all zoning
permits still approved through
the city’s planning and zoning
commission, Schmiesing said.
“It will establish a consis-
tency between the two permit
processes (commercial and res-
idential) that I’m quite certain
will eliminate some confusion
and, in general, improve the
process all the way around,” he
said.
City staff also are working on
a citizen’s guide to planning and
zoning that outlines the permit
process including what boards
and committees are involved,
said Schmiesing, who hopes to
have the handbook available at
the same time the city makes
the transition over to a county-
directed permit process.
“Sometimes you come for-
ward with a project and it’s not
a slam dunk over-the-counter
here’s your permit have a nice
day kind of thing,” Schmiesing
said. “... The concept there is to
share with you some general in-
formation to help you better un-
derstand the process so that
there are fewer surprises for
you as you’re going through a
building permit process.”
Revisions to the city’s prop-
erty maintenance and nuisance
codes also reflect an update that
is long overdue, Welker said.
Piqua’s nuisance code hasn’t
been fully updated since 1979,
and the city’s property mainte-
nance code still refers to the
1996 code written by the Build-
ing Officials and Code Adminis-
trators International, Inc.
(BOCA), which no longer exists
and has since become part of
the International Code Council.
The revisions would adopt
the latest ICC code as the city’s
property maintenance code,
with some amendments to ad-
dress local issues, Welker said.
She listed several specific
changes including: building se-
curity (requiring all residences
to have exterior doors and win-
dows that lock); protective
treatment (a more inclusive
paint policy that would require
all exterior surfaces of a prop-
erty to be properly maintained);
and tighter grafitti regulations
that would require any grafitti
on a property to be removed
within 72 hours.
“There’s been a lot of re-
search in terms of graftiti and
things like broken windows,
and the research shows that the
faster you eliminate those items
the less likely they are to recur,”
Welker said. “We don’t have a
huge problem in Piqua with
grafitti or things of that nature
but we don’t want to have a
huge issue with it either, so we
would like to see those items re-
moved as quickly as possible.”
Revisions also would affect
the penalties section of the
property maintenance code, in-
cluding increasing the penalty
for violations to a first-degree
misdemeanor, Welker said.
“The reason for doing that is
the city has made property
maintenance and these build-
ing issues a priority in the city,
and we want to convey that
we’re serious, that we want our
city to look better, we want peo-
ple to be happy to live here,” she
said.
Currently, nuisance code is
used to address issues such as
trash and debris and high grass
grown up around a property but
could be expanded to address
vacant propteries, abandon-
ment of tires and properties
that are considered to have a
“blighting influence” on the sur-
rounding neighborhood, Welker
said.
The proposed revisions
would “align the code more with
how we actually do business,”
Welker said. “We’d also like to
give ourselves more latitude to
deal with certain situations
that we haven’t had a good code
to address in the past.”
One way this section would
be revised is to change the time-
frame for nuisance abatement
from 30 days to “a reasonable
time frame,” as determined by
city officials — usually five to 10
days, Welker said.
She said most of the time the
city doesn’t give property own-
ers 30 days to address nuisance
issues because the problem
often has existed for some time
already. The change would
“more accurately describe what
we actually do.”
Penalties for nuisance viola-
tions also would be increased to
a first-degree misdemeanor
under the new revisions,Welker
said. And the change would
pass along the city’s adminis-
trative costs of abatement (such
as extra trash pick-up and re-
moval) to the offender.
Among those present at the
meeting were all five city comis-
sioners including Mayor Tom
Hudson, who suggested the
group find a way to address re-
peat offenders who are con-
stantly in violation of city codes.
Don Emery, a former city
comissioner, said he appreciated
the dedication of those involved
in the planning process but also
wanted to make sure the city
maintained communication
with property owners and resi-
dents.
“One thing that deeply con-
cerns me is that we provide the
resources to these people right
here — not only money but peo-
ple, because this is going to be a
large job,” Emery said. “In order
to be successful, when people
call you to complain about a sit-
uation it is addressed, that it’s
not pushed aside. And if you’re
dealing with an issue you at
least let those people know
you’re dealing with the prob-
lem.”