Minutes - Council Work Session - 09/24/2024

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Community Development Director Hanson said she can bring back more information to the next Work Session as it pertains to the code enforcement aspects. Councilmember Woestehoff shared that he calculated the numbers in Councilmember Howell’s proposal and for the Greenway Terrace apartment building it would work out to be $528 an hour versus $170 an hour for a single-family home. He asked what the ratio is for punitive costs towards multi-family buildings. He said this does not seem acceptable. Councilmember Howell said this is only one example of the main apartment complexes in the City. She added that some apartment units have higher rents than the same size single-family units. She stated she does not see how this is punitive. Councilmember Woestehoff stated he is not in support of this high of a rate for apartment buildings. He noted that he is okay with lowering the single-family license fee to around $200; however, he does not think they should go any higher than $30 a unit for apartment buildings. Councilmember Specht shared that he would be supportive of lowering the cost per unit for apartments if they were able to keep the single-family license fee around $200. Councilmember Riley asked if they would want to consider people who own only one to two rental properties at a lower rate and have a different rate for corporations that own many rental properties. He said it is a completely different narrative between small rental property owners and corporations. Councilmember Musgrove noted that the code already talks about owners with four or more units or four or less units. Community Development Director Hanson said this section has to do with duplexes or four unit homes that are in the City. Councilmember Howell shared that she wants there to be more opportunities for people to rent without government subsidies. She noted that if these landlords who offer these lower rents are forced out of business, then there will be less opportunities for affordable housing in the City. Councilmember Olson said the single-family license fee definitely needs to come down and the multi-unit license fee needs to go up. The consensus of the Council was to direct Staff to lower the single-family license fee to $200, keep the multi-unit building fee at $600, increase the per unit cost to $30 per apartment unit, and phase out the tiered program. 2.04: Code Enforcement Program Discussion Community Development Director Hanson reviewed the Staff report in regard to discussing the code enforcement program. City Council Work Session / September 24, 2024 Page 8 of 13