Simi Property Maintenance Code Gets Preliminary OK

After more than a year of discussion, debate and design, the City Council gave preliminary approval Monday to a proposed ordinance targeting residents and businesses who neglect to maintain their properties.

Clearing one of its final hurdles before being added to the city’s civic codes, the Property Maintenance Ordinance received praise from the entire council after a staff presentation.

It will come before the council again for final approval within a month.

“This is probably one of the most important documents to come before the council,” said Councilwoman Barbara Williamson, who has made aesthetics in Simi Valley a priority this year. “I’m really happy with the result . . . it’s a heck of a document.”

Though the city already has a body of civic codes to ensure that building, property and maintenance standards are maintained, officials said the proposed ordinance will target only “egregious” violators whose properties have not only become an eyesore and burden for the surrounding neighborhood, but are also safety hazards.

In addition to hailing the ordinance for adding teeth to a section of municipal governance that lacks bite, officials said the measure would go a long way toward averting situations such as the years spent trying to get the crumbling former Sears building on Tapo Street demolished.

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“It’s something the city needs, particularly with an aging housing stock,” said Joe Hreha, deputy director of community services. “I think that 10 years from now the people of Simi Valley will thank us.”

As written, the ordinance would target only properties that have fallen into such a state of disrepair that their presence has become a detriment to the neighborhood.

Grass that hasn’t been mowed in a few weeks would not be enough of a problem to attract the attention of the city’s code enforcement officers.

Rather, the ordinance would focus on neglected properties with severe structural damage and those littered with refuse.

Though the proposal has garnered support from the city’s neighborhood councils, the Simi Valley and Moorpark Assn. of Realtors, Chamber of Commerce and many residents, some have criticized the measure for its vague wording and said it could possibly open the door to abuse.

During a screening of the proposed ordinance at Neighborhood Council 4’s March meeting, chairman Bill Harris vehemently objected to what he saw as a blatant disregard for the rights of property owners.

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Although he said he understood the city’s motivation, Harris said the absence of quantifiable standards and some requirements for interior inspection of private property would fly in the face of constitutional rights.

However, city officials and those who drafted the ordinance said that because it outlines a complex and multileveled process of appeal, fears of such abuse of property owners are unfounded.

“Within the ordinance is a process that gives those property owners the means to appeal decisions made by code enforcers,” said City Atty. David Hirsch. “It’s a procedure that gives them ample recourse.”

Though it shares some aspects with an anti-slumlord ordinance adopted by the city of Thousand Oaks last month, the Simi Valley ordinance’s main goal is to give the city the ammunition it needs to address severe building and maintenance code violations in an efficient and timely manner.

And although it relies on standards that are open to interpretation, code enforcement officials said it will give the city the ability to act more quickly in the interest of the community.

“The ordinance is not designed to punish anybody,” Hirsch said. “It’s a way for the city to gain compliance, that’s all.”