On May 17, 2016 the City Commission adopted the International Property Maintenance Code (PMC) as Chapter 1450 to the City of Battle Creek ordinances. With this adoption, several other ordinance chapters were repealed, including: Chapter 636 - Junk Vehicles; 692 - Weeds and Noxious Vegetation; and 1460 - Minimum Standards.
This ordinance, 08-2016, was introduced at the June 7, 2016 City Commission meeting.
As Code Compliance began implementing the changes related to the adoption of the PMC, it was discovered that several other chapters of our ordinances make reference to sections of the repealed ordinances and, in some instances, there are inconsistencies in other chapters when compared to the PMC. The following revisions are necessary to provide consistency with Chapter 1450, PMC:
Chapter 842 - Rental Housing.
The PMC provides that appeals are heard by a "Board of Appeals." Our ordinances currently provide for a "Housing Board of Appeals." The recently adopted PMC governs standards for both residential structures and non-residential structures, thus it is necessary to revise the name of the appeals board to the "Board of Appeals."
Chapter 1454: Dangerous Buildings.
Changes to this chapter include revisions to cross references which contain repealed statutes and ordinances. References throughout this chapter to the "Housing Code of the City" and/or Chapter 1460 were made to instead state PMC and/or Chapter 1450. Numerous references to the "Housing Board of Appeals" have been revised to state the "Board of Appeals," consistent with the PMC.
Chapter 1462: Administration, Enforcement and Penalty.
Cross-references were revised to current statutes and ordinances, and repealed sections were deleted. Numerous references to the "Housing Code" were revised to the PMC.
Section 1462.10 sets out requirements for Orders to Repair and Correct, with specific references to several sections of the now repealed Chapter 1460. Those references were updated to the parallel provisions in the PMC. 1462.14 contains similar revisions. Section 1462.17 regarding Appeals was revised to make that process consistent with the PMC, including lengthening the time within which to appeal. Section 1462.20's references to the now repealed Housing Code were revised to the applicable section of the PMC. All references to the Housing Board of Appeals were revised to "Board of Appeals."
Chapter 1464: Housing Board of Appeals.
Cross-references were revised to eliminate repealed statutes and ordinances. The name of the appeals board is changed from Housing Board of Appeals to "Board of Appeals" consistent with the application of the PMC as noted above. References to the now repealed Chapter 1460 were changed to reflect the applicable section of the PMC. References to Chapter 636, Junk Vehicles, were deleted. The membership of the Board of Appeals was revised in Section 1464.12 to reflect the requirements in the PMC. Most notably, this removes from membership any city employees.
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