The Neighborhood Services Division of the Community Development Department works in partnership with citizens and businesses to promote and maintain a safe, healthy, and desirable living and working environment through the administration of the Property Maintenance, zoning, and right-of-way codes.
Staff in the Neighborhood Services Division enforce Chapter 4, Article 1 of the City Code, which is known as the Property Maintenance Code of the City of Independence. This Code is "to protect the public health, safety and welfare in all existing structures, residential and nonresidential, and on all existing premises by establishing minimum requirements and standards for premises, structures, equipment, and facilities for light, ventilation, space, heating, sanitation, protection from the elements, life safety, safety from fire and other hazards, and for safe and sanitary maintenance; fixing the responsibility of owners, operators and occupants; regulating the occupancy of existing structures and premises, and providing for administration, enforcement and penalties."
Enforcement of this Code is handled by eight full-time Property Maintenance Code Enforcement Officers. These officers manage over 10,000 cases annually, many of which are complaint-driven. Officers are assigned a "zone" of the City in which they perform enforcement activities.
The City has taken a number of actions to increase service delivery in this area in recent years, including the addition of two full-time positions, cross-training staff to perform multiple inspection activities, and increasing funding for abatement actions. These enhancements have had demonstrated success, including inspecting over 81% of code enforcement cases within five days or less, an 88% increase in proactive code enforcement by City staff, and reducing the timeline for dangerous building demolitions from 120 days to just 40 days.
In an effort to further this progress, specifically with regard to proactive code enforcement efforts, this resolution would encourage the City Manager to include funding in the Fiscal Year 2021-22 Submitted Budget to support the addition of a Property Maintenance Code Enforcement Officer dedicated exclusively to proactive code enforcement throughout the City of Independence.