STARKVILLE – The board of aldermen are eyeing higher fines among other changes to its proposed chronic nuisance properties ordinance following the first public hearing held Tuesday night at City Hall.
Currently the proposal allows a fine of up to $100 per day to be issued to properties identified as chronic nuisance by the police chief. Any property on which a combination of three or more “nuisance activities,” like code violations or public disturbances, occur during a six-month period could be labeled as a nuisance property under the drafted ordinance.
Ward 1 Alderwoman Kim Moreland requested the ordinance draft be changed so the fine be assessed at a minimum of $100 per day, noting that some of the properties garnering frequent complaints are affordable housing options that can receive ad valorem tax exemptions.
“This ordinance is about accountability and responsible use of public resources,” Moreland wrote in a text to The Dispatch. “Our hope is that it will help reduce the number of repeated calls for service to certain properties, including complexes that benefit from favorable tax-credit incentives.”
State law allows for properties that contain affordable rental housing to have its property taxes adjusted so the tax burden reflects the value of the unit’s current rental price instead of market value.
Moreland hopes the ordinance with her proposed changes would help relieve “unnecessary demand” on Starkville Police Department.
Police Chief Mark Ballard previously told The Dispatch he hopes if this ordinance passes it will help address the high call volume the department receives from specific properties.
SPD received 286 calls to one of the two properties between Jan. 1 and July 31, a call volume that Ballard called disproportionate compared to other area apartment complexes and a significant drain for the department. He identified one of those properties as the Brookville Garden Apartments complex on Everglade Avenue. Ballard previously declined to identify the other property.
Brookville Garden Apartments is owned by Madison-based Triangle Development Company, which did not respond to The Dispatch’s request for comment prior to press time.
Moreland told The Dispatch she plans to work alongside Ward 2 Alderwoman Sandra Sistrunk to draft a new version of the ordinance they can present to the rest of the board by Sept. 15. Moreland said she is considering making the new maximum $1,000 per day, but Sistrunk said they have not yet settled on a proposed ceiling.
Sistrunk hopes there will be two drafts of the ordinance up for discussion at the next public hearing.
“I think Kim has a valid concern that when you say that the fine can be ‘up to,’ it also gives you that opportunity to not have any fine or not something that gets the landlord’s attention,” Sistrunk told The Dispatch. “… By the time you’ve met the definition of a nuisance property, there needs to be something that goes along with being defined that way.”
Under the drafted ordinance, the police chief is authorized to identify properties as chronic nuisance properties based on documented law enforcement activity or other conditions negatively impacting the surrounding neighborhood as well as repeated code violations.
Nuisance activity as any criminal conduct including discharging of firearms, domestic violence crimes and public disturbance noises, among others.
“I’m hoping if nothing else this will help with the affordable housing situation if we can get some of these apartment complexes under control,” Moreland told The Dispatch. “… We do have affordable housing in this town, it’s just not where anybody wants to live because of (the frequent police calls).”
Other changes
Moreland told The Dispatch that she is also considering creating a draft of the ordinance that only includes criminal actions as part of the documented law enforcement activity as she is concerned having both criminal and civil action in one ordinance could slow down enforcement.
Sistrunk said she was not sure of her opinion on Moreland’s proposal because the ordinance could allow the board to intervene before a property reached a status where it needed to be condemned. But she did understand Moreland’s points and has not made a decision on her stance.
Prior to Tuesday night’s public hearing, a clause that will allow the ordinance to be adopted effective immediately if it is passed by the board unanimously was added.
“It is, in my opinion, a public health, safety and welfare issue and those always rise to immediate concern and so those properties, (that Ballard flagged), are hopefully in the process of doing better but if they are not we will be able to begin assessing that quicker.”
The second public hearing for the chronic nuisance ordinance will be held at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 15 in City Hall. At that time, the board can vote on the changes. If the ordinance passes unanimously, SPD can begin enforcement the following morning, board of alderman attorney Berk Huskison told The Dispatch.
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