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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMay 2, 2006 C/C Minutes ., .' ! Meridian City Council May 2. 2006 Page 16 of 63 Item 8: ADoeal Hearina for Order to Remove Junk Vehicle bv Steven Cady with Meridian Cherry Lane Mobile Home Park: De Weerd: Thanks, Len. Item 8 is an appeal hearing for order to remove junk vehicles by Steve Cady -- Cady. Cady. Mr. Nary, you want to kind of introduce this, give a little background? Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Yes, what you have before you is a little unusual. We don't see very many of these. This is an appeal hearing under the city code. A city official, which can be a member of either the city clerk's office, the police department, the fire department, or the building department, may give notice to an individual that there are junk vehicles or junk property on their property and they need to be removed within ten days. After that notice is given, the owner of the property has the opportunity to appeal that action to you. It doesn't give any parameters in the ordinance as to what information they need to provide you to -- to appeal that, whether the property belongs to them, whether they need more time, whether there is other issues that they may want to raise, they certainly have the ability to do any of that. It's fairly open in our ordinance. That's the case you have in front of you. There has been a notice of order to remove. There is a unique circumstance. The property owner here, Mr. Cady, that's in front of you, is purchasing the property in question. The property is the Cherry Lane Mobile Home Park. The titled owner is Agnes -- is it Hoff, sir? Did I get that right? Cady: It's Seeley now. It was Hoff. Nary: Okay. Okay. She's still the titled owner, but Mr. Cady has provided a -- essentially, a purchase and sale agreement from 1986 that he is still indicating that he is paying on that and he is in the process of purchasing that property still. The concern -- or the issue only for the city -- and you may want to establish that in Mr. Cady's testimony -- is that he has the ability take action of whatever direction the Council makes in this and that he is the proper person in authority to make those -- to make that decision and carry out whatever direction you have. There is, in our city code, the ability to order removal of the property, to order criminal prosecution if the property isn't removed timely. There is direction to order removal and billing of the property owner for that removal, as well as assessing that onto their tax rolls, other properties, so that it will be paid at some juncture, whether it's currently or at sale. There is a number of remedies that the Council has. What I would suggest for the Council from our hearing standpoint tonight is Mr. Venneman is here from the code enforcement, he can give you some background as to how we got here, what code enforcement's contacts with the property owners have been to this point, what information they provided and when the notices were given. Notices on your laser fiche -- and that was a letter from code enforcement that was provided to the property owner, that Mr. Cady has responded to. Just for the record, that notice to clean the premises was dated April 6 of 2006. That was given, again, to Agnes -- the person on the title is Agnes Hoff, the owner of Cherry Lane Mobile Home Park. Mr. Cady did file his response on April 20th, which was compliant with the statute from when it was sent -- or, excuse me, compliant with our ordinance " Meridian City Council May 2, 2006 Page 17 of 63 and I think that's probably it from an introductory standpoint. So, after Mr. Venneman has given you the city's side of what contacts they have had, Mr. Cady can, then, have the opportunity rebut any of that information or provide you any other information that he has in regards to this appeal. De Weerd: Mr. Cady, I will ask Mr. Venneman to give us an overview and, then, I'll ask for your comments. Okay. Thank you. Venneman: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this matter was first brought to code enforcement's attention the latter part of January of this year. One of the officers on patrol for the Meridian Police Department advised us of a number of vehicles that were parked and being stored at the northern most end of the trailer park -- Cherry Lane Trailer Park, located at 314 West Cherry Lane. We subsequently went out and we did an inventory on the number of vehicles that were there. On January 23rd we found that there were 22 vehicles there, including trailers. They consisted of a wide variety of situations, meaning some were fairly dilapidated, in bad condition, others no current registration or plates. We, then, proceeded to contact Mr. Cady, after learning that he was the owner or the manager of the park, and he subsequently agreed that these vehicles needed to be removed, felt that they might be a detriment to the park. We, then, kind of did a back and forth over some time and we provided him with what limited information we could, given privacy issues, as to who the owners were. He, then, advised us that he was going to try and attempt to locate the owners of the cars and the trailers and have them removed. If they did not do so, then, he was going to tag them and ultimately have them towed. Of significance is the fact that this trailer park does have two postings, one on the east entrance and one on the back side, that clearly state that unauthorized vehicles will be towed at the owner's direction. As Mr. Nary mentioned, on April 6th a certified letter went out to Mr. Cady advising him that he was in violation. That letter was directed to Mrs. Hoff, our information at the time being that she was the registered owner of the property. That letter went out primarily because there was still 14 vehicles remaining on the premises. To Mr. Cady's credit, he did have some vehicles removed, but as of yesterday there was still 11 vehicles present and as far as code's concerned-he still remains in violation. De Weerd: Thank you. Any questions for staff at this time? Okay. Mr. Cady, if you will, please, state your name and address for the record. Cady: Steven Cady. 5120 West Cherry Lane, Meridian, Idaho. De Weerd: Thank you very much. Cady: I believe as of today we are actually in compliance with the letter that was sent to us. There are still, I believe, six vehicles in the compound, in the parking area, which, as Joe said, is on the north side of our property. It's approximately 1,300 feet off of Cherry Lane. It's not visible from the road. We have 25 marked parking stalls for our residents and/or their guests. To my knowledge, all but possibly one of the vehicles is licensed, has current plates on it. We have had everything else removed or the owners have Meridian City Council May 2, 2006 Page 18 of 63 removed them. Our biggest probably concern with what has happened through this is that for -- as Joe said, for 20 plus years I have owned the mobile home park and from time to time we do have people -- shall we say use our parking stalls that we have no clue who they are and we find out that normally and once or twice a year we have things removed. Normally in the spring. About now. But we do have a lot of residents who are lower income residents, who have vehicles, have trailers, possibly don't -- they don't use a lot -- that they don't necessarily maintain a registration on, they are perfectly operable, they don't have flat tires or anything else. That's -- that's my biggest concern is that, you know, it is private property, they are not a nuisance, they are not an eye sore. They are properly parked. You know, the tires are full. They just don't have a current tag. You know, I understand the wiggle room issue and, believe me, I deal with residents every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. So, I know what you're saying. That's the only thing that I'm concerned about is the residents who have these vehicles -- I mean one of the pictures there you will see is a relatively nice moving van of some sort. One of our residents owns it. It's got a license plate on it. I think it was expired three or four months ago. You know, to require him to just have a license plate to have it parked there when he might not use it for a year or two, if he maintains it, I don't know that that's absolutely reasonable. As a landlord, if it were a junked item, I would have it removed, as we had several removed. We had about four or five towed, because we couldn't find the owners. Or we could find a couple of the owners and they just said we don't care, do whatever you want to do with them. So, we got rid of them. But the ones that are left are either now licensed or they are residents -- all of them are residents of our mobile home park and whether a couple of them have got the license plates on them yet or not, I, honestly, couldn't say. I think there is one or two that may not. But I know Joe's talked to them. Whether they come to some understanding I don't know. But that's my concern. Again, there is one picture there that's from the road, you cannot see this area at all from Cherry Lane. It's all fenced, has privacy slats in it, it's all numbered, all the vehicles are nicely parked that remain. You know, it's just a hardship on some of our residents to store something -- I don't know. According to your ordinance I suppose if they could store it and they were paying 35 dollars a month -- a month for it, they'd still have to be tagged. I don't know that that's fair for them. So, that's my only concern. De Weerd: Thank you. Council, questions? Bird: I have none. Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: I just needed to some questions on storage. Though I don't have any sympathy for junk on private property, if the vehicles are licensed and operable, does the city ordinance allow storage of vehicles on private property? I know I drive by a few storage facilities in the city and other cities and they have vehicles in their lots parked that are visible. Maybe Joe or Anna can help me with -- or Bill can help me with the Meridian City Council May 2, 2006 Page 19 of 63 code and that seems to me like that might be one of your gray areas that you got to deal with. So, help me out here. Venneman: Councilman Rountree, the city code is, actually, pretty specific in the fact that in order to store vehicles, you have to have -- you have to be zoned to have a storage yard there. That would not be the case in a private trailer park. That was one of the bases for sending a certified letter, is that this type of use is not, frankly, allowed where it's occurring. The other issues that -- even if a vehicle is, quote, stored, it still has to be properly licensed and registered and the photographs that I have and I can provide to Council, if you wish, even from this angle, shows that there are a minimum of four vehicles with no license plates whatsoever. And that has remained the case since January. As far as their ability to be seen from the right of way, my understanding that the code does not address that issue. It's whether the presence of junk vehicles are there on private property and not so much as where they are visible from. Nary: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Nary. Nary: Maybe I guess, additionally, I want to add for the record purposes, the notice that was sent and the pictures that are provided to you that are part of your packet and part of record, are not talking about a car that has an expired license that's a month old. We are talking about vehicles that have no tires, that are parts of vehicles that are on the ground, that are not screened, they are not stored in any fashion. You know, this is a -- if that's no longer what's existing today, which Mr. Cady's testimony is, although Mr. Venneman's testimony was viewing it today there were still 11 vehicles and Mr. Cady's now saying six. That's the type of enforcement action we are talking about. We are not talking about somebody who has an expired plate. So, I guess I don't want to muddy up the record with Mr. Cady's concern about having someone having a car parked in their parking stall on their -- on their lot there in his mobile home park that has an expired plate of a week or a month or something like that. In the enforcement actions there are occasions, I understand -- and that is, again, a discretionary call from enforcement -- for example, in some recreational vehicles, although they license in January each year, sometimes people don't license them until May when they are going to use them. That's not uncommon to do that. If they are screened on their property, they are allowed under our UDC. If they are parked in a garage they are allowed. But that's not the issue in front of you. That's not the photographs and that's not the information you have. So, I mean I think there is a distinct difference by what code enforcement's enforcing. Mr. Cady's raised a valid concern, that's just not what we are here for. I don't know if -- Cady: All of the vehicles that you're discussing have been moved. All of those vehicles -- they are gone. De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Meridian City Council May 2, 2006 Page 20 of 63 Rountree: Madam Mayor, first of all, I -- we do need to establish -- and you have already, I believe, established by actions that you have the power and ability to remedy the situation. Cady: Correct. Rountree: And what you have done I thank you. As far as the hearing, I have a question for Mr. Nary. It's an appeal hearing, so what is the action on the part of the City Council, either to support the violation, the citation, or to reverse that? Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilmember Rountree, I think what you have in front of you, if you have had information provided by code enforcement as to the condition of the property that led to their notice to remove vehicles. Again, Mr. Venneman did, I believe, state that there was 11 vehicles still on the property, some of which were still in the same condition as before. Now, I don't know what time Mr. Venneman was there. What you can do within your discretion is order either to continue this matter to verify the condition of the property, you can order that it remain and that condition be compliant with the city code. Mr. Cady's only really stated in front of you that he has complied with what was required of him and also had concerns about other vehicles that mayor may not be something code enforcement would have a concern with. We can continue this matter to get that issue resolved, if you think that's something you'd like to do. Otherwise, it appears there isn't any other remedy I'm thinking Mr. Cady's seeking. He's saying he's complied. I don't -- I think you may want to verify that before you take any final action. That action can simply be that code enforcement had enough information to provide the original notice that was sent. Mr. Cady has now complied. You may ask for an update in a week to verify that that condition exists. We can, then, prepare an order that would say that it has been complied with as of this date and must remain continuing in that condition going forward. That's what a court would normally do in issuing some sort of -- some sort of contempt action or anything that would be in front of them would be just an order mandating that it continue in that fashion. I don't know if that helps you. I know that's the long answer. De Weerd: It was. Mr. Cady, do you have -- I guess I do have a question. There is more than just vehicles on there. It seems to be -- I see a couch and -- Cady: Yeah. That's -- somebody just put it back there. Don't know where it came from. De Weerd: Okay. Didn't think you could drive it. Cady: No. It just appeared one day, so -- De Weerd: So, Mr. Venneman, had you been out there this week? Venneman: Yes. De Weerd: Either today or yesterday? ~ Meridian City Council May 2, 2006 Page 21 of 63 Venneman: Madam Mayor and Council, I was. I was out yesterday and pictures were taken yesterday and I don't know if we can -- there they are right there. This shows the date and not the time this was taken. This is a picture, Madam Mayor, of the vehicles -- partial of the vehicles that were there, looking from the southeast to the northwest along the fence line. I would note that the -- that there remain a couple of vehicles with no current registration or licensing and one of them is that vehicle -- it's been there awhile. I will say that to Mr. Cady's credit, this yellow pickup is gone. It was there, well, since January. If we could move down the line of the other photographs. There is a Chevy Cavalier, that one right there, if we can get it. De Weerd: It's a moving target. Cady: It is a moving target. There is a Chevy Cavalier, no plates, no current registration. The vehicle to the left has plates, but they are expired. Trying to recall from memory what else is going on. There was also a camper trailer and you can see that down toward the front of the left side. No current tags on that either. There is also a camper shell that's pretty hard to see in there, but that has been in place now for some time. It's just a camper shell. It doesn't require any particular licensing. There is a U-Haul truck that has remained motionless since January. It has -- it was -- initially it didn't have current plates, but now, I believe, it does. There is a brown pickup to the left of it and it is now licensed. And this was as of yesterday. Cady: The pictures I supplied you were as of this afternoon and I would have to take exception. The little travel trailer he's speaking of there, I believe the resident took that to storage a month ago. Approximately a month ago. Along with the flat bed you see. The other cars, other than the little van here on the right-hand side, have all been removed. The small utility trailer has tags through 2011 on it, which is kind of behind the gray van and in front of the little camper trailer. As I say, as far as I know everything there, except possibly one vehicle, is licensed. If you want to put those pictures up there, those were taken today. Rountree: You're talking about these pictures? Cady: Yeah. De Weerd: No. Bird: No. No. No. Those weren't taken. Cady: The color pictures I delivered were taken today. So, again, I would content that I am in compliance and my only concern is for residents who have a vehicle that may be operable, the tires are full, and it's simply -- you know, doesn't have any up-to-date tags. And they come through and tell us that we have to do something. So, that's as of today. There is -- and all of those have, as far as I know, current tags. Meridian City Council May 2, 2006 Page 22 of 63 De. Weerd: Okay. Mr. Nary, do you -- Cady: I would be happy to meet -- De Weerd: Because this is not zoned or even conditional use for a storage. But is why they -- Cady: Again, I wouldn't define it as storage, as much as I would additional parking for my residents, which is fairly common in a mobile home park to have an area for them to park something. De Weerd: I think that's the distinguishing quality of whether it's registered. If it's registered it can be on the road. So, it's not considered storage. Would that be the qualification? Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I mean under our UDC if it is not currently registered, then, it needs to be screened, if it is on private property. It cannot be just parked in a parking space. Even on the private property, even on your driveway, if it isn't currently registered. But, again, we are not talking about somebody's whose registration expired yesterday, we are talking about vehicles that, you know, are sitting for months on end. Again, as Mr. Venneman stated, I mean they began this discussion in January with that. So, I think that's maybe the distinction that I think you're drawing, is that there is a difference. When there are allowed to be unregistered vehicles parking there, then, it does become a storage facility and it isn't properly zoned for that. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: My take on it -- I agree with Mr. Nary's assessment that maybe in this situation we ought to set this over for a week and allow Mr. Cady and code enforcement to go out there and -- there is mixed stories of who took the most recent picture and what condition these cars are at. Let's let them spend a week, talk about it. I tell you my inclination, if there is any untagged or flat, unused vehicles out there, that they run a great risk of losing them themselves to the extent there are any vehicle owners that you're speaking on behalf of, that they have -- they made known that fact and provide to you in writing or whatever information they might have, because they run the great risk of having these vehicles moved. Short of us sitting here for the next three hours going back and forth on which cars are what condition and -- Cady: I agree. Borton: I defer to code enforcement to at least be able to get out there and make an assessment and if there is any representations that are inaccurate as to the conditions of these vehicles and what's out there and what's not out there, would upset me greatly. So, I trust it can be resolved in a week and -- (" Meridian City Council May 2, 2006 Page 23 of 63 Bird: Is that a motion? Rountree: Is that a motion? Borton: With that I would move to reset -- or to continue this until next week, to May 9th. In the interim have you meet with code enforcement, take whatever photos or evidence necessary to come back, if necessary, and clear this up. Bird: Second. De Weerd: Okay. A motion to set this over to next week. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: So, Mr. Cady, if you can work with Mr. Venneman and review photos and you do understand the distinguishing aspects of registered versus non and -- Cady: I do. De Weerd: -- storage versus non. Cady: Okay. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Item 9: ReQuest for Reconsideration of Approval..2f a Variance ~ In Ri ht Out Access on South Meridian Road for Meridian Gatewa by White~Leasure Development Company: De Weerd: Okay. Item 9 is a request for reconsideration of approval of a variance and I will go ahead and ask Anna to at least give an introduction to this and, then, we will ask the counsel direction. Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is the request for the Meridian Gateway project. I believe they have submitted a letter to you -- oh. De Weerd: Mr. Rountree is recusing himself from both Items 9 and 10. Canning: I'll start again. Sorry about that. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the applicant for the Meridian Gateway is asking the Council to reconsider their motion that approved a right-in, right-out only at the southern portion of their property, approximately 700 feet from the intersection. They are asking that you consider a right- in, right-out only at approximately 500 feet from the intersection.