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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - City Code Review Council Committee - Meeting Date: 10/29/2020MINUTES CITY CODE REVIEW COUNCIL COMMITTEE GLENDALE CIVIC CENTER 5750 W. GLENN DRIVE GLENDALE, ARIZONA 85301 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2020 5:00 PM CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 5 PM. ROLL CALL Committee members present: Vice Mayor Ray Malnar, Councilmember Joyce Clark, Yvonne Knaack, Ron Short, Michael Socaciu, Councilmember Bart Turner, Rich LeVander, Mark Lilly, Michael Socaciu, Ron Short, and Warren Wilfong are all present. Committee member absent: Barbara Lentz were not present. City staff present: Lisa Collins (Interim Development Services Director), Rick St. John (Deputy City Manager, Public Safety), and Shannon Beck (Council Assistant) were present. CITIZEN COMMENTS There were no citizen comments made. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES A motion to approve the October meeting minutes was made by Ms. Knaack and seconded by Councilmember Turner. All were in favor, and none opposed. UNFINISHED BUSINESS AND POSSIBLE ACTION A. STREET PARKING Mr. St. John began discussing the parking of mobile homes and travel trailers, and he suggested the cause for confusion of the limitations of mobile homes and travel trailers is the diction of the travel trailer definition in subsection 24-61 (c) 2. The second issue in the code, according to Mr. St. John, is Section 24-120, which outlines the removal/impounding of vehicles; Mr. St. John explained that instead of giving the owner the opportunity to move it by providing a citation first, the vehicle is forcibly removed. With that, Mr. St. John first requested the final sentence of the definition of "travel trailer" to be removed. It was suggested keeping the list of the types of vehicles for clarification purposes. After clarification of some terms, Councilmember Clark made a motion to amend 21- 61 (c) to change the definition by adding "motor home" and change the "exceptions" section to more specific definition. It was seconded by Councilmember Turner. Ms. Knaack suggested rewording the entire paragraph, and upon revisiting and adjusting the wording of "recreational vehicle," Councilmember Turner made a motion to amend the motion. Ms. Knaack seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Mr. St. John's second recommendation was to change 24-62 by adding a provision where another item (16th) would say, "on any public street for more than 48 hours." Mr. Socaciu inquired if having houseguests for an extended period could result in the guest's vehicle getting towed, and according to the code, that could occur. Ms. Knaack did note that even though that's a possibility, most people are aware of their neighborhood activity, and vehicles left for weeks at a time would be subject to this code being enforced. A motion was made by Mr. Wilfong to add item number sixteen (16), and it was seconded by Councilmember Clark. All were in favor, and none opposed. Prior to the motion being passed, there were some concerns expressed regarding buses and firetrucks and their street parking limitations due to them being considered transportation or public service vehicles. Vice Mayor Malnar understood the concerns, but noted these need to be addressed elsewhere in the codes since they are not recreational vehicles. Vice Mayor Malnar suggested that Mr. Wilfong defers his concerns to Ms. Knaack. Ultimately, all were in favor of the motion, and none opposed. Motion passed. Vice Mayor Malnar asked if Ms. Knaack had any recommendations, and she did not. Prior to moving forward, Mr. Turner stated a resident asked him if he could park his tractor on his property behind an RV gate. Vice Mayor Malnar made a note that it would be difficult to enforce anything involving backyard parking, and he said there will be opportunities to amend this in the future. B. UTILITY BOX Mr. St. John noted they have the ability but not the necessity to maintain the utility boxes. He was told that the utility company responds well, and it would take state legislation to change anything at this point. Vice Mayor Malnar said that maintenance would be on the homeowner. Councilmember Clark expressed gratitude for the utility company's willingness to keep the areas tidy. C. HOLIDAY DECORATIONS — LEGAL REVIEW There was a legal review discussion of holiday lighting and decorative lighting. With the current 60 -day suggestion, there would only be four days in August which wouldn't allow for decorations. Knowing this, it would be difficult to enforce unless it's a blight or hazard issue. The language Peoria uses would be wise to adopt, but it does not address the issue of time limitations. Vice Mayor Malnar reminded everyone that this would be difficult to enforce. Councilmember Clark suggested approaching decoration limitation differently. Eventually, Mr. St. John suggested reviewing the Peoria code with the consultant prior to moving forward with a drafted code for holiday decorations. Mr. St. John volunteered to take this on since it is nuisance - related. D. GROUP HOME ORDINANCE Vice Mayor Malnar noted there have been setbacks for group home ordinances. At this time, HUD has given direction on what can and cannot be done, but nothing can move forward at this time. E. PRIOR TOPICS MEMO In this memo, there are 22 items listed of what the committee has accomplished in addition to the abatement program, group home, and the street view issue. Vice Mayor Malnar K and Ms. Collins determined about 90% of the list is comprised of nuisance codes, rather than planning and consulting codes. This means planning and consulting have not addressed the nuisance codes. Vice Mayor Malnar suggested creating something called property maintenance management ordinances, which would deal with nuisances. After some discussion, Mr. St. John asked to see the list and the work the committee has done to assess the amount of staff time it would take to do the rewrites. He will then come with a recommendation at the next meeting. Vice Mayor Malnar then asked the committee to move forward on a nuisance area and seek assistance from either staff or an outside consultant. The committee agreed, and Vice Mayor Mahar suggested using an outside consultant. Doing so would be something that would need to be approved by council. DISCUSSION AND ACTION ON SUBCOMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS A. COMMERCIAL COMMITTEE — YVONNE KNAACK Nothing to report. B. RESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE — COUNCILMEMBER BART TURNER Councilmember Turner revised the regulation of palm fronds. The original wording for "Dead and Dry Palm Tree Fronds GCC 25-21 (k)" is as follows: "No person shall allow any palm tree to have an excessive accumulation of dead or dry fronds that descend from the base of the lowest living frond more than four (4) feet or dry fronds longer than four (4) feet closer than seven (7) feet to the ground that may result in insect or other infestations or result in other conditions that adversely affect the public health or safety." Councilmember Turner recommended a rewrite which says, "No responsible person of any property shall allow any palm tree to have dead or dry palm fronds within ten (10) feet of the ground, a structure, a fence or wall, or of any combustible other than the tree from which the fronds have grown." Chairperson Clark noted that there is a limit to what can be done to keep Glendale tidied because the focus ultimately needs to be on the safety elements, rather than aesthetic. Councilmember Turner made a motion to approve the recommendation, and Ms. Knaack seconded. All but Mr. Wilfong were in favor, and the motion passed. The next concern was with GCC 25-20 (d), which states, "All property shall be free from any conditions that contribute to visual blight including but not limited to dirt yards, vegetation of any kind that is substantially dead or damaged or characterized by uncontrolled growth or lack of maintenance or any similar conditions." The first issue is that "substantially dead" is challenging to enforce – the tree or bush needs to be 80-90% dead for Code to enforce. Recommendation: Strike "substantially". The second issue is "Uncontrolled growth" is another vague description. Trying to explain this in court is challenging. Recommendation: Specify this applies to shrubbery. Mr. Socaciu asked if the wording could say, "substantially dead as determined by an expert" and perhaps include city landscaping with this determination. Vice Mayor Malnar suggested changing language to "vegetation or any part thereof that is dead or damaged must be removed." Mr. St. John noted the issue of ordinance is if a case like this were to go to court, it would be difficult for a judge to convict on because these specific areas of the code aren't specific enough. Vice Mayor Malnar planned to forward this along with the recommendations to the city attorney for advice. Next, Councilmember Turner noted that currently, the code can cite for grass over 6" on property. The committee has asked to address grass growing in the sidewalk cracks in front of a property. GCC 25-21g. The recommendation would be to add "No person owning or occupying 3 any property fronting a street, alleyway, or public place including the area between the property line of such property and the street shall allow grass or weeds to exceed a height of three inches." Councilmember Turner confirmed this is just addressing the area from the property line to the street. Mr. Socaciu said three inches of grass is a substantial amount of growth in areas where there shouldn't be any at all. Various committee members noted the safety hazard, the blight, and the infrastructure hazard by having grass on the sidewalk. Councilmember Clark asked if the property owner or the city owned the sidewalk, and the city owns the sidewalk, but the grass wouldn't be an issue if the property owner hadn't planted the grass. Councilmember Clark suggested hiring someone to be responsible for maintaining the sidewalks, but Vice Mayor Malnar reminded the committee the landscaping of the area is the responsibility of the homeowner. Ms. Knaack suggested not allowing for any amount of grass on the sidewalk and encoding the removal on ground of its presence being a safety hazard. The committee agreed. Finally, Councilmember Turner recommended that the code stipulates that prohibition of grass or weeds over 6 inches tall applies to desert yards also. Vice Mayor Malnar suggested that this may be a question for the city attorney again. Mr. Socaciu suggested adding wording that specifies "plant material not planted by the property owner." D. MISCELLANEOUS COMMITTEE — RON SHORT Mr. Short asked Fred Sanchez, the Right -of -Way landscaping supervisor, to review the legislation, and he reviewed section 19-10. Mr. Sanchez said there is some confusion about what should be maintained by the city, the property owner, and the HOA. Currently, in section 19-10 (b) it says, "the city shall be responsible for certain streets," but Mr. Sanchez said it's not necessarily true and should be removed. It should only be maintained by the city if it's clearly dedicated to the city. In section 19-10 (b) 1, it says, "the city's responsibility is arterial and secondary street rights-of-way adjacent to single-family residential areas." Mr. Sanchez says this scenario is throughout the entire city, and this is not maintained by the city. Finally, on 19-10 (c) 1, it says, "landscaping shall be inspected and approved by the city for compliance with approved landscape plans." Mr. Sanchez noted that if there should be a comment referring to an approved landscaping plan that clearly states responsibility for the street, city, and development resident. Mr. Short did not have any specific language recommendation at this time. Vice Mayor Malnar deferred to Mr. St. John to seek appropriate verbiage by discussing it with the consultant. This will be revisited during the "unfinished business" in December. UPDATES AND PRESENTATIONS A. DEVELOPMENT SERVICES Ms. Collins did not have any updates. B. CODE CONSULTANT Noting to report. C. RICK ST. JOHN, DEPUTY CITY MANAGER Nothing to report. 4 D. MICHAEL BAILEY, CITY ATTORNEY Not present. COMMITTEE COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR NEXT MEETING Mr. Socaciu mentioned the former Texaco gas station and suggested having a committee address temporary fencing, painting, and vegetation guidelines (specifically for commercial properties no longer occupied). Mr. Wilfong brought up the mobile sign concerns, and Vice Mayor Malnar noted this is a matter the Business Council Committee should address, and he then asked Ms. Knaack to present their findings to both committees. Mr. Wilfong also brought up building shade covers in a setback area (for older homes). Mr. Wilfong also suggested discussing the allowance of certain vehicles parked in the backyard (EX: dump trucks and semi -trucks). NEXT MEETING The next regular meeting of the City Code Review Council Committee will be held Thursday, December 10th, at 5PM, at the Glendale Civic Center, 5750 W. Glenn Drive, Glendale, Arizona, 85301. ADJOURNMENT Vice Mayor Malnar adjourned the meeting. The meeting adjourned at 7:07 PM. 5