Politics & Government

City Tackling Blighted Construction Projects With New Ordinance

Last week, the Inver Grove Heights City Council approved the final reading of an ordinance limiting the length of private construction projects

Thinking about making exterior renovations to your home in Inver Grove Heights? Make sure you get it done in a timely manner.

Last week, the Inver Grove Heights City Council voted 3-1 to approve the final reading of a new ordinance that requires residents and developers to complete exterior work, including roofing, siding and other projects, within one year of receiving a building permit for the project. The ordinance goes into effect in several weeks, Community Development Director Tom Link said. City Councilor Bill Klein was absent for the vote.

The city does not have an inordinately high number of property owners who are not in compliance with the new rule, Link said. However, a residential construction project that drags on for years can have an impact on a neighborhood similar to that of a blighted property.

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“If you have an exterior that isn’t completed for number of years, it looks bad and could affect property values,” the community development director said.

In the past, city officials had no effective way to prompt homeowners and developers to complete private residential construction projects in a timely manner, Link said. Under the ordinance, homeowners or developers who don’t complete the project within a year could be issued a misdemeanor citation by the city. The time limit isn’t without a loophole, however. Property owners can apply for a onetime, 180-day extension if financial problems, health issues or other extenuating circumstances have impacted the length of the project, Link said.

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City Councilor Rosemary Piekarski Krech, who cast the lone dissenting vote at the meeting last week, said the ordinance is creating a potentially costly solution for a nearly non-existent problem. City staff could only find five cases in the city that may be in violation of the ordinance, Piekarski Krech said. The city, she added, could be forced to spend thousands of dollars to take each of those non-compliant homeowners or developers to court for an incomplete construction project.

Instead, city officials should search for other alternatives to help homeowners complete unfinished construction projects, Piekarski Krech said. For example, city staff could connect homeowners with local volunteers who could help them complete the project, the council member said.

“Houses need to be finished, we don’t wan the city looking like a slum,” Pierkarski Krech said. “But if there are only two cases they could show, then what’s the issue?”

Fellow Councilor Dennis Madden, who voted in favor of the new ordinance, disagreed. The rule is necessary so the city can address properties that have become blighted because of seemingly interminable construction projects.

“It’s not fair to neighborhoods, and it’s not fair to the rest of the community, if you let the blight start, it spreads,” Madden said. “I’m a libertarian to a certain degree and I don’t like the government telling you what to do, but in this case here, it’s for the public good.”


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