Title
Revisit Nuisance Enforcement
Body
For the past several years, the County Council has discussed mechanisms for addressing blight within the community, focusing on issues to include vacant houses, commercial properties, and neighborhoods. During this time, Council has taken several actions to enhance staff's ability to address these issues, including adopting more comprehensive building maintenance codes, increasing staffing and budgets, and providing direction during its annual strategic goals development. Beginning in May of this year, County Staff implemented a revised nuisance enforcement program that has been more active than in past years. As a result of this renewed vigor, some within the community have expressed concerns regarding the focus and extent of the program, and these concerns have included negative expressions both on social media and during public comment at Council meetings. In response to these criticisms, Councilor James Chrobocinski requested that a review of the County's code enforcement program be included as an item on this week's agenda.
In order to comprehensively illustrate the activities within the Community Development Department's Code Enforcement Division, a number of tables are attached that portray data regarding our officers' activities (Attachment A), as well as a comparison of Los Alamos County actions to those of other jurisdictions within the state (Attachments B-D). Also included as Attachment E is a listing of past Council discussions regarding nuisance enforcement and related issues in case the reader wishes to review the video recordings of such meetings online. Finally, at the request of a local group (Citizens In Action), a presentation will be made regarding their perspective on the issue and this presentation is included at Attachment F.
Alternatives
This item is included as a discussion and therefore no action is anticipated at this evening's meeting. Council could however direct staff to bring add...
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