Amending Chapter 11 Generally Known as the Housing & Maintenance Code

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CITY of SOUTH BEND PETER J. NEMETH, Mayor COUNTY-CITY BUILDING SOUTH BEND, INDIANA 46601 10 OUT04�, LIJ Y4- IND 10 N Thomas J. Brunner, Jr. February 23, 1977 219/284-9241 City Attorney Robert M. Parker Chief Deputy South Bend Common Council 4th floor Council Chambers County-City Building 227 W. Jefferson Blvd. South Bend, Indiana 46601 Re: Ordinance Adopting Unsafe Building Law To Members of the Common Council: The attached ordinance provides for the adoption by the city of I.C. 18-5-5.5 which is the unsafe building law statute adopted by the legislature in 1973. The statute is applicable to-first-class cities, but provides for adoption by second-class cities by appropriate ordinance. The adopting ordinance as required by the statute designates the unit of government to administer the law which will be the Bureau of Buildings and Permits. Other provisions in the ordinance are required by various provisions of the statute as to definition of substantial property interest and establishment of the unsafe building fund. At the present time the city is limited in its recourse to legal remedies to require enforcement of building standards. Our only efficient remedy has been that of the demolition and this has only served to deplete the housing stock of the community and has had little effect in causing upgrading of salvageable housing. The administration believes that it is necessary that a program be formulated to assist in keeping the present housing stock and maintaining properties on the tax rolls. The Bureau of Substandard Housing estimates that approximately one-third of the 153 houses demolished in the city in 1976 could have been saved if timely code enforcement procedures could have been instituted prior to the irreversible deterioration of the properties.