Council ponders enforcement, cost of renter and property protections

Front Royal’s mayor and town council continue to proceed cautiously toward instituting a property maintenance and rental inspection code.  That caution appears fueled in part by the cost of supporting the program annually; as well as a desire to get it right so enforcement cannot be successfully challenged legally.

Mayor Hollis Tharpe estimated “as much as $150,000 annually” to support the programs designed to keep owners from allowing properties to deteriorate and landlords from providing questionable living situations for tenants.

“We’ll see if our council will belly up with a tax increase,” Tharpe said of the necessity of funding a new Town operation.  Vice-Mayor Eugene Tewalt estimated a 2-cent real estate tax increase to provide the funding.  However, John Connolly stated that a 1-cent hike had already been committed by council to the program, so that only one more cent in real estate tax increase would be necessary to fund at the projected levels.

Tewalt also expressed concern that enforcement of the rental inspection code amendment would not be limited to a specific district being created in association with the code.  He said he didn’t want all Town taxpayers to fund a program that would only be enforceable in a portion of the town.

Town Planning Director Jeremy Camp, standing, explains parameters of new property and rental inspection code amendments to council and the mayor. Photo/Mike McCool

Town Planning Director Jeremy Camp assured the vice mayor that while the Town can only initiate inspections in the rental inspection district, rental properties anywhere in town could be inspected at the request of the renter.  In response to a question, Camp noted that rental property owners could also initiate an inspection of their own properties, but that they could NOT kill a tenant’s request for an inspection.  Camp also pointed out that some renters outside the district might be reluctant to initiate an inspection out of fear of being evicted by an unhappy landlord.  There was no additional discussion of tenant rights or whether the Town could assist in seeing that such legal rights weren’t violated by vindictive landlords inside the town limits.

The draft Front Royal Downtown Rental Inspection District presented extends from:

• just south of Prospect Street;
• westward along a circuitous path along Lurary Avenue, West Main Street northward at Cherry Street to West Second Street;
• zigzagging eastward to Warren Avenue and southward to Laura Virginia Hale Place, east to Water Street;
• and southward along Happy Creek (the actual creek) just west of Commerce Avenue to Stonewall Drive and southward between Blue Ridge Avenue and Mosby Street back to just south of Prospect Street.

The proposed Downtown Rental Inspections District – right click to open larger view in new tab

Councilman William Sealock asked exactly what the Town’s enforcement powers would be.  The agenda packet presented to council at the work session described three results of Town inspections:

• Issuance of a Notice of Violation “which will give a period of time to correct the violations.” The timeframe would be impacted by several factors, including the seriousness of the conditions and extent of repairs necessary to correct them; and the time of year;
• Issuance of a Notice of Unsafe/Unfit Structure – “the time given to make repairs or vacate the unit may range from a matter of hours to several days depending on the seriousness or danger of the code violations.”
• And issuance of a Certificate of Exemption “meaning no violations of the VMC (Virginia Maintenance Code) were found.” However, it was noted that should the property come into violation during the period of exemption granted with the original inspection, the Certificate of Exemption could be revoked.

Vice-Mayor Tewalt pointed to frustrations during an earlier effort of the Town in this regard in the late 1980 while he was on Town staff.  “Some on council would not let the inspector enforce – I was in charge and it got so frustrating that it was eventually ended,” Tewalt recalled.

The staff summary of the code proposal noted two town planning commission public hearings, the first on July 20, 2016, the second four months later on November 30.  Staff noted six speakers in favor of the code changes, one against.  Staff elaborated that the one in opposition appeared to be potentially impacted landlord.  At the November 2016 hearing the planning commission passed a motion recommending adoption of the draft Ordinance Amendments establishing both the rental and property maintenance codes.

Unlike the rental property inspection draft created in layers of enforcement around a specific district, the property maintenance code draft recommended for approval by the planning commission would be enforced uniformly town wide.

Council scheduled additional discussion at its next work session on July 17, with a public informational meeting planned for mid-August.

“We want to piece it together properly … and make the town look good,” Mayor Tharpe observed.  He added that while, “I hate to use the word – but with slumlords, maybe we can help them make their properties nice.”