Article submitted by James Master, Managing Editor of The Pilot News
The Argos Town Council discussed the matter of rental properties during its most recent meeting.
Council President Charles Randy Snead informed his fellow council members that prior to that night’s meeting, he spoke with Economic Director Mark VanDerWeele and Chuck DeWitt, who oversees zoning and code enforcement for the town, regarding what can and cannot be done about the downtown.
“The big thing I was trying to clear up was to get rid of these ground level apartments that we have, that they’re against our zoning. And I was also had been told at one time that one of these buildings in town has a basement and there’s a family with children living in the basement. I don’t know if it’s true, I don’t know if it’s not true. It came from a fairly reliable person,” said Sneed.
DeWitt informed the council that he’s been working on a rental inspection. “Which would include not only what’s downtown, but anything else that’s in our municipality that’s a rental.”
He said that he’s almost completed it and would send the rough draft to the council members when it’s ready.
DeWitt said that he’s using Whitestown as the base. “They have a registration fee and an inspection fee. So, every year they pay a fee, every rental owner pays a fee to the town. And it’s not a large fee.”
The fee, according to DeWitt, was around $25.
“Then they have another fee that’s an inspection. All the rentals are inspected. They (Whitestown) do theirs every five years. We were talking about it, I’m thinking five years is a long stretch. A lot of things go on in five years. We’re looking at a three year,” DeWitt said.
Economic Director Mark VanDerWeele clarified that the inspection would occur before utilities are transferred.
“If you sell your property, your rental property, you come to have utilities turned over, then we would have an inspection on that property before they turn over the utilities,” DeWitt said.
“There’s some statutory requirements on some things. Anything that’s professionally managed, anything that’s HUD inspected does not qualify. So Garden Court wouldn’t qualify in this, they wouldn’t have to participate in this because they’re already monitored by HUD. Same thing as Colonial, the apartments there,” VanDerWeele said.
Council Member Gary Schue weighed in on the matter. “I think this would be a good thing because it could keep the town on top of slumlords and things of that nature.”
“That was part of our discussion also,” Snead said. “But the big thing I want to see is stuff brought back up to the standards. I don’t want to see these apartments ignored and not taken care of.”
Town Attorney Derek Jones asked what authority under the zoning code and/or ordinances they have that allows them to knock on a door and ask to inspect the building.
“We don’t from that standpoint. That’s why we’re putting together this ordinance because it specifies me, fire chief, whoever else we would designate that we can do that with a written notice 72 hours in advance and then we can go in and do the inspection,” DeWitt said.
Council Member Ed Barcus suggested that they hold a public workshop and invite the landlords and explain what the council is proposing.
There was no official action that was voted on regarding the matter.
