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Home My WebLink AboutA003 - Email correspondence between Sara Van Meeteren and David Martin regarding over-occupancy complaints Page 1 of 3 Re: Rental ordinance Sara Van Meeteren to: David Martin 03/12/2018 08:40 AM Cc: Martin Huber, AmesCityCouncil, Steve Schainker, Shawn Bayouth Hide Details From: Sara Van Meeteren/COA To: David Martin<david@martinforames.org> Cc: Martin Huber<mdhuber@gmail.com>, AmesCityCouncil@COA, Steve Schainker/COA@COA, Shawn Bayouth/COA@COA David, Upon receipt of an over-occupancy complaint, staff will conduct an initial investigation of the property. If over-occupancy is verified, a letter will be sent to the property manager and tenants notifying them of the violation. This notice will include a date and time of an inspection 30 days out to verify occupancy. If staff is unable, through the investigation, to verify occupancy and has reason to believe the property is over-occupied then an occupancy inspection will be scheduled. The Rental Code allows the Building Official to enter the property at reasonable times in Sec. 13.102: (4) Right of entry. The Building Official is authorized to enter the structure or premises at reasonable tunes to inspect subject to constitutional restrictions on unreasonable searches and seizures-Ifentry is refused or not obtained,the Building Official is authorized to pursue recourse as provided by law including application.to the court for an administrative search warrant_ Sec. 13.302 requires the owner or manager to be present for the inspection and requires the owner or manager to give the tenants a minimum of a 24 hour notice: (2) Owner to accompany. The owner,registered operator;,or authorized representative must accompany the Building Official at:each inspection_ For purposes of this section,a tenant shall not be considered an authorized representative of an owner or operator- (3) Chimer to:notify tenant. The Inspection Division will.schedule inspections vdth the o amer or registered operator_ The ovaier or operator is responsible to provide a mimmuYn 24:hour advance notice to tenants prior to the scheduled inspection_ The Building. Official shall not perform the inspection if it is discovered the tenants have not received the required advance notice_ Additionally,a reinspection will be scheduled,and the owner or operator may be.charged a reinspection fee'in accord ixtln this section_ I hope this helps answer your question. Please let me know if you need more information! Thanks! Sara Van Meeteren Building Official Inspection Division Ames Fire Department 515 Clark Ave. Ames, IA 50010 Office 515-239-5255 Fax 515-239-5261 file:///C:/Users/diane.voss/AppData/Local/Temp/notesFFF692/—web7158.htm 3/12/2018 Page 2 of 3 -----David Martin <david(aamartinforames.org> wrote: ----- To: Martin Huber <mdhuber(abgmail.com> From: David Martin <david(d)martinforames.org> Date: 03/10/2018 03:29PM Cc: AmesCityCouncil <amescitvcouncil(cbcity.ames.ia.us>, Sara Van Meeteren <svanmeeteren(abcity.ames.ia.us>, Steve Schainker <SSchainker citv.ames.ia.us>, Shawn Bayouth <sbayouth(cbcity.ames.ia.us> Subject: Re: Rental ordinance Hi Martin, Thank you for letting us know your position and for communicating it so clearly. The City added a new full-time housing inspector and staffed it in February 2018 following discussions with residents and landlords concerning the rental occupancy issue last fall. One purpose of this staff increase was to be more proactive with inspection issues, including occupancy, but as you note, it's hard to know what's going on inside a home. I'm sure even the more proactive enforcement will continue to rely on the neighborhood's eyes and ears. Regarding unannounced inspections, we have city code and constitutional constraints regarding search and seizure to keep in mind. I'm copying Sara Van Meeteren on this email, who is in charge of our rental inspections. Sara, can you please remind us what the typical timeline would be when an over-occupancy suspicion complaint arrives in your office (and is ultimately found to correctly reveal an over-occupancy)? Sincerely, David On Sat, Mar 10, 2018 at 12:10 PM, Martin Huber <mdhuber(a0gmail.com> wrote: Dear Mayor and City Council: My name is Martin Huber. I live at 430 Lynn Ave. and am a member of SCAN. I support SCAN's proposal to institute a 20% rental cap in our neighborhood. In addition, I hope that if the city imposes new rental ordinances, that it will follow up with enforcement. The current process of inspection and enforcement is a joke. Placing limits on the number of students per house is pointless if there is no way for the city to address the complaints of neighbors when they report the ordinance being violated. Inspections every 2 years on a specified date does nothing to stop large numbers of students from living illegally in these houses. The turnover is constant, and trying to keep track of who and how many are in each house is nearly impossible and the students know this. Allowing single family homes in low density zoning to be turned into rentals should be stopped. I would propose that the city should be able to do inspections unannounced to enforce the ordinance if complaints are received and the landlord should be heavily fined and have their rental permit revoked for failure to comply. I have lived at this address for 4 years. I am awakened regularly by loud drunken groups of students in the street in the middle of the night. I have had drunk students attempt to enter my house. I have had drunk students urinate in and vandalize my yard. I have had a drunk student pass out on my front porch. I have been threatened by students and their landlord for calling the police to report noise, littering and over occupancy issues. I have called the police many times to report large parties, noise and fights, but I have never witnessed the police issue more than a verbal warning. I can continue, but I hope you get the point. Students are not the only ones who have a right to live near campus. My wife works at ISU and she should be able to live close to her work. I should be able to own a home without being constantly concerned that my property value will plummet if another neighbors house is converted into a rental. Ames seems to believe that file:///C:/Users/diane.voss/AppData/Local/Temp/notesFFF692/—web7l58.htm 3/12/2018 Page 3 of 3 the answer to everything is build more sprawl and more garbage apartments. Meanwhile established neighborhoods like ours are destroyed by student blight. Thank you, Martin Huber David Martin Ames City Council, Ward 3 david@MartinForAmes.orq 515 450 1130 file:///C:/Users/diane.voss/AppData/Local/Temp/notesFFF692/—web7l58.htm 3/12/2018