City sets final fee structures for vacant/rental properties

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EXPENSIVE NUISANCES

I can honestly say that having been a former employee of the City of Fort Madison and been involved in nuisances in vacant housing for definitely the last 15 years, I know the city in the last 10 years has spent in excess of a half a million dollars in demolishing homes that were vacant.”

Melinda Blind, FM Mayor

FORT MADISON – The Fort Madison City Council on Tuesday finalized the new vacant property and rental property codes for structures inside the city limits.
The council approved the fee structures that are part of the new ordinances at Tuesday’s meeting, completing the code and allowing the city to move forward with enforcing the registries and any violations.
The new codes have been in the works for more than two years and Fort Madison Mayor Melinda Blind said she was happy to see the work of city staff finally get codified.
“This has been a long time coming. Council and staff have been working on this before I even decided to run for mayor last year.”
She said her time as an employee with the city has convinced her this is the right thing at the right time.
“I can honestly say that having been a former employee of the City of Fort Madison and been involved in nuisances in vacant housing for definitely the last 15 years, I know the city in the last 10 years has spent in excess of a half a million dollars in demolishing homes that were vacant,” Blind said.
This program is to try to help keep buildings from getting to that point where the citizens are having to pay to demolish homes. And then we have vacant lots in some areas, which are nice for the people who live next door, but in some areas, no one wants them. So, I think this is an excellent thing.”
According to the policy, vacant properties of varying sizes face scalable fees, which in most cases, increase the longer the structure stays vacant.
Those fees can be as low as $10 per year for structures 500-1,000 square feet, to $250 for commercial properties in excess of 20,000 square feet. When the properties stay vacant for up to 4-plus years, those fees can increase 100% each year, again depending on the size. The full chart is included in the images for this article.
Additional fees, include doubling the annual fee for missed or no-shows on regular inspections; a $100 non-compliance fee monthly when a penalty is authorized under Chapter 9; and $200 for any appeals.
Under the rental housing fee structure approved Tuesday night, the annual registration fee for each structure is $25 with a $5 fee for additional units within the same structure. First inspections are at no charge, but reinspections of rental units incur a $50 fee, and a $50 fee for a missed inspection or a no-show for an inspection. Unregistered units face a penalty of $100 per month, per unit; any falsified family exemption affidavits will incur a $100 penalty and any appeal will be assessed a $200 penalty.
Liegois said the fees were implemented through resolution to make it easier for the city to make changes to the structure when, and if, needed.
“This compliments the ordinance that we’ve been through for vacant and rental codes and basically spells out all the different levels of fees for one, two, three, four plus years by resolution,” Liegois said.
“This is taking it out of the ordinance and putting into a resolution, which makes it easier if we change anything in the future.”
In other action, the city:
• approved the annual audit.
• approved an extension and amendment to police union collective bargaining unit through fiscal year 2028.