Tuesday, February 12, 2013
City administrators reviewing creation of comprehensive licensing program for rental properties in Kent
The idea of creating a comprehensive rental property licensing program in Kent will be up for a vote at Kent City Council this year. City administrators are in the midst of reviewing the idea after council voted in March 2012 to have the idea analyzed. Kent Community Development Director Bridge Susel gave an update on the city staff's progress to members of the Kent Planning Commission recently. "We know there are illegal boarding houses," Susel said. "But it’s really hard to prove it. Code enforcement can only take it so far." The issue has been a topic of debate for years in Kent, but it has come to the forefront again as property owners have sought formal approval from the city to convert houses zoned as single-family to the multi-…
Friday, March 30, 2012
City passes controversial new interior property maintenance code
A program for licensing all of Kent's rental properties will soon be up for discussion by city administrators and members of Kent City Council. Members of council voted this week to have city administrators study a potential plan for licensing all of Kent's rental properties and present that plan to council at a future meeting. Councilwoman Heidi Shaffer, who asked council to vote on the issue, did not put a deadline on when city staff have to make the presentation. "I think it’s time we license rental properties," Councilwoman Tracy Wallach said. "Other college towns in Ohio have licensing on rental properties." The vote to have city administrators study such a plan passed 5-4 with council members Jack Amrhein, Garret Ferrara, Shaffer, …
City officials are reviewing a program to license all city rental properties
More than 60 percent of the housing stock in the city of Kent are rental properties. And now city officials are examining a program that could require registration and licensing of every last rental. Other Ohio cities, including Athens, OH, home of Ohio University, have comprehensive rental licensing programs. Do you think Kent should follow suit?
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Kent releases statistics on code compliance
Tall grass and weeds continue to be the bane of many Kent property owners, according to the city's annual code compliance report. In 2011, 35 percent of the city's reported code violations were for overgrown grass and weeds, according to the report. Illegal use, such as an unauthorized rooming house, came in as the second most-common violation at 29 percent. Rental properties accounted for 43 percent of all reported code violations last year and racked up the most complaints with 171. Rental properties also led the way with the most repeat violations. Vacant properties accounted for the second most with 138 reported violations, according to the report. South Water Street addresses accounted for the most violations with 30 in 2011. Read the…
Chris (Kit) Myers
9:15 am on Saturday, February 16, 2013
Please disregard the word "because" in the last paragraph of my last post. Also my spelling of the word "environment." I ain't the best editer or tipist. more ›