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to his retirement. He will be staying on to transition Dr. Roderick Harris who is returning to the <br /> Cleveland area to take on the role of Commissioner to the Health Department. <br /> Motion by Councilmember Kepple, seconded by President O'Malley to receive and file. All <br /> members voted in favor. Motion passed. <br /> 4. Housing, Planning & Development Committee report regarding meeting held March 7, 2022. (to <br /> be provided) <br /> Housing, Planning & Development Chair Kepple provided the following oral report: <br /> The Housing, Planning and Development Committee met today,just prior to the Council <br /> meeting. We considered four pieces of legislation. The first was Ord. 03-2022 related to <br /> updating the water heating facilities code to make the local code compliant with the State Code <br /> which was updated in 2017. This is in many ways a ministerial matter, as the local code has to <br /> follow the state when the state has a change or implements a new standard. We discussed it. We <br /> understood the health and safety advantages of it, and we recommended that ordinance for <br /> adoption tonight. <br /> Next, we considered Ord. 04-2022. We also recommended thatfor adoption tonight. That <br /> increases the penalties in a series ofplaces in our property maintenance and safety code. The <br /> point of which is to add teeth to the city's enforcement for getting a building permit and only <br /> doing work with a valid building permit and secondly, doing work with a registered contractor. <br /> Those are requirements that have been on the books for years and years. However, the penalties <br /> were either ineffective or less effective than we wanted them to be. So,for many jobs across our <br /> city, these can be factors in the quality, or the lack thereof. But especially the recent garage <br /> collapse where we had, we believe, a lack of both those things the lack of a registered <br /> contractor and the lack of a building permit. Going forward, this will give us an enhanced set of <br /> enforcement penalties to implement those features of our Building Code more seriously and <br /> improve the quality of work done in the City. So, I applaud the administration for their proposal. <br /> Next was Ord. 05-2022 which is another feature of the same issue of anticipating and preventing <br /> problems with building quality and structural soundness for buildings four stories and higher. <br /> These are commercial buildings, mixed-use and residential across the city. I think we have more <br /> than 100 that meet the criteria offour stories or higher and 30 years or older. The proposal is to <br /> require a tri-annual engineering report or assessment by the property owner that would be filed <br /> with the city, given to the Building Commissioner who would convert that report into a work <br /> plan to correct any reported problems. It would also do the same for parking structures that are <br /> underground or parking facilities of ten spaces or more above ground. There was broad <br /> consensus among the committee that we support the ordinance. We have a little more work to do <br /> to complete that ordinance on a definitional question on how much discretion the building <br /> commissioner has and how to word that successfully. We have committed to the administration <br /> that we will do this in a timely manner. And I anticipate in two weeks that we can schedule a <br /> follow up Housing, Planning& Development Committee hearing, I think we can conclude the <br /> work and complete that deliberation in a timely manner. <br /> 3 <br />