Success!!!

Citizens were heard as Ypsi City Council passes vacant buildings ordinance. Council amended the ordinance to remove the onerous provision of the $50 escrow fee if you did nothing wrong except for the fact the building was empty for 12 months. Council also agreed that triggering events such as a traffic accident in your front yard or materials stolen from your construction site that resulted in a police report would not be triggering events. There are still problems between definitions defined in the recent amendment for vacant buildings that conflict with already prescribed definitions in the dangerous buildings law and the city council should have toughened the ordinance and made it like the St. Paul ordinance where scofflaws pay a $250 annual fee rather then trying to collect $65 after each inspection. This would have covered our costs to administer the program rather then draining more money from the general fund.

Overall, the outcome was good and home owners are better protected. Was this the perfect ordinances? By no means. But it is MUCH better than it was just 4 weeks ago. Hats off to everyone in the community that worked so hard on this issue. And a special tip of the hat to councilor Bill Nickels for proposing the amendments and to councilors Filipiak, Gawlas, Richardson and Swanson that all asked hard-nosed questions that showed that they cared about what citizens had to say. As the meeting broke up Mayor Farmer was heard to exclaim in a very loud voice to several members in the press that all of this politicking and blogging didn't make a bit of difference. I guess we will have to agree to disagree, Madame Mayor. What the citizens did working together on this blog, sharing information and talking to neighbors made a huge difference and the changes made to the ordinance will positively impact Ypsilantian's for years to come. If nothing else, it got the mayor and others to read a community blog. Cheers! - Steve