by Janae Fear, staff writer
TYLER LEPPANEN, Code Enforcement Officer for the city of Owosso, explains the current practice of the code enforcement office at the Monday, May 16 city council meeting. Leppanen has been in the code enforcement office since April, 2015. (Independent Photo/Janae Fear)
Tyler Leppanen, Housing Program Manager and Code Enforcement Officer for the City of Owosso outlined the current practice for the code enforcement office and proposed changes at the Monday, May 16 city council meeting. According to the city’s website, “The City of Owosso Building Department oversees code enforcement efforts within the city limits. The mission of code enforcement is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of City of Owosso residents by promoting safe, healthy, and sanitary housing through education and enforcement of property maintenance, zoning, nuisance, and rental inspection codes. Code enforcement further benefits the community by protecting property values through the elimination of blight such as trash, vacant structures, dilapidated buildings, junk cars, and tall grass.”
Currently, the code enforcement office is complaint based, meaning that the office only responds to property violations if there is a complaint made. Leppanen proposed that city council consider making adjustments to the City’s code enforcement efforts to create a more robust, proactive program. This would involve city staff patrolling the city in a systematic manner after a lengthy time period of educating residents
about the code through the city’s website, social media, flyers in utility bills, and local newspapers along with compiling a resource guide for assistance for those residents that cannot afford to correct violations.
Council members expressed concern over workload for Leppanen, anticipating a large increase in the number of violations addressed and issued, to which Leppanen replied, “I understand the concern. We would handle it by being strategic and looking at our map to point us in the right direction, and starting with the gateways to the community, the main streets, and the ‘most wanted’ list of continual issues.”
Mayor Frederick requested that Leppanen bring back to council some specific community initiatives and program additions that would be used in the resource guide. Leppanen reiterated that the intent would not be to catch people off guard, which was why he was proposing a six to seven-month educational period saying “This should also decrease the volume because residents would be made aware that we are going to be more proactive.
During his presentation, Leppanen gave a slide show that documented with pictures violations that he noticed but did not cite, while driving to investigate complaints. Many of the pictures were of garbage cans left in the right-of-way. The City of Owosso has a code that states, “refuse is to be placed inside the curb so that the same shall not in any way be in the traffic portion of the street, and shall be placed inside the curb for pick-up on the morning no earlier than 4 p.m. the day before the day of collection in residential areas. Any containers belonging to the resident that are left at the curb after collection of refuse are to be removed to the back or side yard on or before midnight, of the day of collection. Any violator of the provisions of this section will be immediately ticketed by the police department.”
Code enforcement complaints can be submitted by calling (989) 725-0535 24-hours a day, seven days per week or by logging onto the city’s website and using the online form on the code enforcement page.
