10A
August 17, 2012 Sun Thisweek - Burnsville - Eagan
Rental inspection program takes shape City not sure what it will find by John Gessner Sun Thisweek
Burnsville officials aren’t sure what kind of conditions they’ll find when they begin unit-by-unit apartment inspections next year. Even some of the nicer complexes in town can be revealed to have problem units if the Fire Department is called and gets a peek inside, says Community Development Director Jenni Faulkner. “The biggest challenge for us as a city is we don’t know what we don’t know, and we haven’t been in these units,” Faulkner told the City Council at an Aug. 13 work session. The city is firming up costs and procedures for the inspection program, which begins in January. Residential rental units, including single-family rentals and rented mobile homes, will be inspected once every three years. Burnsville has licensed residential rental properties since 2005 without a fee and inspections program. The City Council decided on inspections after decrepit conditions and hundreds of property and fire code violations were uncovered last year at Country Village Apartments in west Burnsville. Owner Lindahl Partnerships has been working to repair the emptied complex and intends to seek relicensure. Among metro-area cities that license residential rental properties, Burnsville is one of the few that doesn’t charge an annual license fee to pay for inspections, according to Faulkner. The city plans inspections of one-third of units in a multifamily building per year. Single-family units would be inspected once ev-
ery three years. The council is expected to approve the necessary changes in Burnsville’s rental licensing ordinance on Sept. 18. A proposed fee schedule calls for annual fees of $130 per building and $10 per unit for multiunit rental complexes. An earlier proposal had a $20 per-unit fee. Complexes with common spaces would also pay a $150 fee for annual fire inspections of the spaces. An earlier proposal had a $240 fee. Under the proposed fees, annual charges to a fourbuilding, 150-unit apartment complex would total $2,620, according to the city. The extra costs have the potential to push up rental rates in Burnsville, but that’s not certain, said Lisa Peilen, director of municipal affairs for the Minnesota Multi Housing Association, which has kept a close eye on Burnsville’s deliberations. “It’s something that could happen,” Peilen said in an interview. “I have no knowledge that it will. We’re also in a strong rental market. My guess is that most rents are driven by supply and demand.” Multifamily property managers raised concerns about the inspections, including the size of the fees, at an Aug. 8 meeting. But “we actually did get compliments on the benefits of inspection,” Faulkner said. Council members had looked for ways to soften
the fees for property owners with good records, but Faulkner said the city will need the first three years to establish a baseline of conditions that could be used to develop a “tiered” fee structure. For now, the city is proposing a reinspection fee of $160 per unit if city inspectors must make a third visit to check on repairs. Projected revenue from the reinspection fee allowed the city to halve the per-unit fee from $20 to $10. “It’s a reward for wellmanaged properties and really an incentive for others to get there,” Peilen said. Other proposed inspection fees are $80 per building and $10 per unit for multifamily townhomes, $150 for single-family rentals, and $250 plus $40 per unit for mobile-home parks that own homes. An open house on the program for single-family rental licenseholders will be held Aug. 28 at City Hall.
Another problem property? Mayor Elizabeth Kautz singled out Horizon Heights, a subsidized rental complex south of Highway 13 and east of County Road 11. “Because that’s one of the properties that really needs a lot of work,” Kautz said. “I was there for National Night Out (Aug. 7), and it was not a very nice place,” she said, referring to “big holes in the kitchen.” New management at the complex has made progress and responded to resident complaints while improving relations with the city, said Scott McKown, city building official. John Gessner can be reached at john.gessner@ecm-inc.com or facebook.com/sunthisweek.