The Pflugerville City Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday approved an ordinance on first reading creating a Building and Standards Commission to improve how the city addresses unsafe and dilapidated structures. The measure will face a second vote before becoming official.
The commission will hear disputes between the city and property owners when a structure violates the city’s building code, said Robert Polanco, the city’s building official. He said that when property owners refuse to comply, the city typically goes to district court to settle the matter, which can take months. He said the commission will be more efficient at hearing disputes and enforcing the building code, ultimately saving the city money in legal fees.
Polanco said he can present cases to the commission through a public hearing. The panel will then determine whether a building is substandard and recommend corrective action. Polanco said the commission can order property owners to repair, vacate or demolish a building based on the specifics of the case.
“You gotta make sure you get these right, especially when you’re talking about personal property,” Polanco said. “You don’t want to end up in a takings claim, so you want to make sure it goes through the right process.”
Council Member David Rogers said several provisions were inconsistent with other city commissions. For example, the commission will have five members, with four forming a quorum — meaning 80% must be present to hold a meeting. Rogers said other commissions require only a majority.
However, City Attorney Michael Hayes said the provisions are the industry standard. Council Member Rudy Metayer added that an 80% quorum is more cautious, especially since the commission will be dealing with private property. He also said the city needs a strong building-code enforcer to ensure city structures are safe.
“I applaud staff for looking at industry standards (and) what are the best applicable conditions, clauses and everything else that goes with this to make it happen,” Metayer said. “(Rogers) said we have some clauses that aren’t in our other commissions, which makes us go look back (and) say maybe we should have that clause in some other commissions, too.”
Polanco said the commission stems from an ongoing battle the city had with the owners of a burned house that stood for years. He said it took seven months to resolve the issue in district court.
In addition to the commission, the council approved several changes to its health and sanitation ordinances, last updated in 2007. Polanco said he introduced the changes to align city ordinances with state statutes.
Polanco said the public nuisance ordinance included subjective, unenforceable language. He said the changes were meant to write legally enforceable language and to expand the definition of a nuisance to include other sanitation issues and discarded materials.