Council hears update on proposed downtown vacant-building registry; staff to hold another stakeholder meeting

City staff presented a project update Oct. 6 on a proposed vacant-building registry that would cover Denison's downtown and require owners to register properties that become vacant.

"The vacant building registry is a way for staff to keep track of what buildings are vacant, and this is strictly for the downtown area," said Miss Tate, city staff, during the presentation. Tate said the draft ordinance is modeled on the City of Paris' program and that staff held a stakeholder meeting Sept. 18, sent 135 letters to property owners and had 28 in-person attendees.

Tate said the proposed program is intended to promote life-safety measures and to improve staff contact with owners who may be out of town, not to be an enforcement tactic. "We do not want to see another catastrophe downtown, such as a fire or a loss of life or a building collapse for any reason," Tate said.

Key implementation points presented by staff include: - Owners would have 90 days after a building becomes vacant to register and provide contact information, building square footage, number of floors and a basic floor-plan description so fire and code officials can coordinate inspections and communications. - Staff said there would be no registration fee for property owners who register and actively market or lease a building; a $500 renewal fee is proposed for properties that remain vacant year after year. - Tate said the fire marshal does not have the same entry authority for vacant buildings as for occupied commercial structures and needs owner permission for interior inspections; inspections would focus on obvious fire hazards and result in a report and time to correct issues. - Staff estimated approximately 30 buildings are perpetually vacant downtown; Tate referenced an inspection fee line item ("$135 or $365" was mentioned) as part of the cost-recovery calculation toward the $500 charge.

Council members asked for clarification about the $500 fee and whether fines could be assessed. Tate said any fines for code violations arise from existing ordinances and are subject to judicial assessment; some code chapters allow fines up to $2,000 per day, but those fines are imposed by a judge after citation, not directly by staff.

After discussion, the council asked staff to hold another stakeholder meeting, collect written feedback from interested property owners, and return with a refined draft ordinance. The council postponed any formal action on the registry until after that additional outreach.

The council did not set a new date for the second stakeholder meeting during the public session.

The presentation noted that some past downtown incidents (an active rehab project and an occupied building) would not have been affected by a vacant-building registry, which staff acknowledged as a limitation of the program.