Committee approves referral to add penalty section to zoning code enforcement

The Lorain City Council Billings and Lands Committee voted to send to full council a proposal to add a penalty section to the city's 2021 zoning code to enable formal enforcement of zoning violations through housing court.

Planning Director Matt Kuzhenark told the committee that when the zoning code was passed in 2021 the administration and enforcement section lacked a penalty provision. "This ordinance seeks to do is is establish a penalty section so we can start taking zoning violations, through housing court," Kuzhenark said, adding that the formulation largely mirrors the existing penalty language used elsewhere to allow fines and court enforcement if property owners ignore notices.

Councilman Thornberry said he supported the change and cited recent neighborhood problems he has encountered, including a home being used for a landscape business and burning that required a fire response. "I support this a 100%, and, you know, it's long overdue. I think we need to have some teeth behind some of these things to get some of these bad actors applied," Thornberry said.

Councilmember Duvall asked whether unsafe structures would be covered by this ordinance; Kuzhenark clarified that unsafe-structure citations fall under the city's property maintenance code and building-code enforcement, not the proposed zoning penalties. "We already have our property maintenance code ... to cite that safe structures," Kuzhenark said.

At the end of the discussion, Councilman Thornberry moved to send the item back to full council for consideration; Councilwoman Munoz seconded the motion. The committee approved the referral by voice vote.