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Lorraine public hearing considers adding criminal penalties for zoning violations; council member calls move punitive
Summary
City staff presented an ordinance to add criminal charges for zoning-code violations and referred the measure to the planning commission for review. Mary Spingalski, city council at-large, urged the council not to criminalize sign enforcement, saying enforcement is already politicized and departments are overburdened.
City of Lorraine officials opened a public hearing to consider an ordinance that would add criminal penalties for zoning-code violations and referred the proposal to the planning commission for review.
Planning and Zoning Administrator said the proposed amendment would add criminal charges to the zoning code. "Currently, the zoning code does not have criminal charges associated with any noncompliance or any violations of the zoning code," the administrator said, adding that the change would mirror the criminal charges already used for property-maintenance code violations. The administrator also said the enforcement section was restructured so the penalty provisions appear at the end of the enforcement chapter and described the existing enforcement pathway: the building department issues notices of violation and, if unresolved, refers cases to the municipal court for fines and fees.
The matter was presented as a submission for the planning commission's review and recommendation; no final vote on the ordinance was taken at the hearing.
Mary Spingalski, city council member at-large, spoke during public comment and opposed adding criminal penalties for sign enforcement. "I think that this is punitive. It is sometimes politicized, and I think it is completely unnecessary to add criminal penalties to a mirror sign violation," Spingalski said. She said the city already struggles to enforce existing ordinances and that adding criminal penalties would further burden building and housing staff. "We can't get out of town landlords to maintain properties and follow the rules as it is. I just think that adding 1 more enforcement task and criminalizing it on top of an already overburdened building and ... housing department is completely unnecessary at this time," she said.
The chair noted the item will be discussed later by the planning commission. The public-hearing record closed with the item sent on for further review; no ordinance adoption occurred at the hearing.
Other procedural matters at the start of the session (roll call and meeting disposition) were handled before the hearing closed.
