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Council reviews revised rental registry language; affordable housing fund, staffing and ordinance details debated
Summary
Maplewood council members and staff discussed updated rental registry ordinance language, debated whether to include an affordable rental housing fund in the code and raised inspection staffing capacity concerns; no formal vote was taken.
City staff and councilors discussed revisions to a proposed rental registry ordinance at the Maplewood City Council work session on Feb. 11, with debate focused on whether to codify an "affordable rental housing fund" and whether the city has capacity to perform required inspections.
"I think 1 thing that's important to me is that we get this codified at some point so that it is within our code of ordinances," said Nick (role not specified), explaining why the registry was before the council again. He raised specific questions about section G, the proposed affordable rental housing fund and whether the ordinance should specify funding mechanisms.
Attorney Graves (attorney) advised caution about including a funding mechanism in an ordinance without a current funding source. "We typically advise not to include something in an ordinance unless there is an immediate, you know, use for it," Graves said, noting that cities typically seed such funds with federal grants (for example, Community Development Block Grant or HOME program funds) or one-time allocations such as ARPA or a voter-approved tax.
Nick and other council members discussed whether the fund language should remain in the draft ordinance pending a decision about a funding mechanism. The council did not adopt the ordinance at the Feb. 11 work session; staff and council members agreed to refine the language and decide whether to retain section G before returning a polished version for a future vote.
Staff member Amber (role not specified) answered questions about inspection capacity. "We sometimes have challenges closing out cases because we do an annual inspection process on every multifamily rental property in the city, and we only have 2 full time inspectors to do all that work," Amber said, describing occasions where follow-up verification and case closure have been delayed because inspectors must keep up with many properties.
Council members asked whether the ordinance could require a fund to accept specified federal grant sources if those grants were awarded; Attorney Graves said including a permissive reference to grant programs would not guarantee funding but could allow the city to place awarded grant dollars into a dedicated fund if council later established one.
Why it matters: a rental registry ordinance would create an ongoing compliance and inspection workload for city staff and could create a dedicated local funding mechanism for affordable rental housing if the council decides to establish and fund such a program.
Formal votes: the council did not vote on the rental registry language at the Feb. 11 work session. The meeting concluded with a motion to adjourn that was seconded and approved by all council members present.
