Ordinance committee advances four zoning and code changes to full council; sewer fee debate tabled

The Holyoke City Ordinance Committee voted to forward four draft ordinance items to the full City Council for legal drafting and final consideration, and tabled a separate proposal on a minimum sewer closing fee after members and the Law Department disagreed on the fee amount.

The committee voted to receive and adopt language (to be converted to formal ordinance text by the Law Department) for the following items and send them to the full City Council: (1) an amendment requiring bidders on city sale RFPs to provide a certificate of compliance with building, health and fire codes (item 4); (2) an amendment to Section 38‑73.6 that would change prohibited loading/unloading hours from 11 p.m.–7 a.m. to 10 p.m.–8 a.m. (item 5); (3) an update to Section 86‑6 raising a specified penalty/threshold from $200 to $1,000 to match state law (item 7); and (4) a new Section 86‑11 requiring the police to report damage to city property greater than $1,000 from motor vehicle accidents and directing the mayor and law department to pursue collection actions (item 8).

Votes and follow‑up: The package motions for items 4, 5, 7 and 8 passed on roll‑call votes; committee members asked that the Law Department provide formal ordinance drafts at least seven days before the next meeting so members can review them. Item 6 — a proposed administrative sewer…