Ferron council outlines seven enforcement zones, adopts complaint form process

The Ferron City Council agreed at a Feb. 4 work session to proceed with dividing the city into seven zones for local ordinance enforcement and to use a standardized complaint form to route issues to staff.

Council members said the zoning plan would allow each commissioner to monitor a manageable area and submit complaints through a shared online folder. "I'll make a motion to go with the 7 zones for the ordinance enforcing and the form for ordinance enforcing," Council member Brown said during the meeting; the motion was seconded, but the transcript does not record a roll-call vote or final tally.

The council described the process for handling complaints: commissioners or residents can fill out a form with the address and the suspected code violation and send it to staff, who will scan and post it on a shared drive so commissioners can see the complaint and any follow-up. Commissioners were instructed to check the municipal code before submitting complaints and to encourage neighbors to speak with one another where appropriate before escalating to formal action.

Members discussed specific code provisions while walking through examples. The council read language restricting use of recreational vehicles for human habitation outside licensed RV parks or licensed home parks and cited Ordinance 10/2018 as the local code provision commissioners should reference when documenting RV habitation complaints. Council members pointed to an active case at roughly 200 East where a recreational vehicle reportedly is being used for habitation adjacent to an older house; the council said staff would follow up using the new process.

Commissioners also discussed records and privacy: complaints will be public records if staff determines follow-up action is required; if staff reviews a complaint and takes no action, members were told it may not become public. The council asked commissioners to note the applicable code section on each submission to speed staff review.

Separately, council members agreed to split review of the city's general plan and development code by chapters and assigned chapters to individual commissioners so they could compare the draft plan to existing code. The council set a short initial timeline: commissioners were asked to read their chapters within about one month and to touch base monthly; a broader review and further meetings were projected to follow, with a possible six-month working horizon discussed for larger items.

Members said staff will place the complaint form and the general-plan draft in a shared drive in editable Word format so commissioners can mark changes and notes. The council emphasized that the first months of implementation will be a learning process and encouraged commissioners to consult the code and staff before initiating formal enforcement actions.

The meeting contained practical examples and neighborhood-level detail but no formal, recorded vote outcome on the motion to adopt the seven-zone approach was captured in the transcript provided.

The council plans to refine zone boundaries after commissioners submit suggested map edits by email or in person; staff offered to compile submissions and present an updated map for future consideration.