Community Development outlines permits, rental inspection trends and code update plans

At the Dec. 2 meeting Community Development Director Jody Real Goodwin reviewed department structure and recent metrics and outlined ongoing initiatives around housing, nuisance enforcement and code modernization.

Real Goodwin reported FY25 commercial permits numbered 335 with an aggregate valuation of $44,200,000 and said the first quarter of the current fiscal year included 98 permits valued at $7,000,000. She cautioned that permit counts do not directly map to unit counts—permits are issued by building—citing the Hawkeye site, permitted as a single building though it contains 65 units.

On rental inspections she said the department typically completes 1,500–1,800 inspections annually as part of a multi-year cycle covering roughly 3,000 units. Last year the department completed 1,521 inspections covering 875 units with 333 passing on first inspection (about 40%). Current-year work shows roughly 422 inspections completed so far with 154 units inspected and an estimated first-pass pass-rate closer to 25% to date.

Real Goodwin described nuisance enforcement trends: 756 notices of violation last year with 168 contracted actions, compared with 255 notices so far this year with 64 contracted actions. For grass-and-weeds violations she reported 689 last year with 157 contracted actions and 246 so far this first quarter with 85 contracted; she said the trend is concerning and staff continue to seek root causes.

The director outlined the pattern book effort—three housing models intended to lower development friction by providing ready designs—and said the city has hired Horizon Architecture through an RFP/RFQ process. She also said staff are ordering code books to review differences between the city’s current code (loosely referenced to 2015) and the state’s IBC 2024, and that advisory boards will be involved in code-update discussions.