Recap: Housing Workshop

Click here to view workshop’s summary and notes

On January 11, 2019, the UMVRDC hosted a workshop where 43 people attended to discuss strategies for dealing with substandard buildings within the region.

This workshop highlighted city and county examples sharing proactive approaches to substandard and dilapidated properties. Participants walked away with strategies that could work in your community

Regional Data Presentation Agenda

Local Examples:

Canby Housing Condition Assessment
Clara City Housing Study – Planning and Implementation:
Windy Block, Clara City Administrator
Clara City has recently completed a housing study to find out what their housing needs are. We’ll hear about how they completed the study, what the results were, how they used it and what they plan to do.
Clara City 2018 Final
Clara City Housing Study Handout

City of Clinton – Rental Ordinance: Kari Wiegman, Clinton City Clerk
Clinton recently adopted a rental ordinance to address issues in their community. They also went through the process of contracting with a building inspector. We’ll hear about the process and results.
Clinton-Rental Property Ordinance
Clinton-Inspection Reminder Letter

City of Benson – Enforcement: Sergeant Paul Larson, City of Benson
The city of Benson’s public nuisance code provides a process for Sergeant Paul Larson to enforce citations. On an annual basis, Benson issues between 150-175 citations, which include properties that have not been maintained or may endanger the safety of others. Sergeant Larson will be able to review that process along with the time frame of the enforcement.
Benson-Nuisance Tag
Benson-Nuisance Code 93
Benson-AdministrativeSearchWarrants
Benson-Abandoned and other Nuisance Vehicles Code 95
Swift County – Rehab projects: Vicky Syverson, Swift County HRA
Swift County has a unique program where they have acquired a property either through tax forfeiture or donation and then rehabbed the property. Vicki Syverson will explain the process they go through, the funds used for the projects and what they do with the properties.
Lac qui Parle County – Definition of dangerous properties: Rick Stulz, Lac qui Parle County Attorney
County Attorney Rick Stulz will share how the county has proactively used the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) dangerous properties information memo to identify hazardous buildings. Rick will briefly explain this definition and share their process for tax forfeiture.League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) Dangerous Properties Information Memo: https://www.lmc.org/resources/dangerous-properties/
City of Bellingham – Demo and Awareness: Randy Larson, Mayor
Bellingham has had three property owners utilize the Lac qui Parle Demo program in recent years. Each time, the city needed to be involved in order for the project to receive county funds. The City provided an unsecured no interest loan to the property owner in order to complete the demolition. All of these loans have been paid back. Recently, they have had additional complaints and so Bellingham had a town meeting with 35 participants to spread awareness. We’ll hear about what happened next in their community.
Bellingham Ordinance Review
Bellingham Notice
Bellingham letter to residents