Monday, March 22, 2010
By LINDA M. LINONIS
linonis@vindy.com
Hubbard Township
The work of the Hubbard Township Property Maintenance Code Committee is now in the hands of Mark Finamore, township legal counsel.
John Pieton, zoning administrator, said the 11-member committee met four times — twice in January and twice in February — and devised a comprehensive draft report about standards for property maintenance.
“In just two months, we took a major step,” Pieton said.
The committee’s purpose was to develop a maintenance code, and now that it’s been done, the committee will disband.
“It’s at the attorney level now,” Pieton said. “He makes sure everything is legal.”
After getting the OK from legal counsel, the report then will go to the zoning commission for review.
“The commission will take the report under advisement, then schedule a public meeting,” Pieton said. “It may be tweaked,” he said of the maintenance-code document.
Recommendations garnered by the zoning commission chaired by Ray McElroy and at the public meeting will be turned over to township trustees, who will conduct another public meeting for any other input.
When trustees approve the maintenance code in its final version, it will take 30 days for it to go into effect.
“It then will be a part of the official zoning code,” Pieton said.
The committee was: Bill Marx, chairman; Ed Wolfinger, vice chairman; Debbie Menendez, secretary; and members Bob Brockett, John Chaney, Dave Conzett, John Ferencak, Bill Headwell, James Jordan, Dorothy McCabe and Bob Vukovich.
In a statement to trustees and the zoning commission, the committee wrote, in part, that the code recommendations are for “protecting property values and improving the quality of life in our township.”
The goal of the panel through the code was to establish, in part, “minimum standards for maintaining residential, commercial and industrial quality” and “avoid blighting effects, fixing responsibilities of owners, operators and occupants of structures and premises and providing for administration, enforcement and penalties.”
The code, in part, addresses exterior premises, paint, vegetation and stairways.