FROM STAFF REPORTS
Aurora -- After several months of discussion, City ouncil voted down a proposed exterior maintenance code 6-2 on Dec. 17. It would have enacted new rules pertaining to upkeep of residential and commercial properties.
Councilman Dennis Kovach, who voted against the proposed code, said he believes the city "has enough laws in place already, and we just need to enforce them."
Councilman George Horvat, who with Carl Rausch voted for the code, said he didn't believe there was anything "intrusive" about the proposed law.
"It's just something we need going forward as our neighborhoods get older," Horvat said. "Some of my Ward 4 residents called me [through the years] about things like this, and we never really had anything we could enforce."
A maintenance code requires homeowners to keep their properties and exteriors of any buildings aesthetically pleasing and in good condition. It covers such items as foundations, walls, roofs, doors and gutters. The city's new draft incorporated trash, high grass and junk vehicles into the code.
Enforcement would have been based on citizen complaints and visual inspection by city inspectors, according to Planning-Zoning-Building Director Rich Wehrenberg. Any action taken by the city under the code could have been appealed to the city's board of building code appeals.
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