Proposed changes to the town’s housing code, aimed at making the code tougher and increasing penalties for violations, have been scheduled for a public hearing later this month.
Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith proposed the revisions to Chapter 217 of the Riverhead Town Code to address substandard and overcrowded housing after the town came under fire by residents upset about the school district’s $100 capital construction plan. At recent school board meetings, residents argued that the need for additional classrooms and expanded facilities were the result of overcrowded housing in the Town of Riverhead.
Jens-Smith’s code revision proposal would adopt by reference the standards of the state property maintenance code.
It would make violation of the town housing code an unclassified misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $2,500 and up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 15 days. Every day a violation continues would be deemed a separate violation under the code.
Under the current code, penalties for housing code violations are punishable by a fine of not more than $250 or by imprisonment for not more than 15 days, or both. Each week during which the violation persists is deemed a separate offense.
The proposal would also give the town the right to revoke a certificate of occupancy for any building with a continuing violation of the housing code and allow the town to seek an injunction against occupancy of a building with a revoked C.O. in State Supreme Court.
Jens-Smith unveiled the housing code revisions at last Thursday’s work session. She said that many of the substandard and overcrowded homes in Riverhead are owned by several landlords who each have “multiple houses and multiple violations.”
“How do we go after them as a whole, instead of one at a time?” Jens-Smith said. “A year later, we have to start from square one. It has to become unprofitable for them to run the houses the way they do.”
Investigator Richard Downs, who heads up the town’s code enforcement division, told the town board last week the problems have “progressively gotten a lot worse in my 20 years here.”
The town last year added two code enforcement officers — doubling the existing staff that consisted of Downs and an ordinance inspector. Jens-Smith said her budget proposal includes money for additional personnel in the code enforcement division.
Councilwoman Jodi Giglio voted against holding a public hearing on the proposed code.
“I thought this should have gone through the code revision committee and I thought the town attorney that handles code violations for overcrowding and rentals should have been included in the drafting of this document,” Giglio said before casting a “no” vote at Wednesday afternoon’s meeting.
“We saw several emails form the code enforcement officer that there are a lot of contradictions in this code. It’s a waste of people’s time to come out to a hearing when there are too many inconsistencies,” Giglio said.
The resolution calling the public hearing was approved 4-1.
“I’m pleased to move forward with this and take a hard line on these landlords in town,” Councilwoman Catherine Kent said. It’s not unusual for code change proposals to be made without the code revision committee, she said.
Wooten said he is “never opposed to public hearings,” noting, “If we have to massage it, we have to massage it.”
Jens-Smith said the purpose of the revision is to increase the penalties and bring some clarity to the purpose of the town’s housing code.
“It sets the state standards as the minimum, so if ours are more restrictive it’s not a conflict,” she said.
The hearing will take place on Oct. 16 at 6:25 p.m. at Riverhead Town Hall.
In an interview, Giglio said she believes the town could be more proactive and smarter about enforcing existing codes to combat overcrowded housing in Riverhead.
“Police, EMS and the fire department should notify code enforcement when they see overcrowded housing and code violations,” Giglio said. “They should take pictures when they see these conditions.”
“If we document out-of-state plates in the driveway for more than a month, that indicates a problem. They’re supposed to get New York plates after 30 days living here,” Giglio said.
“We should have a random inspection for rental dwellings as a condition of the permit, where you’d have to open the house to us within 24 hours,” she said.
Giglio said the town and school district also need to work together to address overcrowded housing.
Giglio also said the town should focus on bringing injunction actions in state court. Injunctions are court orders barring actions or activities and can be used to prevent a home from being occupied.
“The town attorney has to be told to focus on that. It can be done,” she said. “Southampton has been effective in doing this. We should talk to Southampton to find out what’s working and what’s not, instead of reinventing the wheel.”
The Riverhead Town Board in May 2017 authorized the town attorney’s office to bring injunction actions in State Supreme Court against four homes determined to be overcrowded after lengthy investigations by the code enforcement division, but the actions were never commenced.
At about that time, the deputy town attorney hired to handle code enforcement matters was appointed to head up the town’s community development department. The town board subsequently hired another deputy town attorney to focus on code enforcement issues.
The town attorney’s office in November 2017 proposed increasing the civil penalties for housing code violations.
On January 17, 2018, the town board adopted a local law that increased civil penalties for housing code violations from $250 per violation to a tiered structure, with a $350 penalty for the first day of a violation, $500 for the second day, and $1,000 for the third day and subsequent day up to a maximum of $15,000 for any 15-day period. The law made each 15-day period a separate cause of action.
The current proposal would not change the civil penalties provided by section 217-104 but adds new criminal penalties in a new section 217-89.
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