Planning Code Violations and Fees

C

CGoodwater

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Hi All! Just wondering how other municipalities handle Planning code violations. If you fine people, could you share your process and fee structure?

We don't seem to be charging anyone for planning code violations and give a lot of warnings. It seems people don't comply unless they get fees associated with non-compliance, but our city isn't fining people. I think it would help with the cost of staff time to go investigate these and also deter people from violating code to begin with.
 
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United States
Our Code Compliance division handles municipal and development code violations. The end goal is compliance not issuing citations. Citations are a tool that is used if there is no effort by the property/business owner to bring the property into compliance.
 
Jeff said:
Our Code Compliance division handles municipal and development code violations. The end goal is compliance not issuing citations. Citations are a tool that is used if there is no effort by the property/business owner to bring the property into compliance.
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Hi Jeff! Our goal is also to bring the property into compliance, which is why we don't give citations. We give warnings with a letter and a due date for compliance. Our letter does say that we will fine people if they don't respond to work with us or come into compliance. We have had several instances where someone has been given multiple warnings and has been well past the due date to come into compliance. I think in these cases we should be issuing a citation though. I am curious about the process people go through, how many warnings or time do they give, etc.
 
We issue an NOV and usually give two weeks to address the issue. If there has been no communication or no progress we issue a $100 citation which goes up to $250 and then to $500. These fines can be assessed daily however the code officer would need to visit the property every day and verify no progress has taken place. We will get an abatement order to correct the violation if severe enough.
 
Jeff said:
We issue an NOV and usually give two weeks to address the issue. If there has been no communication or no progress we issue a $100 citation which goes up to $250 and then to $500. These fines can be assessed daily however the code officer would need to visit the property every day and verify no progress has taken place. We will get an abatement order to correct the violation if severe enough.
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Thanks so much Jeff! This is helpful!
 
In my municipality, homeowners and businessowners are given the chance to get everything up to code by a certain date. If they fail to follow through, that's when the fines hit. The fines increase every so often until they're compliant.
 
I love to see how everything ends up with fees + fees + fees and more fees.

Are there any other ways to achieve things without enslaving the people to pay all these fees? Maybe there are "too many" things to comply with... Or maybe offer incentives to comply instead charging fees?
 
Mike30 said:
I love to see how everything ends up with fees + fees + fees and more fees.

Are there any other ways to achieve things without enslaving the people to pay all these fees? Maybe there are "too many" things to comply with... Or maybe offer incentives to comply instead charging fees?
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For me, compliance was our first goal. If we got to the fee part, the people deserved it. That means that they failed to act on numerous attempts and notices to come into compliance, followed by going before a lienent judge who would waive fees IF the came into compliance by a certain date. Normally, when people get hit with fees, there is always a "rest of the story" that never makes it into the paper. People with fines in my jurisdiction deserved them. These weren't the people who "couldn't" comply, these were the people who "wouldn't" comply. If people couldn't afford compliance, or lacked the ability to physically do it themselves, we ALWAYS found resources to help them.

In the case of not paying fees, not complying at multiple levels, I would eventually charge people criminally, and that is what usually got their attention. Those people were the special people who typically also threatened staff, refused to do anything, anti-government and I loved going to court with them because the compliance process was always well documented allowing multiple opportunities to comply before they were ever charged. Superior Court judges HATED people like that when they came into their courtooms. It made our life super easy.
 
CGoodwater said:
Hi All! Just wondering how other municipalities handle Planning code violations. If you fine people, could you share your process and fee structure?

We don't seem to be charging anyone for planning code violations and give a lot of warnings. It seems people don't comply unless they get fees associated with non-compliance, but our city isn't fining people. I think it would help with the cost of staff time to go investigate these and also deter people from violating code to begin with.
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Code Enforcement Inspector here in Los Angeles and we enforce municipal and zoning violations. During Covid the City implemented a Notice of Code Violation with no fees in order to give the constituents a chance to comply without fees. We are weening off of those and use them strictly for minor issues such as overgrown vegetation or over height fences. We issue them with a 15-30 day compliance at our discretion. All other violations will go straight to an Order to Comply which comes with a fee of $356.10, they are given 30 days to comply after which we can come by at anytime and assess a non compliance fee of $660 if they have not made any progress. At the point of non compliance we prepare our cases for the City Attorney hearing which takes a little time to get on the books, but once the hearing takes place and they get ahold of the constituent they give them instructions on how to comply and 30 more days with no additional fees. If still no compliance after that, we prepare the case for criminal hearing where they will be required to go before a judge.
 
ashalit said:
Does anyone have violation fees for signage?
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At my old agency (Large county in AZ) all of our fines were standard. They could be adjusted by the Hearing officer, but by state statute they were all 750 per violation per day for residential and 10,000 per day per violation for commercial violations. Everyone just affirmed with the State said in their own ordinances, but there was some lattitude to reduce those to encourage compliance.
 
Inspector Parker said:
LA City does. And it's serious, we just came across one that the billboard company was just charged $350,000 for the 3rd time because they still have not obtained a permit.
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That is great! The fines should be steep for repeate offenders for work without permits. Especially commercial companies that know better. If it was a digital billboard in a key traffic area, they are likley making between 300K and 500K per month on the billboard. They are outrageous cash cows.
 

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