Johnson County moving ahead on property rules

Johnson County is moving forward with establishing regulations to give it more control over nuisance properties, including the troubled Regency Mobile Home Park.

The Board of Supervisors at a work session Wednesday spoke in favor of adopting a property maintenance code. They still need to work out the details but hope to begin discussing specific ordinance language in a couple of weeks.

The rules would apply countywide, but the county's action was spurred by the long-standing poor conditions at Regency Trailer Park just south of Iowa City.

The Iowa Attorney General's Office and Johnson County Sheriff's Office are investigating consumer-fraud allegations at the park, but the county supervisors also want to address the dilapidated physical appearance and living conditions there.

The supervisors are interested in a stripped down version of the International Property Maintenance Code, a topic they first broached several months ago. They want it to focus on life-safety issues, like fire protection and having proper plumbing, heating and electrical systems.

They do not want as many regulations as cities often have for aesthetic issues, like house paint or grass length.

“I don't want people out mowing their prairies and woodlands across the county,” Supervisor Janelle Rettig said.

The code would apply to rental properties, with possible violations investigated on a complaint basis.

The supervisors also are interested in enacting a separate rental code that would require permits for rental properties and allow for regular inspections, like once every three years. That ordinance will take more time to sort out, and the supervisors said they wanted to get something in place as soon as possible, so they are focusing on the property maintenance code for now.

Rick Dvorak, the county's planning and zoning administrator, said there were about 900 rental properties in rural Johnson County in the 2000 census, and inspecting those probably would require the addition of another staff member.

Linn County has a property maintenance ordinance for unincorporated areas that is primarily used on basic safety issues.