KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — Kalamazoo City Commissioners held a work session on code enforcement Monday night and discovered that it’s one of those areas where a lot of work is needed.
It’s not the most glamourous issue the city needs to deal with, but Commissioner Matt Milcarek says it’s the one they hear alot about when they campaign for office.
He says the code enforcement department needs to update their policies and focus their energy on dealing with blighted homes.
He says he is not ready to invest Foundation for Excellence funding into the effort however until he is convinced the department is using all of the resources it has now wisely.
Planning Director Rebekah Kik says they were hoping to get input from Commissioners and they got it. And Commissioners also commented that they learned a lot during the meeting.
There are over 200 condemned homes in the city of Kalamazoo, some of them are damaged by fires or meth cooks, but many of them can be rehabilitated according to staff.
Gaining legal possession of them, even to demolish them can be difficult and time consuming.
The city may examine and employ best practices already in place in Detroit and Flint, where such problems have been more acute.
