It's 2 02 and I'd like to call this meeting to order.

As of right now, we don't have a quorum, so we can't take action on this item today.

But we want to hear about this ordinance, and maybe we'll get some council members trickling in.

We have Councilmember Alcorn has joined us.

And let's go ahead and get started.

I'd like to recognize Councilmember Jackson to kind of introduce us to this ordinance and tell us what we're here for.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you all for um allowing me to present.

Or um to share my um background on this ordinance.

Um but before we get the public works presentation, I'd like to give a short explanation on why I brought this measure forward.

Um in my district, when a commercial building is vacant, it becomes a magnet for illegal dumping, graffiti, squatting, drug billing, it's all types of crime.

It becomes blighted.

And I've seen in other neighborhoods when businesses shut down their fence shut down and fence the property off, they avoid all of that.

And so this price when you what you would hear during this presentation is the challenges that this ordinance will bring.

Um what the challenges that um public works would have on the with this ordinance.

I also want us to consider as public works present um the challenges that our communities face with these buildings being open.

Um and so in your hands, you will see some pictures of some buildings that's in District B.

And um these are examples of vacant properties that has become a headache for um the residents within our district.

And we've had to clean up the tires.

We spend millions on cleaning up.

And so um, we don't have all the answers, but I think this is a critical, it's important ordinance for our communities, especially the communities that are dealing with the illegal tire dumpings and just this type of blight in the neighborhoods.

And so um just consider that as we talk about the challenges, everything that we come in contact with or you try to do is going to be a challenge.

But how do we move this forward um for the residents in my district and other districts in the city of Houston that's facing the same challenges?

So thank you.

Thank you.

Joining us is Vice Mayor Pro Tem Peck and staff from Councilmember Davis's office.

So without further ado, who would we like to hear from first, Councilmember Jackson?

Um I think we have a public director of the Heather Permit.

Welcome and please introduce yourselves.

Good afternoon.

My name is Rudy Moreno.

I am the deputy director within Houston Public Works.

I'm accompanied today by Chris Mr.

Christopher Shanahan, the interim deputy assistant director over community code enforcement.

Thank you very much for allowing us the opportunity to present and speak uh to the Prop A committee concerning the proposed vacant building ordinance.

I'm gonna ask that Christopher Shanahan do this presentation, and then we will be available for any questions that you have.

Go ahead, Chris.

Well, good afternoon, uh council members and committee committee members.

Thank you for having us today.

Um I can get uh next slide, please.

So uh as an overview of this proposal, it requires the property owner to fence the perimeter of the property within 10 days of the of the commercial property becoming vacant.

So the exceptions identified through the ordinance drafted or whether there could be an act of permitting uh with the project to uh perhaps rehabilitate the building or make modifications to the building.

Or if there's a determination made by code enforcement that there is active work underway to improve the property.

Um I guess uh perhaps maybe there's a viable lease tenant that would be moving in to remove that vacant factor from the property.

And then thirdly, there's uh whether there's council or mayoral uh unanimous determination to uh uh grant an exception of from the requirements of this ordinance.

Next slide, please.

So past practices within building and community code enforcement, there has not been a fencing requirement for vacant commercial buildings.

Um you know, routinely within the city of Houston, the thousands of buildings that we have, whether commercial and or residential, um I don't think we could actually measure how many buildings are actually vacant.

Um, but we have not had a an ordinance or procedure in place to require a vacant property or vacant commercial property to to be fenced off.

Next slide, please.

And so moving forward, we'll look at some potential ordinance impacts.

Next slide.

So some of the challenges if the owner does not install a fence around the property.

Um one of the first factors to determine is the vacancy status of the property.

So identified in the ordinance, we would have to establish seven non-consecutive days within a 30-day period to determine that the building is deemed vacant.

Um that there's a challenge that comes along with that to measure that, right?

And then I'm looking at recurring site visits within that 30-day period, uh, which is a allocation of my staffing and my resources.

Uh and then documentation with violation notices.

So we would have to actually determine that the property is vacant within at least seven different days within that 30-day period and followed up with appropriate documentation in the event that we needed to present this to a hearing official.

Uh the next section talks about property perimeter.

So multiple structures on the same property or parcel.