Council To Consider Commercial Building Code Changes

Nathan Johnson was sworn in Monday night as Oskaloosa’s newest police officer. (Oskaloosa Police Department Photo)

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa City Council met in regular session on Monday, January 22, 2019.

Oskaloosa Mayor Dave Krutzfeldt swore in Oskaloosa’s newest police officer Nathan Johnson.

Nathan is originally from Oskaloosa and completed his Associate degree in Criminal Justice at Indian Hills Community College. Nathan interned with the Oskaloosa Police Department while attending Indian Hills, and is a certified police officer.

Johnson has spent the past 10 years working for the Bloomfield Iowa Police Department.

Oskaloosa firefighter and code enforcement officer Dustin Hook presented a report to the council on nuisance enforcement during the 4th quarter of 2018.

The report indicated that 100 cases were opened during the 4th quarter, with 68 of them resolved at this point. The largest complaint is garbage and junk on properties, having 39 cases opened, with 20 of those being resolved.

The next largest complaint involved snow removal, with 28 complaints during the quarter. All of those cases were resolved.

Code Enforcement has opened 10 cases of dilapidated properties, and at this point, none of those have been resolved.

There is a legal process that the city has to take in order to resolve cases, and can take some time to process. Other cases, the landowner may be working to resolve the issue but hasn’t completed the work within the quarter, or code enforcement may work with property owners due to weather conditions.

The council moved to vacate and sell a 133 foot by 16.5-foot section of the north-south alley adjacent to 301 and 307 North L Street. James Walker of 301 North L. Street and Darrell Van Kampen, 307 North L were seeking their respective portions of the alley.

The council held a public hearing on levying a special assessment against the property owned by David and Deborah Carothers located at 322 North C Street for clean up to abate a nuisance. There were no oral or written comments  received during the hearing.

The resolution levying the special assessment to the property located at 322 North C Street was passed unanimously.

A public hearing was held to consider adding a new chapter to the Oskaloosa City Code, 17.38, titled “Building Materials and Design Standards”. The hearing is scheduled for February 4, 2019.

Shawn Christ, Development Services Director for the City of Oskaloosa made a presentation to the Oskaloosa City Council.

Christ said shortly after his arrival to Oskaloosa, having a city ordinance regarding building materials and design standards was a concern for the city.

“This quickly became one of my tasks and it’s something I’ve worked on with Planning and Zoning Commission,” added Christ.

These discussions were started after a local business got approval to put up a metal building along A Avenue because there was no ordinance in place allowing the city council or planning and zoning to require a certain look or standard.

Planning and Zoning’s proposal on the ordinance change is to make the design standards “reasonable for the community. They want them to be appropriate. Set a minimum level of standards, a minimum level of expectations for the community. Decide what’s appropriate and don’t go overboard with that,” added Christ.

“They want to focus primarily on building materials. What do we want to see in Oskaloosa? What’s appropriate and what isn’t,” added Christ, who said they would be looking at what allowable and prohibited materials on the street facing facades only. “Property owners can continue to do what they want on the rear and the sides of buildings. But on the street facing facades, that’s what we’re going to focus on.”

Secondarily, Planning and Zoning said they want to focus on architectural design. “They think the city should have a say in the look of a building, but they don’t want to take away the designers creativity, or necessarily what the property owner wishes to accomplish,” added Christ.

The ordinance would apply to all commercial zones, and not just thoroughfares.

Permitted wall materials would include; brick, stone, block or concrete masonry unity, tile, concrete, glass panels, structural wood or metal, siding, natural wood, engineered wood, or fiber cement, stucco, architectural metal panels.

Prohibited wall materials would be; vinyl and metal siding, corrugated metal, fiberglass, or vinyl panels.

Building features that at least one must be included are; Columned roof structure above the main entrance, wall projections or recessions along at least 20% of the length of the facade, a parapet wall and cornice along the entire building facade, natural brick or stone covering at least 50% of the overall building facade or windows, awnings, canopies, arcades, other significant architectural features covering at least 60% of the overall building facade.

For building colors, the new structure would need to have colors that are complementary to other buildings in the vicinity but would include primary wall colors of red, blue, yellow, green, orange, pink, and lavender.

Those colors may be allowed as accent colors for things like trim, window frames decorative elements, logos, signs, and roofing.

The rules being proposed would be applicable to any structure that has 3 living units or more. The ordinance wouldn’t impact the family home.

Existing buildings wouldn’t be impacted unless a change was made to the structure.

The public hearing date was set for February 4, 2019, on the proposed ordinance.

An ordinance to amend the municipal code to allow for two 15 minute parking stalls along High Ave West. Precise Imaging has requested that the city install two 15 minute parking stalls to assist their customers with loading and unloading.

The ordinance passed unanimously.

The next scheduled Oskaloosa City Council meeting will be on February 4, 2019.