Spokane may force landlords to pay for guarding their own empty lots

(The Center Square) – The Spokane City Council is set to vote on a proposal Monday that would allow code enforcement to require vacant property owners to hire security at their own expense.

Councilmembers Paul Dillon and Zack Zappone proposed the ordinance to consolidate all of the city’s existing property maintenance and use regulations into one location. While the language is largely the same as the current Spokane Municipal Code, some sections add new requirements.

If approved, the ordinance would enact a new chapter of the city code, repeal redundancies and impose new regulations on vacant property owners. Similar guidelines exist to an extent in the current code but target chronic nuisances rather than the city’s 3,500 acres of vacant land.

“Section 10.63.080(C) grants code compliance officers’ authority to require costly interventions, including hiring on-site security,” Gordon Hester, president and chief executive officer of Kiemle Hagood, a local property management company, emailed Mayor Lisa Brown and the council.

He called the regulations and others in the proposal a “clear overreach” of the local government.

Zappone told The Center Square the new regulation would be for “extreme cases” of neglected properties that are creating “safety problems.” He said the conditions of vacant buildings are a common complaint and that those and underutilized land are more likely to host “illicit behavior.”

Some property owners have already hired private security due to homelessness downtown and the impact of open-air drug use, vandalism and people using the sidewalk as a restroom. GoJoe Patrol, for example, provides security at several of The Hutton Settlement’s buildings downtown.

“This provision is not only to keep the building secure from unwanted access, but to also give the perception of an active property,” Zappone told The Center Square. “When broken windows are left unsecured, an open and accessible building becomes an immediate life safety issue.”

Kiemle Hagood manages more than 15 million square feet of real estate across the Northwest.

Hester told the mayor and council that he finds it “nonsensical” how they enact rules that create new expenses without input from the group they’re trying to regulate. Chud Wendle, executive director of The Hutton Settlement, echoed Hester’s concerns in emails sent to the city last week.

Zappone confirmed to The Center Square that his proposal adds three new sections, but the rest of the regulations are just recodifications. He said outreach was done with the Spokane Building Owners and Managers Association last year on “similar topics,” but not this version.

His more recent outreach included meeting with people like Wendle, but the Hutton director told The Center Square that the meeting occurred just this Monday after he initiated it, not Zappone.

Wendle said private security costs his operation approximately $15,000 to $20,0000 per month.

“These directives pose significant financial burdens,” Hester emailed, “overstep the scope of code enforcement and should be removed. There is nothing in the code being enforced that requires a private property owner to hire security or incur many of these expenses.”

According to the proposal, vacant property owners must deter unauthorized access, taking “all actions necessary” to keep it free of litter, graffiti and “discarded personal items.” Those items could include “but are not limited to furniture, clothing, or large and small appliances.”

If an owner use boarding to cover the entrances or windows of their property, that material must be painted to match or coordinate with the color of the building.

"Owners could secure the property with hardened barriers like fences," Zappone told The Center Square. "The idea is that there is a cost for vacant properties. It's not fair that all taxpayers have to have for extra police patrols and responses when a property owner is neglecting their property."

The responsible party would have at least 10 days to remedy any issues after being notified by code enforcement; after that, the city would clear the area at the property owner’s expense.

Code Enforcement Director Luis Garcia told The Center Square that these new regulations will not change the practices of “responsible property owners” who actively maintain their property.

“The provision speaks more to the absentee owners who are not taking responsibility for their properties and leaving them open and accessible,” he said. “Code Enforcement works diligently to obtain voluntary compliance; however, there are times when an escalated enforcement effort is needed.”