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Latest post 12-18-2003 2:13 PM by Anonymous Citizen. 1 replies.
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  • 01-01-2001 12:00 AM

    2003 House Bill 5216

    Introduced in the House on October 30, 2003, to allow cities to enforce ordinances designated as "blight violations" through an alternative adjudication system which would bypass clogged district courts (such as the 36th district which serves Detroit). A city could establish an administrative hearings bureau, which would not be bound by the formal rules of evidence would that apply in criminal courts. The bureau could not impose jail sentences, but could impose civil fines of up to $10,000. Rulings by the bureau could be appealed to district court. Blight violations could include violations of local zoning laws, building or property maintenance codes, fire prevention codes, illegal dumping and solid waste disposal laws, noxious weeds ordinances, and local laws dealing with vehicle abandonment, inoperative vehicles, and vehicle impoundment. This is part of a legislative package comprised of House Bills 5216 to 5220, 5223, and 5224

    The vote was 91 in favor, 16 opposed and 3 not voting

    (House Roll Call 671 at House Journal 88)

    Click here to view bill details.
  • 12-18-2003 2:13 PM In reply to

    Property Rights to Shrink?

    Although I can't say for sure how the "Quality of Life" package (HB's 5216-5220) would work, I have the uneasy feeling that it's going to make it a lot easier for municipal governments to drive people out of their homes if they're in the way of redevelopment schemes.

    This package will make it easier to enforce building codes and zoning ordinances. The announced intention is to make easier to force absentee owners of blighted properties to clean up or repair their properties, and help turn the tide of decay in places like Detroit, where building codes and nuisance ordinances are unenforced by the city and the courts. Under this package, a special class of administrative hearings officers would be created to hear code cases, kind of like the magistrates that hear traffic cases. These hearings bureaus could apply liens to the property of persons who fail to remedy code violations, or pay zoning fines.

    There's nothing necesssarily wrong with that, but I can visualize these hearings bureaus turning into kangaroo courts and moving against unpopular individuals' property, especially if the city has designs on their land. Imagine the old geezer with a yard full of junk, or a tumble-down house, who ignores building code tickets and judgments. In cases like that, a city government can easily start think like, "This guy's property is a mess, his neighbors hate all those junk cars in the yard, and he ain't been right in the head since he came home from the war and would probably be happier in some kind of home, so let's slap a lien on his land for unpaid tickets, force him out, and get one of our friends to build the latte shop we want to see on that corner."

    That kind of case will get a different treatment in a jury trial than in an administrative hearing before a politically-connected pseudo-judge, so I'm suspicious of the "decriminalization" of zoning and building-code offenses under this package, in which homeowners will no longer have the right to a jury trial before losing rights in their land.
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