Inventory of the city’s multi-family dwellings continues, but a state mandate ordering another level of inspections has been tabled until the kinks are worked out, said Saratoga Springs Public Safety Commissioner Ron Kim.
New state fire safety and property maintenance laws, which took effect on Jan. 1, will force the city to adopt regulations that require all buildings with three or more apartments or dwellings to be inspected every three years, he said. That amounts to an additional 2,000 apartments or multi-family units within the city. Currently, the fire inspectors handle all restaurant, hotel and motel inspections as well as buildings that allow public assembly.
This is another unfunded state mandate, said Kim at the Tuesday, Jan. 16, meeting of the Saratoga Springs City Council. `I don’t mean to imply that this is an unnecessary practice.`
It could take at least a year just to compile an inventory of all buildings in the city with three or more residential units, Kim estimated.
At a public hearing preceding the Jan. 16 meeting, some developers and landlords decried the state mandate.
Thomas Roohan, a local developer who owns several apartment buildings around the city, said that requiring all of these apartments to be inspected likely would lead to a rent increase.
The city may begin charging fees for the soon-to-be mandatory inspections, but the rate has not been set.
`I don’t think there is an overwhelming need in our community,` Roohan said. `Bigger government isn’t necessarily better.`
Roohan said every year, lawmakers in Albany hand down some legislation that it costs him money to comply with. For example, he said, equipment that has been mandated by the state, designed to make emergency services to residents of multi-family buildings more fluid, is not used by emergency personnel.
`A few years ago they mandated that we put in Knox-boxes (a locked container with a key for emergency personnel) for every unit`They break down the doors anyway,` said Roohan.
Roohan said he fears that apartments he currently rents for $550 to $600 a month could increase in cost with more city guidelines.
Commissioner of Public Works Thomas McTygue said it was futile to debate a state mandate.
`What do you think we do, then, with a mandate handed down from the state? Send it back and tell them we’re not interested?` asked McTygue.
The legislation drew criticism from others.
Mark Baker, executive director of Saratoga Springs City Center, said he and the board would not support the legislation, which also deals with operating permits for public gathering places. Furthermore, he said, the City Center has an annual fire inspection, so this new inspection process would not be necessary and potentially costly.
`We’re not going to be an advocate of having a fee process for an activity that is already going on annually,` he said.
Baker also said that the law, as written at the time of the public hearing, was too vague to allow for any real enforcement.
`The people who are out there trying to enforce this ambiguous law will be coming back to you with problems of law and perception,` he said.
Kim said the law that was presented on Jan. 16 was a template for the City Council, and that he was comfortable with refining the fee structure and tweaking other details in upcoming weeks.
Baker disagreed.
`If there is a time to define items in this law, why not do it before?` Baker asked.
`I don’t think as a city official I can say ‘I’m not going to do this,’ ` Kim said. He did, however, remove the item from his agenda later in the meeting. Still, Kim said he is planning to ask the City Council in the coming weeks to adopt new regulations to adhere to the new state laws.
Not everyone was opposed to the legislation. In fact, there were residents who asked the city to adopt more stringent guidelines that would include inspecting all single-family rental properties as well as two-family rental buildings.
Molly Gagne, of the South West Neighborhood Association, said she has concerns about the safety of homes that are rented to young families with children in her Geyser Crest neighborhood.
`You’re looking at the concerns of multiple family dwellings,` she said, `but some of the single families have been rented over and over, and they were uninhabitable.`
Kim said inspecting two-family and single-family rentals might be too time consuming for his current staff.
`I’m not advocating that we go down that route,` he said.“
