Explanation
1. BACKGROUND
This legislation authorizes the Department of Public Service to submit information to the Franklin County Auditor or other county auditors as appropriate for property tax assessments. These assessments are for repairs made to sidewalks, driveway approaches, and drive approach curbs within the public right-of-way at various locations within the corporation limits of the City of Columbus under the Sidewalk NOV program.
The Columbus Service Center (311) receives complaints about the condition of sidewalks, driveway approaches, and drive approach curbs within the public right-of-way. The Department of Public Service sends an inspector to investigate the complaints to determine if a violation of City Code exists. In 2017, under Columbus City Code 905, the department sent notices of violation to 251 property owners. The department also publicly advertised the notices of violations and sent certified letters to each property owner informing them of the violation and of the need to make the repairs. Of the 251 property owners that received a notice of violation, 115 property owners corrected the violation on their own.
Ordinance 1681-2016 authorized the Pedestrian Safety Improvements - Sidewalk Program NOV 2016 contract, which was a three-year contract to make repairs for the properties that received notices of violation and that did not make the repairs on their own. Ordinance 1765-2017 authorized funding for the second year of this contract, and the extended contract was used to make the repairs for the 136 properties that did not make the repairs on their own. These property owners were invoiced for the repairs with any grant amounts awarded under the City’s Sidewalk Rescue Program subtracted from the invoiced amounts.
Property owners have the option of paying the invoice in full, in part, or not at all. The unpaid balance of the invoice is assessed against their property taxes. Attached to this ordinance is a list of proper...
Click here for full text