Pending Hillsboro ordinance could prevent sale of some properties
By
Brandy Chandler-brandychandler@gmail.com
New legislation proposed to the Hillsboro City Council, seeking to lessen the amount of water flow to the wastewater treatment plant, could possibly prevent the sale of real estate in some situations.
The ordinance, which was submitted during the Feb. 14 council meeting and had its first reading, seeks to require that prior to the sale of a property, the homeowners must apply for and receive a certificate of compliance regarding infiltration or overflows into the sanitary sewer lines.
Hillsboro Safety and Service Director Ralph Holt said the measure is necessary to prevent overflows in the sewer system. Currently, he said, clean water is flowing into the system and is being treated at the wastewater treatment plant as if it were sewage water, which is costing the city money.
Area real estate agents, including city council member Peter Pence, say the proposed ordinance will be another burden on homeowners and purchasers and a cost the currently housing market "cannot sustain."
As previously reported in The Highland County Press, the proposed legislation, any property owners in the city of Hillsboro and any Hillsboro sewer customers shall obtain a certificate of compliance from the city prior to closing on the sale of a property. To obtain the certificate, a property owner must complete a questionnaire, available at the office of Hillsboro Public Utilities or online, and submit it 10 days prior to the anticipated sale. A fee could be established by the safety and service director to cover the costs of the program. Upon submission of the questionnaire, the city can conduct tests or investigations of the property "to ensure no possible infiltration and no possible overflows are present in the sewer lateral and the connections associated with the property." If such leaks or infiltration exist, the city will disclose the findings to the property owner, potential purchaser and any realtor involved, with recommendations for corrections. The owner will be responsible for making the corrections and then reapplying for a certificate of compliance.
Council president Lee Koogler said that because council members had not had time to properly review the ordinance, he asked that it have its first reading and placed it in council's utilities committee for review.
Koogler told The Highland County Press on Wednesday that, "The legislation is being presented by the administration. It is my understanding that the proposed legislation was the idea of Randy Barr (manager of Hillsboro water/sewer maintenance department) and the administration. I was not aware of this until Monday, which was why I asked that it have its first reading and that the utilities committee look into it."
Holt said that the overflow issues have been a problem for the city for years, and they became aware of how extensive the problem is when they began the installation of the south lift station for wastewater treatment in 2006, as well as the replacement of some water and sewer lines.
"When we did the upgrades in the south part of the city, we saw that a lot of the residences with the water off the roof or in the basements were ending up in our sewer. We then end up treating storm water," Holt said. "The EPA is pushing us to get that out of our sewer. It goes through our plant and we're treating that water like it's sewerage instead of just regular water. We're putting it through a process and using chemicals, and it is costing us more money."
Holt said the city had at first considered going to each house and "hitting everyone up on the block," but they felt that would be too burdensome.
"We thought it would be best to do it during a sale process, so that the problem can be corrected before it is sold."
Holt said that he, Barr and Hillsboro Mayor Dick Zink have discussed the possible fees for the certificate, and the cost will be "minimal."
"We don't need to be making a bunch of money off this," Holt said. "We just need to get it corrected."
Pence said that requiring the inspection during the time of a sale will have a negative impact on the housing market, and that he will vote against the ordinance if it is brought before council.
"I strongly oppose this proposed ordinance, and if it is brought before council I will vote no," Pence told The Highland County Press. "My full-time job is as a real estate agent, and I can tell you right now, with the housing market the way it is, the market will not bear the extra costs associated with this ordinance."
Pence agreed that each property could have different costs associated with bringing the water lines into compliance, but there is the potential to cost property owners "thousands."
"They have not determined any kind of fee rate to pay for the application," Pence said. "Then you would have to pay to have the inspection done, and then whatever was found during the inspection, they would require you to make those repairs. I imagine in some cases you could be looking at several thousand dollars to fix the problem."
Pence said that he is concerned that if a homeowner cannot afford to make the repairs, it could prevent the property from being sold.
"In the economy we're in, I'm dealing with buyers every day who just barely have enough money to sell their home," Pence said. "If you go throwing out a situation where they have to come up with another $2,000 or $3,000 to sell it, that's probably going to stop some sales. That is not what our area needs right now. The real estate market is depressed enough the way that it is. We don't need to be adding fuel to that fire."
Josh Patton, president of the Highland County Board of Realtors, said they have asked Pence to speak at their monthly meeting next week to explain some details of the ordinance.
"Right now, we're somewhat in the blind as to specifically what this ordinance is 100 percent about," Patton said. "We want to protect the clients and the property owners of Hillsboro to make sure there is not a fee or an unnecessary process they need to go through just to sell real estate. It's hard enough without having to jump through any more hoops. We want to make sure the hoops they're jumping through are necessary hoops."
Pence said that more study needs to be done to determine the best move for the city.
"The way I understand it, the city is treating more water than they are selling, with the rainwater from downspouts and gutters getting flushed down the sewer line," Pence said. "The way I understand it, there is an issue, and there probably needs to be a way to address it, but I don't feel that doing it right at the point of sale is the way to address it."
Pence said that he would like to look at other municipalities to see how they have addressed the situation because he said that Hillsboro can't be alone.
"We need to see what ways other municipalities have been successful in dealing wite these same kinds of issues," Pence said.
Hillsboro Law Director Fred Beery said that the way the proposed ordinance is currently written, the city could stop the sale of a property if a certificate is not obtained.
Beery said he was under the impression that the city was choosing to require the inspections during a sale "because it is a point in time when they were most likely to afford the repairs because a sale is occurring. The down side is, I think the realtors are probably looking at it as one more burden on them when they are trying to market a property. Now they've got to look into a certification of compliance and see that the customers are aware."
Beery said that the ordinance is based on legislation the water department found out of the Pittsburgh area. Zink had said during Monday's council meeting that the EPA had indicated that if the city of Hillsboro passed the ordinance, they would give other municipalities copies to use as a template. Zink told council that in that sense, the city was going to be "guinea pigs."
"The way the legislation is written, it prevents a transfer until a certificate of compliance is obtained," Beery said. "If they leave it unaltered, it would bar a sale of a property. That's the bottom line. If (council) wants to say there can be waivers granted, there needs to be certain reasons, and they need to do it in a way that's fair to everyone - you can't waive it for one person and then not waive it for another. The ordinance has some issues that are going to have to be addressed."
Council member Dave Shoemaker, chairperson of the utilities committee that will be looking into the ordinance, said that Barr had previously brought the issue to his attention. Due to illness, Shoemaker was not at Monday's council meeting, and a meeting has been scheduled for Friday at 5 p.m. in council chambers at the fire station.
"I think the committee needs to tweak this, and maybe it needs to be stated a little bit better," Shoemaker said. "It's really an additional thing that protects the homeowner, and the buyer, also. But we've got to take a look at this. There is an alternative course, but this would be the easiest way to go about it. Hopefully maybe I can diffuse some of the controversy because I've been working on it for a while."[[In-content Ad]]
The ordinance, which was submitted during the Feb. 14 council meeting and had its first reading, seeks to require that prior to the sale of a property, the homeowners must apply for and receive a certificate of compliance regarding infiltration or overflows into the sanitary sewer lines.
Hillsboro Safety and Service Director Ralph Holt said the measure is necessary to prevent overflows in the sewer system. Currently, he said, clean water is flowing into the system and is being treated at the wastewater treatment plant as if it were sewage water, which is costing the city money.
Area real estate agents, including city council member Peter Pence, say the proposed ordinance will be another burden on homeowners and purchasers and a cost the currently housing market "cannot sustain."
As previously reported in The Highland County Press, the proposed legislation, any property owners in the city of Hillsboro and any Hillsboro sewer customers shall obtain a certificate of compliance from the city prior to closing on the sale of a property. To obtain the certificate, a property owner must complete a questionnaire, available at the office of Hillsboro Public Utilities or online, and submit it 10 days prior to the anticipated sale. A fee could be established by the safety and service director to cover the costs of the program. Upon submission of the questionnaire, the city can conduct tests or investigations of the property "to ensure no possible infiltration and no possible overflows are present in the sewer lateral and the connections associated with the property." If such leaks or infiltration exist, the city will disclose the findings to the property owner, potential purchaser and any realtor involved, with recommendations for corrections. The owner will be responsible for making the corrections and then reapplying for a certificate of compliance.
Council president Lee Koogler said that because council members had not had time to properly review the ordinance, he asked that it have its first reading and placed it in council's utilities committee for review.
Koogler told The Highland County Press on Wednesday that, "The legislation is being presented by the administration. It is my understanding that the proposed legislation was the idea of Randy Barr (manager of Hillsboro water/sewer maintenance department) and the administration. I was not aware of this until Monday, which was why I asked that it have its first reading and that the utilities committee look into it."
Holt said that the overflow issues have been a problem for the city for years, and they became aware of how extensive the problem is when they began the installation of the south lift station for wastewater treatment in 2006, as well as the replacement of some water and sewer lines.
"When we did the upgrades in the south part of the city, we saw that a lot of the residences with the water off the roof or in the basements were ending up in our sewer. We then end up treating storm water," Holt said. "The EPA is pushing us to get that out of our sewer. It goes through our plant and we're treating that water like it's sewerage instead of just regular water. We're putting it through a process and using chemicals, and it is costing us more money."
Holt said the city had at first considered going to each house and "hitting everyone up on the block," but they felt that would be too burdensome.
"We thought it would be best to do it during a sale process, so that the problem can be corrected before it is sold."
Holt said that he, Barr and Hillsboro Mayor Dick Zink have discussed the possible fees for the certificate, and the cost will be "minimal."
"We don't need to be making a bunch of money off this," Holt said. "We just need to get it corrected."
Pence said that requiring the inspection during the time of a sale will have a negative impact on the housing market, and that he will vote against the ordinance if it is brought before council.
"I strongly oppose this proposed ordinance, and if it is brought before council I will vote no," Pence told The Highland County Press. "My full-time job is as a real estate agent, and I can tell you right now, with the housing market the way it is, the market will not bear the extra costs associated with this ordinance."
Pence agreed that each property could have different costs associated with bringing the water lines into compliance, but there is the potential to cost property owners "thousands."
"They have not determined any kind of fee rate to pay for the application," Pence said. "Then you would have to pay to have the inspection done, and then whatever was found during the inspection, they would require you to make those repairs. I imagine in some cases you could be looking at several thousand dollars to fix the problem."
Pence said that he is concerned that if a homeowner cannot afford to make the repairs, it could prevent the property from being sold.
"In the economy we're in, I'm dealing with buyers every day who just barely have enough money to sell their home," Pence said. "If you go throwing out a situation where they have to come up with another $2,000 or $3,000 to sell it, that's probably going to stop some sales. That is not what our area needs right now. The real estate market is depressed enough the way that it is. We don't need to be adding fuel to that fire."
Josh Patton, president of the Highland County Board of Realtors, said they have asked Pence to speak at their monthly meeting next week to explain some details of the ordinance.
"Right now, we're somewhat in the blind as to specifically what this ordinance is 100 percent about," Patton said. "We want to protect the clients and the property owners of Hillsboro to make sure there is not a fee or an unnecessary process they need to go through just to sell real estate. It's hard enough without having to jump through any more hoops. We want to make sure the hoops they're jumping through are necessary hoops."
Pence said that more study needs to be done to determine the best move for the city.
"The way I understand it, the city is treating more water than they are selling, with the rainwater from downspouts and gutters getting flushed down the sewer line," Pence said. "The way I understand it, there is an issue, and there probably needs to be a way to address it, but I don't feel that doing it right at the point of sale is the way to address it."
Pence said that he would like to look at other municipalities to see how they have addressed the situation because he said that Hillsboro can't be alone.
"We need to see what ways other municipalities have been successful in dealing wite these same kinds of issues," Pence said.
Hillsboro Law Director Fred Beery said that the way the proposed ordinance is currently written, the city could stop the sale of a property if a certificate is not obtained.
Beery said he was under the impression that the city was choosing to require the inspections during a sale "because it is a point in time when they were most likely to afford the repairs because a sale is occurring. The down side is, I think the realtors are probably looking at it as one more burden on them when they are trying to market a property. Now they've got to look into a certification of compliance and see that the customers are aware."
Beery said that the ordinance is based on legislation the water department found out of the Pittsburgh area. Zink had said during Monday's council meeting that the EPA had indicated that if the city of Hillsboro passed the ordinance, they would give other municipalities copies to use as a template. Zink told council that in that sense, the city was going to be "guinea pigs."
"The way the legislation is written, it prevents a transfer until a certificate of compliance is obtained," Beery said. "If they leave it unaltered, it would bar a sale of a property. That's the bottom line. If (council) wants to say there can be waivers granted, there needs to be certain reasons, and they need to do it in a way that's fair to everyone - you can't waive it for one person and then not waive it for another. The ordinance has some issues that are going to have to be addressed."
Council member Dave Shoemaker, chairperson of the utilities committee that will be looking into the ordinance, said that Barr had previously brought the issue to his attention. Due to illness, Shoemaker was not at Monday's council meeting, and a meeting has been scheduled for Friday at 5 p.m. in council chambers at the fire station.
"I think the committee needs to tweak this, and maybe it needs to be stated a little bit better," Shoemaker said. "It's really an additional thing that protects the homeowner, and the buyer, also. But we've got to take a look at this. There is an alternative course, but this would be the easiest way to go about it. Hopefully maybe I can diffuse some of the controversy because I've been working on it for a while."[[In-content Ad]]