City works out compromise with property owners over improvements

The Weiser City Council approved an agreement with the owner of a property on East 12th Street that will guarantee required improvements are made to the site, while also allowing the owner more time to do the work.
 The city will require the property owner put up a $26,188 surety bond that guarantees the curb, gutter and sidewalk improvements are completed. Council members discussed at length what timeline should be imposed to make the improvements to the property.
 City officials said the property owner brought the issue of improvements to the city a year ago. The owner wants to move someone into one of the refurbished trailers as a deterrent against vandalism at the site. The issue is the improvements are supposed to be completed before the property is occupied.
 According to city staff, the work that has been done on the trailers and property “triggered” a city ordinance that requires curb, gutter and sidewalk be done when a property increases in value by 60 percent. The city will give the property owner until June 1 to complete the improvements .
 “We’ve been working on this for quite some time and this seems like a good solution,” Mayor Randy Hibberd said.
 Officials said the weather should be warm enough soon to pour concrete and allowing until June 1 was a generous amount of time to do the improvements. The work includes about 270 feet of curb, gutter and sidewalk. It would take two pours of concrete and about 10 days to complete.
 If the improvements are not done by June 1, the city will make a claim against the surety bond and hire a private contractor to do the work. The $26,188 amount of the surety bond is an estimate of the cost to do the curb, gutter and sidewalk, plus an additional 10 percent.
 City building inspector Dave Loos told the city council that no occupancy permit for the trailers will be issued unless the property owner provides the city with a surety bond or completes the curb, gutter and sidewalk.
 He said there is some work that needs to be done on one trailer to bring it up to city code before the city will issue an occupancy permit to allow someone to live in it. The state also will need to inspect the plumbing and HVAC.
 Once the trailer is approved for occupancy by the city building inspector, the property owner must provide the city with the surety bond as a guarantee the improvements get done. The clock starts ticking and the owner must either put in the curb, gutter and sidewalk by June 1 or the city will call on the bond.
 There were seven trailers on the site, but a few have been removed. The owner plans to refurbish the three trailers that are sitting on the property. The site can probably have a maximum of four or five trailers and still meet the city code, officials said.