Columbia Borough officials review nuisance ordinance, call for revisions

GAYLE JOHNSON | For LNP | LancasterOnline
Oct 6, 2024

Council members unveiled the first draft of Columbia’s long-awaited nuisance ordinance, but the new borough manager and several council members expressed concerns that the 14-page document lacks specific information they wanted included.

Caveat: Borough solicitor Evan Gabel, whose law firm created the ordinance, was unable to answer questions about the law because he did not attend the meeting.

Why it matters: The borough has been working on creating a nuisance ordinance for about three years, Paula Diffenderfer, code compliance manager, told council members. This law usually defines dangerous or damaging actions and lays out penalties, according to the Network for Public Health Law. Most violations concern property maintenance, such as high grass, rodent infestation or abandoned trash.

More: In Columbia, those and other items, such as loud music and illegal fireworks, are spread throughout borough code. A nuisance document would gather these violations into one place. Also, council members previously have discussed increasing fines to hold property owners more accountable for violations and shortening the amount of time they have for appeal.

Quotables: “I’m quite disappointed in this whole thing,” Eric Kauffman, vice president, said, explaining that he was hoping to find specific ways to penalize landlords who fail to maintain their properties. Heather Zink, president, said, “I was hoping we would have something in here saying that if a landlord has X number of violations within a certain amount of time they would lose their rental license for all of their properties,” she said.

Solutions: The borough’s new manager, Steven Kaufhold, suggested asking staff members to rework the nuisance ordinance. “A lot of money has been put into it, and I don’t feel we need to put any more into it,” he said.

More: Diffenderfer mentioned combining the new document with the borough’s existing “quick ticket” program that cites and fines code violators. Zink said she is unsure about next steps toward a adopting a nuisance ordinance or updating the quick ticket process.

Quotable: “Everything we’ve done needs reworking,” she said in an Oct. 3 phone call.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/regional/columbia-officials-review-draft-of-nuisance-ordinance-call-for-revisions/article_f4d287c8-834b-11ef-9bb7-e7b3457c84bb.html