{"id":8568,"date":"2013-10-29T16:12:27","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T20:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=8568"},"modified":"2013-10-29T16:12:48","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T20:12:48","slug":"landlords-claim-city-trying-to-generate-income-with-rental-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=8568","title":{"rendered":"Landlords claim city trying to generate income with rental fees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newly formed Coatesville Housing Association questions city fees and codes<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kyle Carrozza<\/strong><\/span>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"CoatesvilleLogo-copy\"<\/a>COATESVILLE \u2013 Landlords continued to raise concerns over recent fee increases at Monday night\u2019s City Council meeting.<\/p>\n

Members of the newly formed Coatesville Housing Association, a group organized to represent the interest of city landlords, said that they are being overcharged for fees, some of which do not provide services in return.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost fees require something to be provided in the form of a service. Some of the fees the city is charging do not include services. It\u2019s a fee that provides no service, which some would consider a registration fee,\u201d said David DeSimone of the Housing Association. \u201cMany of the fees, we feel, are possibly considered an illegal tax to generate revenue for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few landlords said that they believe the city is using the fees to try to generate revenue.<\/p>\n

DeSimone said that he found out from a Freedom of Information Request that the city had over 3,000 rental applications last year. With application fees now at $100, the city would get over $300,000 from these fees.<\/p>\n

City Council said that money from fees is not enough to make a significant difference in the city\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me make one thing clear\u2014Coatesville\u2019s annual budget is between $8.5 and 9 million a year. The amount of money that is being raised is insignificant compared to the budget,\u201d said City Council President David Collins.<\/p>\n

The requirement of a third-floor egress was another issue that the landlords brought to City Council\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

Housing units with three floors are required, per city code, to have a third floor exit. DeSimone said that national building code only requires a second floor exit, and the city should follow that rule.<\/p>\n

The issue is compounded by the fact that the city has recently started enforcing the 1962 code requiring an egress, meaning that many homeowners and landlords who never had a problem before are now being told they must add third floor exits.<\/p>\n

DeSimone said that he has had three buildings built over the past 18 years that have met city standards, but in the past two months, these buildings have been deemed in violation of city code.<\/p>\n

Crystal Thomas, a homeowner, also shared her concern over the issue, saying that when she bought her home 20 years ago, there were no issues with her third floor, but now she\u2019s required to add an egress. She also said that the additional exit could lead to more break-ins.<\/p>\n

City Manager Kirby Hudson said that the issue is a matter of safety.<\/p>\n

Hudson said that while in college in Pittsburgh, he once witnessed a burning house with people trapped on a third floor with no exit. He said that he wants to prevent such occurrences in Coatesville.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t explain why the second means of egress wasn\u2019t enforced; it\u2019s on the books. I can\u2019t explain why it wasn\u2019t done in the past,\u201d said Hudson.<\/p>\n

He also said that people must remember that many homes in the city are older and do not have the same fire safety measures as new homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re stuck somewhere, you may not have the time to vacate as if it was a more newly constructed house, so people, in my opinion, are already in somewhat of a dangerous or precarious situation. This law is to help make sure people are safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

City Council has agreed to meet with the landlords in coming weeks to review fees and work together toward a solution.<\/p>\n

In other city news, City Council passed a code preventing the burning of recyclable materials. The action will be punishable at the city\u2019s discretion, probably with a $25 citation, according to City Solicitor John Carnes.<\/p>\n

A movie could be shot partially in Coatesville next month.<\/p>\n

Filmmaker Skye Dennis appeared before City Council to ask permission to shoot scenes in Coatesville Nov. 16-26. City Council advised Dennis to speak with Hudson and Police Chief Jack Laufer to examine how the film would represent Coatesville and the logistics of organizing the shoot, should it take place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newly formed Coatesville Housing Association questions city fees and codes By Kyle Carrozza, Staff Writer, The Times COATESVILLE \u2013 Landlords continued to raise concerns over recent fee increases at Monday night\u2019s City Council meeting. Members of the newly formed Coatesville Housing Association, a group organized to represent the interest of city landlords, said that they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[308,3022,3024,3025,3023],"class_list":["post-8568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-coatesville-city-council","tag-coatesville-housing-association","tag-code","tag-fees","tag-rantal-units"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}