BREWER, Maine — On the heels of Bangor officials implementing an ordinance to target, noisy, rowdy and troublesome property owners and tenants, Brewer City Councilors will consider Tuesday whether to follow suit.
The proposed rules are aimed at protecting “the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the City of Brewer by eliminating the proliferation of properties harboring occupants who disturb the peace and tranquility of their neighbors,” according to the ordinance text.
Repeated complaints about loud music, boisterous gatherings, fights or criminal activity in or around a property, whether it be an owner-occupied home or a rental, would spark a process that, without cooperation or remedy, could lead to hefty fines against the property owner.
Brewer Police Department officials asked the city to consider adopting an ordinance that is essentially identical to Bangor’s version, Brewer police Lt. Chris Martin said Monday.
Martin said the ordinance request isn’t about fines or money: More important are the procedures it lays out for starting a conversation with property owners about how to prevent future violations.
“The process is designed to get people to talk with each other about the problems,” Martin said.
Under the ordinance, property owners would receive a warning if police respond to a disturbance complaint. If there is a second disturbance at the property within 60 days, it would be classified as a disruptive property by the police chief. A property also would be classified as disruptive if three events happened within 120 days, four within 180 or five within 360.
Once a property is identified as disruptive, the owner must agree to a code and fire safety inspection and to meet with the police chief to create a plan of action to deter future incidents. Once that agreement is reached and the owner shows a “good-faith effort” to resolve the issues, police no longer would pursue fines under the ordinance, as long as no other disruptive events occurred on the property.
The city would only levy a fine when an owner refused to cooperate, Martin said.
If the owner refuses to meet with the police chief or refuses to take appropriate remediation steps, he or she would face a fine between $500 and $1,000. After 180 days without an incident, the disorderly classification would be lifted, according to the ordinance.
Brewer’s version of the ordinance mirrors the one Bangor, its neighbor across the Penobscot River, adopted early this year.
In the nine months since the Bangor ordinance hit the books, the city has yet to use it to levy a fine or take a property owner to court for repeated violations. However, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been used, Bangor police Chief Mark Hathaway said Monday in an email.
“We have issued four letters to date to property owners based on poor behavior by tenants,” Hathaway said. “Our goal is to work collectively with the property owner to resolve the issue.”
Each of those four letters sparked a meeting or discussion between police and the owner. That open dialogue ultimately resolved each complaint, he added, so there was no need to pursue fines.
At least 10 other Maine communities have implemented some sort of disruptive-property ordinance, according to Bangor’s solicitor, and they’re commonplace in other states. The ordinances often are meant to hold absentee property owners accountable for problems in their buildings.
The Brewer City Council is expected to vote on the new disruptive property rules during its meeting Tuesday, which is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. in Brewer City Hall.
In other business Tuesday, the Brewer Council will decide whether to condemn a home on North Main Street and whether to start the process of condemning another on Wilson Street.
The house at 927 North Main St. has been vacant and unmaintained for several years and should come down because it’s in hazardous and dangerous condition, Brewer Code Enforcement Officer Benjamin Breadmore said Monday.
Breadmore said the building has been broken into on multiple occasions and has had copper wiring pulled out. The house also has serious water and mold damage.
“It’s pretty rough inside,” Breadmore said. “It needs to come down.”
The council also is expected to schedule a public hearing that would start the process of condemning a house at 227 Wilson St. In late May, firefighters were called to the home to douse a grease fire. For safety reasons, electricity was shut off in the basement. During that process, though, the city found numerous code violations, including unsafe wiring and a leaking oil tank. More code issues were identified outside, including roof problems, improperly disposed waste and overgrown grass.
The single-family home was deemed uninhabitable, and the residents were forced to relocate. The building likely would be demolished if the city took possession of it, Breadmore said.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter @nmccrea213.