St. Joseph City Commissioners want to take a look at some local ordinances to determine if they can be updated to make life easier for residents.
At a meeting this week, Commissioner Michael Sarola started the discussion by proposing changes to the Mechanical Structures Ordinance. It governs machines that might be located outside of a home, or things like air conditions and water pumps. Sarola said due to the setback restrictions in the ordinance, some homeowners find themselves having to move the air conditioning units to the roof or to the back of the house when installing a new unit.
Given the layout of many lots in the city, Sarola suggested the ordinance doesn’t reflect the circumstances of residents.
“There are a number of areas that it’s come into play,” Sarola said. “Certainly below the bluff, the Lions Park Drive area, all those homes, most of the lots are 33 feet wide with a really small site setback.”
Sarola suggested the Planning Commission review a change to the ordinance. That then led to a broader discussion about finding such flaws with other rules.
Mayor Brook Thomas told us she supports a review.
“I think we’re recognizing that there may be some ordinances that need to have a second look and see if there’s something that we can tweak,” Thomas said. “So we’re going to try to gather a list from staff of the most high priority items that we should be tackling first and just kind of take an overall broad view of things and see what we can start to chip away at.”
Commissioner Michael Fernandez proposed the broader review of ordinances for possible improvements. Commissioners started by asking the Planning Commission to review that mechanical structures rule.
