Inver Grove Heights is sick of scaffolding and tarps

Every time Keith Marsh, 61, uses the bathroom in his Inver Grove Heights house, he can see the thin sheets of colorful tarp trying in vain to cover the open framing on his neighbor's house.

"It's like living next to a tent city, with all of those colors," Marsh said.

Members of the Inver Grove Heights City Council, tired of seeing such buildings left indefinitely with unfinished exteriors, are near approval of an ordinance to regulate how much time residents and developers have to complete exterior work. The law would require that exteriors on most projects be completed within a year.

Marsh's neighbor began work on the second story of his house, which lies just within the city limits on busy Concord Boulevard, in 2006. But nearly five years later, the exterior remains unfinished.

"The whole place is an eyesore," said Anne Fyksen, who lives nearby. She said she and her husband had worked on a second story for their house years ago, but it only took about two months to finish the exterior.

Marsh, whose house is a few feet from his neighbor's, said, "I closed most of the windows over here so I don't have to look at it."

However, he acknowledged that he's hardly one to talk: In 2006, he finally replaced with stucco the dilapidated tar paper covering he had left for years on his garage.

At the last City Council meeting, staff members presented information on a handful of building projects with similar problems, including, ironically, the addition to City Hall that has been under construction since 2009, and scaffolding left wrapped around one home for eight years.

Mayor George Tourville said there were other instances of unfinished building exteriors throughout the city. "There is scaffolding. There are Dumpsters. There is all kinds of stuff," he said.

Buildings with unfinished exteriors could develop problems with their structural integrity because they're left open to the elements, said Tom Link, the city's community development director. The structures also could negatively impact neighborhood property values.

The issue has been an ongoing nuisance for the city.

"At any one point, we'll have probably two, three, four, five" problem sites, Link said. "If we have the ordinance, it gives us a little bit more leverage to keep things moving."

The ordinance would require that most exterior work, including roofs, doors, windows and siding, be completed within a year of the issuance of a building permit.

The chief building official would be able to grant an extension for a project when issuing the permit if it's going to be a lengthy job. After that, an additional one-time extension of 180 days also could be granted by the building official on a case-by-case basis.

Existing projects would have about a year from when the ordinance went into effect to comply. Failure to comply could result in a citation and possible court action. But a building official's decision could be appealed to the City Council.

Burnsville, South St. Paul and some other neighboring cities have similar ordinances that require exterior work to be completed within a six-month to one-year timeframe.

However, City Council Member Rosemary Piekarski Krech noted that other cities similar to Inver Grove Heights, such as Apple Valley and Eagan, did not have such requirements.

In other instances, Piekarski Krech said, she was not convinced the ordinance would be effective. "You continually ticket them and you just keep ticketing them... Does that still get it done?" She cast the lone vote against the ordinance.

But Council Member Dennis Madden said the ordinance would be a good tool. "I'm pretty happy to have something to give somebody a boot in the rear end and get them going."

The ordinance is expected to pass on its final reading at Monday's council meeting.