Public Hearings
Code Enforcement public hearings are a local government process to maintain standards that a community establishes through codes and ordinances. Residents play an important part of maintaining the appearance, functioning, and property values of all areas of the City. Our common goal is to keep our community safe, resilient against threats, and beautiful. Therefore, our approach is to work with residents to voluntarily bring properties into compliance without an extensive legal process.
When a complaint is received, an Officer visits the location for an inspection. We give owners the chance to fix issues and connect them with resources to help if needed. If the issues continue, we request a fair hearing in front of a “quasi-judicial” board made up of fellow neighbors. The following citizen volunteer boards are appointed by the City Commission and provide a fair and public hearing for code violations:
A volunteer board of residents with relevant professional experiences hears cases for numerous City codes, but mostly major structural, permitting, and zoning violation codes. The MCEB can order compliance actions, including demolition on dangerous building, and they can assess fines and liens for non-compliance.
MCEB hearings have no set number of hearings and can meet frequently or infrequently as needed. All hearings are held at 6:30 pm, see scheduled meeting dates. The hearings are held at the Frenchtown Renaissance Center-2nd Floor Community Room, located at 435 N Macomb Street.
Resident volunteers with relevant professional experiences hears cases for numerous City codes, but mostly for care of premise such as overgrowth, trash/debris, inoperable vehicles and minimum housing standards. Hearings occur in front of one magistrate who reviews, orders compliance actions and can assess fines and liens for non-compliance.
CM hearings have no set number of hearings and can meet frequently or infrequently as needed, see scheduled meeting dates. All hearings are held 1:00 pm at the Frenchtown Renaissance Center-2nd Floor Community Room, located at 435 N Macomb Street.
Resident volunteers review violations of the City's environmental code and may also grant variances to the Ordinance. The Environmental Variance Board hearings are held at 5 pm every 2nd Tuesday of the month at the Frenchtown Renaissance Center – First Floor Conference Room.