The City of Centerville took a major step to improve property maintenance requirements and enforcement when they passed a new ordinance on July 17th that implements strategies in their Create the Vision Comprehensive Plan.

Create the Vision is the guiding policy document that provides long-term direction about how and where growth should occur in the City of Centerville and Washington Township. One of the objectives in the plan is to enhance the appearance and design quality of the community.

“This ordinance implements two specific strategies identified in Create the Vision, and we’re excited to be making continued progress,” said Brooks Compton, Centerville City Councilmember and Co-Chair of the Create the Vision Implementation Task Force. The strategies are:

Centerville’s property maintenance codes had not been comprehensively updated since 1984. The new ordinance is part of the city’s ongoing effort to protect property values and includes changes to three areas - outside storage, vacant homes, and exterior lighting. In the following categories, the new ordinance will:

“The City of Centerville contains a significant portion of older housing stock which could be susceptible to falling property values,” said Compton. “This ordinance takes a proactive step to ensure we are doing everything we can to maintain the value of the housing stock in the City, as well as the vitality of our community.”

In Washington Township, a property maintenance code was adopted in 2001 that requires all homes in the township meet a set level of exterior maintenance. “The code covers a broad range of exterior issues such as roofs, gutters, fences, peeling paint and yard plantings,” said Tom Zobrist, Fiscal Officer for Washington Township and Co-Chair of the Create the Vision Implementation Task Force. “One of Create the Vision’s goals is to maintain the high quality physical environment of the community,” said Zobrist, “and we are striving to do that.”